Fine tuning light shader mechanics

Question

I'm currently trying to implement the lighting technique described in this article.

I've done pretty much exactly what is done in the article. My technique is the same, and my shader is the same. Here's my problem:

The lighting looks great when everything is kind of dark, but when it's not dark, the lights are far too bright.

This what it looks like when it's dark:

And here's what it looks like when it's light:

As you can probably tell, the light in the second image is far too bright. I'm looking for something about as intense as the first picture, but with the overall lighting like the second picture.

My fragment shader code is as follows: (Vertex shader is not relevant)

#define LOWP lowp
precision mediump float;
#else
#define LOWP  
#endif 
varying LOWP vec4 v_color; 
varying vec2 v_texCoords;
uniform sampler2D u_texture;
uniform sampler2D u_lightmap;
uniform LOWP vec4 ambientColor;
uniform vec2 u_resolution;
void main()
{
    vec4 diffuseColor = texture2D(u_texture, v_texCoords);
    vec2 lightCoord = gl_FragCoord.xy / u_resolution.xy;
    vec4 lightColor = texture2D(u_lightmap, lightCoord);

    vec3 ambient = ambientColor.rgb * ambientColor.a;
    vec3 intensity = ambient + lightColor.rgb;
    vec3 finalColor = diffuseColor.rgb * intensity;

    gl_FragColor = v_color * vec4(finalColor, diffuseColor.a);
}

ambientColor is set to (1, 1, 1, alpha) or (white, alpha), where the higher the alpha, the lighter it is. The dark image is 0.1f, and light is 0.9f.

I think the problem is with ambient + lightColor.rgb, but I am not sure how else I could write it and maintain the same effect for when it is dark.

Answer 1

ambientColor.a could be the intensity? did u try turning that down?

I'm work with HLSL but could this work for you? play with intensity and ambientColor.a to change how intense each component is

varying  float intensity = 0.5;
vec3 ambient = ambientColor.rgb * ambientColor.a;    
vec3 finalColor =ambient + (diffuseColor.rgb *(lightColor.rgb * intensity));

For my lighting I do this, its in 3d and I have a bit more to it but it may help.

 DiffuseAndAmbient = (Ambientcolor * CurrentMaterial.ambientpower) + (cubecolor.rgb * CurrentMaterial.cubepower) + AccumDiffuse;

 float3 OutputColor = 0;       
 OutputColor += BGColor.rgb;
 OutputColor += Color.rgb * (DiffuseAndAmbient + AccumSpecular);

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem. I solved it by multiplying the alpha value of the ambient color to the lights color. Your shader should look like this:

#define LOWP lowp
precision mediump float;
#else
#define LOWP  
#endif 
varying LOWP vec4 v_color; 
varying vec2 v_texCoords;
uniform sampler2D u_texture;
uniform sampler2D u_lightmap;
uniform LOWP vec4 ambientColor;
uniform vec2 u_resolution;
void main()
{
    vec4 diffuseColor = texture2D(u_texture, v_texCoords);
    vec2 lightCoord = gl_FragCoord.xy / u_resolution.xy;
    vec4 lightColor = texture2D(u_lightmap, lightCoord);

    vec3 ambient = ambientColor.rgb * ambientColor.a;
    vec3 intensity = ambient + lightColor.rgb * (1.0f - ambientColor.a);
    vec3 finalColor = diffuseColor.rgb * intensity;

    gl_FragColor = v_color * vec4(finalColor, diffuseColor.a);
}