Author | Lightnews

Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 3

As I mentioned, this whole system is powered by my own simple software ray tracing renderer. And what's the point if you're not going to goof around with weird lens projections 📸

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 3

Here's a demonstration of how probes can relocate themselves for better coverage. Blue probes are found to be inside (or too close) to geometry, so we push them away from the nearest surface normal where they can be more useful. Notice how the artefacts disappear and the lighting feels more accurate

A before scene showing blue probes intersecting walls and other surfaces

An after scene showing the probes have been moved away from surfaces to cover the environment better. The lighting feels more accurate and there are fewer artefacts

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 3

I’ll pretend I did this on purpose.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 3

Unity!

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Probes are spaced along a regular grid but disable themselves if nothing is found nearby (all depth samples miss). I’m just choosing to render the active probes only!

Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

I was particularly pleased with how nicely it plays with my stylised time of day lighting system (a tool I've been developing for Summerhill and other projects) ☀️🌙

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

It was fun digging into that stuff with you — you should share any more recent experiments!

Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Another random clip I never shared from when I was debugging moving grids and other optimisations. Here you can see new probes spawning around geometry as the camera moves. Larger cascades are disabled for a clearer demonstration.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

It also worked pretty nicely for specular reflections and volumetric fog.

A 3D scene showing specular reflections from my global illumination system. A metallic rabbit is sitting in a sci-fi style room, with glossy reflections bouncing light and colour all around the scene.

A 3D sponza environment showing volumetric fog being illuminated by light bouncing around the scene from the sun and sky

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Ah, I mean it in the lightest possible sense — just a bit of a hobby project that threatened to consume me, so I put it aside to focus more on real life/work for a while.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

A recap for the Bluesky crowd: my implementation was largely based on DDGI, which uses software raytracing to sample light into a grid of probes. I implemented multiple cascades, moving grids & dynamic probe states. It allowed for infinite bounces & (potentially) infinite environments.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Since I'm unlikely to come back to this any time soon, I figured I'd share some half-baked updates on where I landed with my realtime GI system a couple of years ago before burning out. Maybe one day...

A screenshot from Unity showing a 3D courtyard environment lit with my own DDGI style Global Illumination system.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Jul 8

Hey Develop 👋🏻 I’m in Brighton this week with my Border Collie Patrick! Hit us up for friendly dev chat and excited tail wags

A black and white border collie called Patrick

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

Botany Manor @botanymanor.bsky.social · Jun 27

We're so excited to share Botany Manor won the Accessibility Award at the #GamesForChange awards!

The team put a lot of work into accessibility features, colour-blind legibility for clues and designing the game to be gentle to the player. As a small studio, it means a lot to see it recognised 😊💚

A screenshot of Botany Manor showing a fountain and garden benches, with the text it won an accessibility award

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · May 4

Criminal that this is the first I’m hearing about it.

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

Botany Manor @botanymanor.bsky.social · Apr 30

We're so honoured and excited to share Botany Manor received an Xbox Excellence Award for top store rating of 2024. It's amazing to see how our game has left a lasting impression on so many 💚🌳
Thanks so much to @xbox.com and @gamepass.xbox.com for all the support!

The herbarium book on the left side, and the xbox excellence award on the right side. In the background is a rose bush.

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Apr 28

Thanks so much! I’ll give this a try!

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Apr 27

Nice! Might need to take a trip to coast. Do you have a go to recipe?

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Apr 26

I’ve always been curious about this after seeing it on River Cottage - does it actually taste like coconuts? Plenty of it around here, but rare to find any with a strong enough scent!

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

BAFTA Games @baftagames.bsky.social · Mar 4

The nominees for Game Beyond Entertainment are…

BOTANY MANOR
KIND WORDS 2 (LOFI CITY POP)
SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE II
TALES OF KENZERA: ZAU
TETRIS FOREVER
VAMPIRE THERAPIST

#BAFTAGamesAwards

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Feb 22

Congrats again, and lovely to meet you!

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Harry Nesbitt @harrynesbitt.bsky.social · Feb 19

Hard to believe it’s been a whole decade since Alto’s Adventure launched! I had no idea what to expect & was nowhere near prepared for what came next!

It changed my life, introduced me to so many friends, & 10 years later, I’m still making games I love.

Here’s to the next 10!

Land & Sea @landandseagames.bsky.social · Feb 19

Ten years ago today, Alto took his first leap into the world — and what a journey it’s been since! 🏔️✨

We’re celebrating a decade of Alto’s Adventure with this stunning artwork by the talented @alariko.bsky.social and a short trip down memory lane on our blog:

landandsea.games/blog/a-decad...

A scene from the game Alto's Adventure, as depicted by the artist Alariko. In the foreground, Alto can be seen with his distinctive red poncho, holding a snowboard under his arm. He's looking out across a snowy mountainscape, dotted with pine trees, windmills and towers connected by colourful bunting lines.

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

Journal of Geek Studies @jgeekstudies.bsky.social · Feb 11

🌿Botany Manor is a cozy game but also a window into challenges women face in academia.

For #WomenInSTEMDay, we interviewed the devs @lauredm.bsky.social and @kittbyrne.bsky.social to explore how these issues were woven into storytelling and gameplay. 🎮

Read it @ jgeekstudies.org/2025/02/09/b...

Botany Manor: a cozy game unveiling the inequalities in academia

Interview with Laure De Mey and Kitt Byrne Download PDF Botany Manor is a multiplatform game developed by the English indie studio Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn Games. Initially relea…

jgeekstudies.org

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

Land & Sea @landandseagames.bsky.social · Feb 3

Summerhill is currently featured in the #mythsandlegends2025 Steam event 🐑

Journey through an ancient, pastoral landscape in our upcoming sheep herding folk-tale and unearth the mysteries of a long-forgotten past.

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Reposted by Harry Nesbitt

ustwo games - MV3 OUT NOW ON PC AND CONSOLE! ✨ @ustwogames.co.uk · Dec 10

Play Monument Valley 3 NOW!🥳

Join Noor as she explores mind-bending landscapes that unfold like origami, blending nature’s beauty with the impossible. ✨⛵️

On App Store and Google Play with your Netflix Membership
➡️https://go.ustwo.games/mv3

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