While this may look like an advert for your friendly local take-away, it’s actually another scene for the Murder Detective: Hampton River Murders game.  And before you ask, no severed body parts are to be found in that bin.

This image is actually based on a photograph provided to me by the client.  I did a bit of detective work myself (thanks ‘Google Image Search’) and discovered where the actual takeaway was located.  This enabled me to see the building in a little more detail (thanks ‘Google Streetview’).

This particular scene looks slightly more realistic in comparison to the other scenes as I was experimenting with bitmap based lighting.  The colour of the light in the scene comes from the sky on an overcast day.  Lighting the scene in this way doesn’t create hard-edge shadows.  So, the subtle shadow on the floor had to be created separately with a light.

What’s missing from this scene?  Well, if I was rendering this now I would make heavier use of ambient occlusion shading.  And in hindsight, while a dull overcast sky might add to the realism – it doesn’t make for a particularly striking image.  An atmospheric sky would have made for a more dramatic scene, but nevertheless it worked fine in the game.