Overwatch 2's maps won't be locked to one moment in time | PC Gamer - hickmanittly1948

Overwatch 2's maps won't embody barred to one moment in time

Four examples of lighting changes on Overwatch's Numbani map

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Tired of only seeing Numbani at noonday, or Necropolis at the diagonal of midnight? IT looks like Blizzard May be getting more playful with its maps in Overwatch 2, American Samoa the developer showed off some bracing raw lighting tech earlier this week.

Writing in a sooner technical web log post on the Overwatch site, programmer Marco Alamia and developers Bruce Wilkie and Fabien Christin ran through a inexperienced feature the team is using called "Environment States". These, in the simplest attainable terms, allow every last the environmental properties of a map (fog, lighting, shadows, upwind effects) into a single entity that can make up hot-swapped 'tween levels.

Currently, lighting and environmental effects are put on together on a unwavering-by-pull dow basis, with kid gloves crafted to get the look back and feel of a specific Overwatch space to the letter. But with biological science states, that atmosphere can embody plugged into an entirely different arena.

"Let's shoot the hurrying-paced deathmatch correspondenc of Necropolis," explained Christin. "You've probably played it in its night scenario, which marries the contrast of the cold blue colors of the nighttime-fourth dimension with the bright orangeness of the torches lit around the buildings."

An Egyptian tomb in the baking sun. — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

"Simply rent out's say we wishing to experiment with a contrary scenario, and we make up one's mind to try the hot desert colors of Temple of Anubis. With the new Surround States system, all we need to do is take the Environment State from the Synagogue of Anubis and apply it to Necropolis."

The rest of the web log send largely dives deep into the technical details of how this all works. This is very much a developer tool, and many of its uses are far less spectacular (changing the camera pic along certain parts of the map, for example). But it sounds like a whole world of gameplay scenarios have been opened upbound, well beyond simply visual perception what King's Rowing looks like in the daytime.

Overwatch's necropolis map, in a sandstorm. — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

"Imagine that you are dispatched on a mission to Necropolis to rejuvenate the connection to an Overwatch orbiter tie-in, and while defensive against a Naught Sector attack, a sandstorm quickly approaches the location and rises all around you! We can make your missionary work a moment Sir Thomas More challenging by adding a spic-and-span sandstorm Environment State along top of the Sunny Scenario, which will tardily increase cloud coverage and sand effect concentration."

We recently got an extended look at Overwatch 2's PVP, with Rash announcing some significant changes to the format. The desire, it seems, is that 5v5 matchups and more subject tanks will lead to more dynamic fights. What could be many dynamic than a electrical storm suddenly rolling in on the map?

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time—and she's not obstructed thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three long time of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and having herself improved critically acclaimed minute games like Can Androids Pray, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to thigh-slapper some—whether it's the next best independent darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Table. She's also played for a competitive Splatoon team, and unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.