I saw this on Google+'s "What's Hot" and, well...

[RJFerret]

...you might see why my first thought was to share it here...

Inspired by TDM?

[kyyrma]

Although that would be cool, I think it might just be bioluminescent mushrooms in general.

 

Did you know there are over 70 species of luminescent mushrooms in the world? The nature never ceases to amaze.

[SeriousToni]

Didn't know that! I allways thought that was one thing that came out of the "fantasy corner" of the game.

Cool!

[demagogue]

Somewhere there's a quote by a Thief (TDP) dev that they wanted a natural light source without putting torches as if people had been there recently, and then somebody had the idea of the bioluminescent mushrooms. But I'm sure it was thought of earlier to solve the same problem. It's an obvious solution... What else would you use?

 

Cool nightlight anyway.

[Airship Ballet]

https://www.youtube....h?v=SL_azA78Hi0

 

They would make neat nightlights, if not for the disembodied cicadas that seem to follow them everywhere.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[Sotha]

Yep, Nature made those mushroom for gameplay purposes. Dark areas would look soooooo flat without some kind of lightsource.

[RJFerret]

Heh, I wasn't serious about the inspiration, and although I didn't know there were 70 varieties, I have seen bioluminescent fungus in the wild a few times--it looks radically different than in those long exposure pictures. Thanks for the link, is a variety from Japan it seems, some of the other forms are pretty cool too (around here it's low growing, without stems/caps).

 

And yes, I've always found them "magical" in games too, breaking my suspension of disbelief, since naturally they don't illuminate around them, and they appear "we needed something to add light/contrast/color" in areas with nothing for fungus to grow on. But yeah, recently replaced/lit torches have that issue too.

 

Of course glowing crystals are just as hokey. Lava may be plausible, but hot/dangerous and often horribly designed in TDM as just a flat polygon. Mirrors require entities to have set them up, although not as recently as replacing torches every half hour, heh.

[kyyrma]

Of course glowing crystals are just as hokey. Lava may be plausible, but hot/dangerous and often horribly designed in TDM as just a flat polygon. Mirrors require entities to have set them up, although not as recently as replacing torches every half hour, heh.

 

Has anyone actually used this in a FM? Mirrors I mean, that would be a really cool lighting setup for a ruin or something. If not, I might just consider stealing this idea!

 

Too bad not even mirrors cut it in real life. I think they tested it in Mythbusters to some lacklustre results.

[Airship Ballet]

Well there was that puzzle in The Gatehouse... not exactly a lighting scheme as it had no effect on the architecture but shows they can be used all the same if you're willing to angle all the projected lights properly.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[chedap]

Has anyone actually used this in a FM? Mirrors I mean, that would be a really cool lighting setup for a ruin or something. If not, I might just consider stealing this idea!

Temple of Tides FM for TMA had some sort of periscope windows into an underground tomb. But you should steal the idea anyway.

[RJFerret]

"Lacklustre", heh.

 

Do eet! One of my favorite instances in Lord of the Rings Online is "The Mirror Halls of Lumul-nar".

 

The dwarven mirrors rotated by pulling a lever on it, to one of four different positions. The light beams cleared dark, evil webbing like material, opening the way forward. Beings down below would dirty the mirrors if you weren't fast enough at cleaning them, and several had to be brought together to focus their beams to eliminate the final barricade. The mirror puzzle was physically larger (each mirror several times taller than you), with multiple ways of completing it (you were within it's space), compared to the one in Gatehouse (which I completed simply randomly, never figuring out the buttons/mirror correlations).

 

In TDM, since you can pick up objects and place them, it could be even cooler, as you could have various holders, and placing mirrors on certain holders could illuminate one path compared to another.

 

Which all just reminds me of speculum (no, not the medical device, the metal) from Newton's first telecope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESW_NTIhBM

[STiFU]

Awesome lamp!