I’ve been experimenting with different art styles for Pinballesque. Here are some of the test renderings I’ve made with Zen Photon Garden, a 2D raytracer (the high quality batch version, not the web based one).
Zen Photon Garden is unusual because instead of the output being based on lit surfaces, it’s a map of photon density across a 2D area. This gives an interesting smoky look where every shaft of light stands out in stark relief.
Some promising results, but for consistencies’ sake I’d have to do lush shading on all the rest of the art too, which is daunting. The dark lines extending from the ends of the walls are an artefact I’d like to get rid of. I think I can fudge it in my Unity -> ZPG exporter by rounding the corners of the boxes.