One word : Bumpmapping ?

Hello fellow constructors,

My current obsession concerns the possibility to add some dynamic lights in our projects. I've experimented several things to understand the beast, two softwares, one external effect (dynamic light by Pode) and an old plugin (canvas by r0j0hound). Now, I have to deal with the Bumpmapping effect inclued in Construct 2. I thought it could be similar to Pode's plugin, but nope.

As I said, I studied the subject a little bit, so I have my sprite and the corresponding Normal Map. Now my question is simple : is it possible to use the bumpmapping effect to obtain something similar to this GIF ?

Here's my sprite and its normal Map :

If it's similar to my previous tries, I have to add the Bumpmapping effect to the Normal map and then, put my sprite behind it, just like that :

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dmmijddadbebx42/bumpmap_experiment.capx

But then, how to deal with the light in the event sheet ?

I don't have experience with this myself i think some people have gotten Sprite Lamp to work in C2.

https://www.scirra.com/forum/sprite-lamp-software-that-creates-dinamic-shadow_t91062

There was also Sprite Dlight, don't know what happened with that though.

https://www.scirra.com/forum/sprite-dlight-support_t118649?start=10

Thanks Ethan

[quote:2r0og52e]Sprite Lamp, that actually can produce great normal maps, depending on the skill of the artist who draws the required 2-5 lighting profiles. The downside here is obvious: For larger projects, this means a HUGE amount of work, and you need at least some basic artistic skills to paint nice shading for multiple directions.

Yep, it's on your second proposition and exactly why I don't really like Sprite Lamp. Great results are possible, for with too much work and I don't especially have the skill to use it properly. However, Sprite D Light seems cool, I'll check out. For the moment, I want to know if there's a way to work with the Bumpmapping of C2, even if it's probably not perfect.

I messed a little bit with it a year ago or so. I even messed around with shaders too. I remember my conclusion but not the specifics that led me there. I would suggest using unity, udk, or other engine that has this sort of thing built in. Unity with 2d toolkit was my favorite.

If I recall I didn't 1.) like the way the bump mapping worked, 2.) I didn't like the work flow in construct for adding the effect, 3.) the results weren't good compared to a 3d engine, 4.) You could only have 1 light source I think.

All in all construct 2 is a great tool, but bump mapping sort of is beyond what it was made for currently. Maybe in the future we can get a good lighting system going on. I think it would be awesome to have a more sophisticated rendering system and what not, but hey this is a 2d engine, not 3d.

I think the closest thing you'll get then for now is perhaps the gameswarp shader mentioned in one of the posts.

http://gameswarp.com/studio/construct-2-shader-effects-11-normal-mapping-effect/

Interesting effects if CPU is not tasked too much,

Cyberphaze - It shouldn't really matter to the cpu if it is a shader that does the work.

Thanks for your answers guys. Oh it's not a problem if I have to use one single light source, but it seems that the effect I want doesn't exist on Construct 2 anyway (or it does but it's odd or hacked or stuff...like the method to use Sprite Lamp or Pode's effect). The shader you finally proposed is a good work, but it's not really...the expected result.

So fock it, I'll use photoshop to create something with a glow effect and fake the light in the whole game.

But now, don't you think that a real system to deal with dynamic effects with Normal Maps (or some real possibilities to work with the Bumpmapping effect) will be sweet ? I'll suggest it for Construct 3, even if nobody cares, I suppose. Anyway, thanks for your answers !