Contrast, Contrast, Contrast.

Contrast, it's all I've heard since I've shown my images of my church. Some say it's fine, some say it's too orange, some say it doesn't have enough shadows etc. I know you can't please everyone, and trying to do so ultimatly ends in failure. I'm the level designer so I should be confident enough to choose which I think is best, however it is good to listen to the masses, sometimes they actually do know what they want!!!

ooops....wait a minute..

Anyway, because everyone was going on about it, I decided to keep playing around, even though the actual building isn't finished yet, I think the mood is the most important aspect of this piece and the lighting is the defining factor. So, after countless playing around with post process volumes, light colour, light size, light placement, height fog etc etc, I moved on to the skylight which I totally forgot about. I was going through some of the colours and thought this would look good for my other church (I forgot to post about that, basically the same church but run down, for a later point in the game). Anyway, playing about, I wondered what a black skylight would look like, and tbh, the effect is damn 'funky', as John said. The main problem I had before was that chainging post process volumes, or lighting broke away from the effect I was going for, which was a safe haven for the player, a sort of religious protection feel. I wanted it real warm, cosy, enticing etc. Each time I changed some values, it just broke away, even if it did give more depth. However, this effect still keeps the feel I want, but it really brings out shadows and definition in the meshes. It's only a rough version atm, as in, I did it, took a screen shot and I'm now writing about it. But with some point lights, and maybe another skylight with a tiny bit of brightness, I think it should look great!

Edit

OK, I played around with the lighting for about an hour, and for some reason, 2 of the meshes wouldn't accept any lights other than sky and directional lights, god knows why, and they are key meshes (the main arches and the cog's hanging from them). I have no idea why they wouldn't light but nevermind. It started to vear away from my original image, so I've decided to revert half way back, still keeping some of the definition that was gained but bumping my lights back up. I will use what I've learnt for my second church though.