Esoteric Update #157 - Document Revamp

I was visiting my parents these past few days, so I didn't have much time to prepare any lore... but let's look at something a bit more visual.

For the last few days, I've been revamping the rendering for document covers and pages. While the initial design was solid on a technical level, it didn't quite provide a great output in terms of the actual image. My intent was always to go back to it eventually, and since recently, I accidentally stumbled into something I didn't know about before... well... I got to work.

So to establish what changed, let's start with a view of a sample document as it was before...

And now the same document after the revamp...

And just to make this clear, these are not pre-prepared images. Instead, they are rendered in-engine on the fly, making the whole system modular and parametric.

So to sum up the new features:

• 3D illumination for documents with heightmap composition;
• Punch text for gold leaf text and embossed decorations;
• Corner braces and damage for book covers;
• Ink fading, decorative borders and stains for book pages;
• Multiple materials to choose from across the board (still an ongoing process);
• No sacrifices were made to modularity; everything still functions based on parameters.

This isn't all. I've also been working on text filters, expanding the system and developing new uses for it, fixing bugs, and updating the existing documents to make full use of the current systems.