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Environment States in Overwatch 2

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The Overwatch 2 engineering team takes us through environment states in Overwatch 2 and how the scenarios make the game feel different every time you play.

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Hi, everyone! My name is Marco Alamia, and I am a software engineer on the Overwatch team. Since we recently finished working on a new piece of technology for Overwatch 2, we thought it would be a great opportunity to give the community a sneak peek of what goes into creating improvements for a game engine. To assist me in this endeavor, I have enlisted the help of two other developers from the Overwatch team: Bruce Wilkie and Fabien Christin.

The new technology we added to the engine is called Environment States, and it has quickly become our favorite workflow for map creation and design. Although the feature is developed and refined inside the Overwatch 2’s engine and tools, the core idea stems from the mind of our talented lighting artist, Fabien. I asked Fabien to help us understand how he came up with the idea that has now reshaped how the team creates maps, and to walk us through his design process.

Let’s dive into Environment States!

Pitching the Idea

Fabien: Overwatch is set in a bright and colorful world, and much of the character of the game is expressed through its maps. The creation of a map starts with the level designers who invent the entire architecture of the place using big grey boxes to produce interesting and balanced gameplay. The most important thing at this stage is to design a map that’s fun to play! After many hours of testing, it is the environment artists’ turn to transform the temporary grey boxes into carefully handcrafted buildings and environmental assets that will give life to the locations players will travel to.

Alongside the environment, we create the lighting that supports the story that the map is telling. For Overwatch 2, we wanted to create interesting new moods that would entirely change the feeling of a location. Imagine travelling to Numbani and seeing the futuristic city illuminated in a warm African sunset, or landing in a rainy Paris, with all the shops glowing with warm golden lights that invite you inside to eat a croissant until the rain stops.

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This is exactly what the Environment States were designed to do. With this new system, we have managed to split all the major components of lighting, sound, and effects into self-contained assets that can be combined like building blocks to create what we call Environment Scenarios. We can share them across maps, and we can also have multiple Scenarios on each map.

Let’s take the example of the fast-paced deathmatch map of Necropolis. You’ve probably played it in its night scenario, which marries the contrast of the cold blue colors of the nighttime with the bright orange of the torches lit around the buildings.

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But let’s say we want to experiment with a different scenario, and we decide to try the hot desert colors of Temple of Anubis. With the new Environment States system, all we need to do is take the Environment State from the Temple of Anubis and apply it to Necropolis.

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This looks great already! However, we can make it look even better by nudging the sun direction to create more interesting shadows. To do that, we create a new Environment State that will only override the sun's direction, and we place this new “block” on top of the one from Temple of Anubis.

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Done!

Thanks to the flexibility and ease of Environment States, we can prototype new lighting for our maps within a few hours. Being able to iterate quickly allows us to experiment more, be more creative, and produce more variety for all our maps.

But that’s not all. While the previous examples were mostly cosmetic, Environment States can also be mixed dynamically to develop new and exciting gameplay opportunities. Imagine that you are sent on a mission to Necropolis to restore the connection to an Overwatch satellite link, and while defending against a Null Sector attack, a sandstorm quickly approaches the location and rises all around you! We can make your mission a bit more challenging by adding a new sandstorm Environment State on top of the Sunny Scenario, which will slowly increase cloud coverage and sand effect density.

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With this new technology we can create all kinds of weather changes, like thunderstorms, snowfalls, and other exciting environmental scenarios to make the game feel different every time you play.

Let’s go back to Marco, now, and see the more technical side of how Environment States work under the hood.

Implementing Environment States

Marco: Fabien’s vision was ambitious, so we had to design a powerful system to achieve what Overwatch 2 needed for its environments. After some brainstorming, we decided to allow for several Environment States to be present all at the same time, ordered neatly in a stack. This stack could change dynamically, so at any given time an Environment State could be added or removed. The magic happens when the engine looks at this stack and blends all the Environment States together to produce the final environment look. If you have ever used Photoshop, it’s the same as having multiple layers blended together to produce a final image.

The idea is that each Environment State can describe some aspect of the environment itself, such as the wind strength and direction or the sun color. When the state is pushed on the stack, only the provided aspects contribute to the result. For example, this is a stack taken from Lucio’s club in Rio, where an Environment State that changes the camera exposure and color grading aspects is pushed on the stack:

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The Environment State at the base provides all the aspects for the map, and the one on top overrides the color grading to produce the menacing and creepy atmosphere of the Diablo area. Environment States can be added and removed from the stack dynamically during the game, allowing for more dynamism and making the maps feel livelier and more energetic.

Aspects  

Under the guidance of the art team and Fabien we have identified several key aspects that we want Environment States to be able to define. For example, post-processing was the engine’s first feature converted into an aspect. Post-processing is a common ingredient of all modern engines; it’s used to apply various filters and effects, like controlling the final image’s contrast, brightness and saturation. Adjusting the image contrast and brightness dynamically depending on what’s happening in the game can make the final image incredibly more vivid and dynamic, and this is now possible in Overwatch 2 thanks to the Environment States technology.

The fog aspect is another powerful tool in our new system. By changing its parameters, we can drive the fog look and feel, which in turn allows the art team to make the environment evolve visually based on the game mode, players’ positions, or even time. For example, we could make the map spookier for Halloween, or have the fog become thick only around a specific area of a map, or make a sandstorm build over time in one of our new Hero Missions.

We have several aspects that touch upon other visual properties such as the shadows cast from clouds onto the map, and even nonvisual properties like the strength and direction of the wind. Two of the most important aspects that we can change are the Sun and Sky aspects. As the names suggest, these allow us to change some key features of the Environment, like the sun’s position and color, what clouds we’re using, if any, and whether it’s day or night. As you can imagine, this is a very powerful part of the Environment State system because it allows us to change the look and feel of the map in very dramatic ways.

These two aspects (Sun and Sky) leverage one of the most advanced areas of the engine: the lighting system. Lighting is incredibly important for Overwatch 2 because it helps us set the look, feel, and mood for our environments.  However, any change to this system can have memory and performance implications, so we must be very careful with what we permit. Luckily for us, we have a great engineer on our team, Bruce Wilkie, who has extensive experience with lighting systems and can help us create something that looks great while keeping our performance at the high level that a competitive shooter like Overwatch 2 requires.

Lighting

Bruce: So much work and dedication go into the vibrant, colorful visuals of Overwatch. Every time I play a match in one of our many beautiful maps, I am reminded of just how much attention to detail is given to each lighting environment. Sunlight bounces into rooms, floodlights illuminate ruins, and nighttime festivals come alive with colors–these are just a handful of examples of how lighting plays such an important role in the look and feel of our game. When making the engine for Overwatch, we worked closely with the art team to provide lighting features needed to bring the 2D concept artwork into the 3D world–features like light bouncing off surfaces (often called Global Illumination), metals reflecting the world around them, and moving objects lighting seamlessly with static environments.  These features require many calculations, which are often far more CPU-intensive than can be done at the frame rates we wanted the engine to achieve. To allow Overwatch to run at high frame rates and still deliver these advanced lighting features, we compute as much lighting information as we can ahead of time, package up the result, and use that data in the client. 

Let’s take a closer look at the data we use in Overwatch to enable some of these lighting features. For things that don’t move, such as walls, floors, and ceilings, we build several pieces of data. The first piece of data tells the engine how much lighting is hitting a surface, and what direction that light is coming from. Generally, this data is called a “lightmap,” and different engines will store different “flavors” of data in lightmaps.  

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In this image, you can see an example of how lightmaps are generated for the surfaces in a map.  On the left is a final composite of all the lighting.  In the center, just the charting is rendered on the surfaces.  Our artists use this view to make sure enough lighting data will be stored for the surface to achieve the visual result they are looking for.  On the right, this is an example of how the engine packs together these lightmaps to minimize the memory they take up.

When we shipped Overwatch, we generated color and direction for all light hitting a surface.  We use the direction data to vary the color on bumpy surfaces–the more the surface faces that direction, the more color it receives. For Overwatch 2, we now generate three lighting directions, allowing us to vary each of the color channels (red, green, and blue) independently. The result of the extra directions deepens the vibrancy of the ambient lighting, which in turn increases image quality.

For stationary objects, we generate data that tells the object how much of the surrounding environment is visible. Generally, this data is called ambient occlusion. We started generating this data in several maps after we shipped Overwatch, like Paris and Havana. For Overwatch 2, all maps will be generating this data now, increasing the quality of the visuals.

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For things that do move, like characters, we generate many sample positions in the world and encode lighting data for each of them–the same type of data we build for stationary objects.  When a moving object comes close to one of these points, the object uses that data to light itself. In Overwatch 2, we are generating many more sample positions–especially in the air–which means that moving objects will look better than ever.  

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If you watched our BlizzConline panel, you saw a glimpse of maps having multiple different lighting environments. For each environment, we want to share as much data as possible to keep our download and install disk size reasonable. The Environment State technology allows the engine to group together multiple lighting environments for a map, allowing for a large part of the precomputed data mentioned above to be shared between those grouped lighting environments. This brings down the data footprint greatly, which means our players do not have to download and install as much data per variation. Higher quality lighting, more lighting variation, and less data–all thanks to the Environment State feature.

 

Thanks to Environment States, Overwatch 2 will feel more dynamic while improving the workflow of our artists, enabling them to create a colorful world for you to enjoy. Look forward to immersive, globe-spanning adventures with changing environments and stunning visuals in Overwatch 2!

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      Suffer as I have 
      Originally a war machine, Ramattra shed his munitions for a shield to protect his people by promoting peace and tranquility. His ideals weren’t far removed from his fellow Shambli monk, Zenyatta. However, Ramattra’s story is one of hardships, trauma, and a magnified view of humanity’s harsh realities.  


      Harmony was replaced by dissonance, and Ramattra began to approach his convictions from a more pragmatic angle—justifying any means necessary to defend his fellow omnics. As the leader of Null Sector, Ramattra boasts incredible support from his people, and he is primed to impose his philosophies on our world.  
      ______ 
      Ramattra will join the tank lineup at the beginning of Season Two starting December 6. Our team is counting the days down to when we can share more about our newest hero, so keep an out for more information in the weeks leading up to Season Two.  
    • By Staff
      The Overwatch development team has posted a blog with more details about post-launch updates on gameplay, maps, and competitive.
      (Source)
      Overwatch 2 developer blog: Post-launch updates on gameplay, maps, and competitive
      Today, we want to look back at our first week in this brand-new chapter for Overwatch and share with you our team’s current thinking on hero balance and gameplay.  
      Since the launch of Overwatch 2, we’ve welcomed millions of both new and returning heroes to the game. While most of our updates so far have been about our efforts to address game servers and stability, we also know players are eager to hear about what we are working on for gameplay and other topics. We’ve seen Sojourn, Junker Queen, and Kiriko completely rock the landscape of the game, blasting and slicing their way into many victories on the battlefield. Today, we want to look back at the first week of this brand-new chapter for Overwatch and share with you our team’s current thinking on hero balance and gameplay. 
      Hero Balance
      While some heroes are performing better than others, and there are differences across player skill levels, we have been happy to see that no hero’s overall power level is far out of line with our goals. Every hero on the roster has a win-rate between 45% and 55%, and we are not planning any immediate balance changes based on what we are seeing, with the exception of a targeted adjustment to Zarya in Total Mayhem which should go live with our next major patch on October 25. Instead, our team is planning to make a series of balance changes for Season Two that are in line with our design goal of ensuring the overall game feels balanced and fair while giving each season a more distinct identity. While we’ll continue looking at hero performance and listening to player feedback prior to finalizing any specific changes to balance for Season Two, we want to share more about what we are seeing so far.
      Tanks fighting on the front lines
      Since shifting to a 5v5 format, we see many players focusing more on the tank role given the heightened importance of a single tank in role queue modes. One of the most talked about heroes on the roster right now is D.Va. With buffs after the last Beta to her Defense Matrix and Micro Missiles, she can put up a fight longer than she could before the launch of Overwatch 2. Despite many players saying she’s one of the best tanks in the game, Reinhardt, Sigma, and Zarya actually currently lead up the competition with an average 53% unmirrored win rate. Zarya’s new ability to choose where to place each of her two Particle Barriers often allows her to build up to high energy quickly, which is something we’re currently keeping a close eye on for potential changes next season.
      Junker Queen was a dominant force during the last beta playtest. Because of that, we applied changes to her Commanding Shout to reduced how dominant the brawly, “death ball” team compositions were at the highest skill levels, including the Overwatch League Summer Showdown. We’ll keep an eye on her performance in the upcoming weeks to ensure she’s an effective tank and fun to play. 
      The team is also monitoring Doomfist’s performance and play rate compared to other tanks. As we look to Season Two, we think it makes sense to evaluate his overall tanking ability and potentially make improvements to Power Block and Meteor Strike.
      Slicing through the competition
      The damage role has seen many hero combinations across all ranks, but we’ve noticed some popular picks among our players. Genji and Sojourn started as the most popular heroes when Overwatch 2 launched, but they’ve since leveled out to the rest of the damage roster. Genji started off with a dominating win-rate, and although it’s lowered slightly since launch (currently at 52%), we want to make sure he’s not dominating the playing field. We’ll watch Genji carefully throughout the season to ensure he doesn’t slice up the competition too much and may make adjustments in Season Two. One way we are considering doing this is through an adjustment to the damage role passive, which has particularly benefited heroes like Genji.
      Sombra is also hacking her way through the back lines in many games. We adjusted her damage potential to be optimal on targets that she hacks. However, we want to ensure her targets have a reasonable time to fight back, so we’ll continue to look to balance her hack ability-lockout duration when we approach Season Two. We’ve also heard feedback that tanks feel oppressed when a Sombra is focusing them with hacks, which will also be something we will look to control next season.
      Symmetra and Torbjorn are two other damage heroes that we are keeping a close eye on now. Over the course of the first week, their win rates have been gradually increasing, and they are showing the highest win rates now at some ranks. Both heroes can be effective counters to Genji and may be enjoying their success due to his popularity. When we look at potentially making changes to them we need to keep in mind the landscape of the rest of the hero roster. For example if Genji is tweaked and possibly played less these heroes might see less success and not need adjustments themselves.
      Sly as a fox
      Kiriko has been well-received by the community, with an initial play rate of over 75% in most matches when we first launched, making her an instant favorite among many players. This play rate has since balanced out compared to other support heroes, however, her win rate increased from 48% to 52% as players learned her kit and playstyle over this past week. Her healing averages in the middle when you compare it to the rest of the support roster, and her damage output right now is about even with Ana which is relatively low compared to heroes like Lucio, Moira, and Brigitte. Kiriko gets a lot of value in her evasiveness with Wall Climb and Swift Step to get out of harm’s way, allowing her to stay alive longer in team fights and making her the most survivable support hero on the roster currently. We’re keeping an eye on how she performs in the weeks ahead of the Overwatch League Playoffs next month.
      Missions around the world
      With new and returning maps based on locations worldwide, we want each season in Overwatch 2 to feel refreshing and exciting for new and returning players. To support that goal and also to allow our team, when we think it’s appropriate, to make adjustments to our maps, we have begun to run a map pool featuring all-new locations and many original maps. For season 1, we’re playing on the following maps for both Quick and Competitive Play:
      Control Ilios - Evening Lighting Lijiang Tower - Dawn Lighting Oasis - Night Lighting Nepal - Morning Lighting Busan - Night Lighting Escort Circuit royal – Night Lighting Dorado - Evening Lighting Route 66 - Night Lighting Gibraltar - Morning Lighting Junkertown - Morning Lighting Hybrid Midtown - Morning Lighting King’s Row - Evening Lighting Eichenwalde - Evening Lighting Hollywood - Morning Lighting Paraíso - Morning Lighting Push New Queen Street - Morning Lighting Colosseo - Evening Lighting Esperança - Morning Lighting Each subsequent season, we will rotate some maps out of the map pool and bring back others that had been previously out of rotation. As we continue to rotate maps in and out, we’ll be looking at improving and tweaking them, so for example, when Rialto returns in Season Two, players will notice a few spots where we have added additional cover which should help the map play better in the 5v5 environment with reduced shields. For players who want to play maps not currently in the map rotation, hop into a custom game or the occasional arcade mode.
      Climbing the ranks
      Our team would like to apologize for ranking many players too low during the first week of Overwatch 2. We discovered a bug that was impacting player skill ratings, which is what contributed to many players being placed in Bronze 5 when they should have been placed higher. Our most recent patch included a fix that will help you get back to your true rank quickly, and that will be reflected the next time you receive a competitive ranking update. You will receive a boost as you continue playing to help you get up to the correct ranks. Players who haven’t yet placed in competitive won’t experience this issue after the fix goes live.
      We’re also watching your feedback about how we present your skill tier and division and how you celebrate that in-game. While we don’t have any details we can share yet, expect us to make more improvements to Competitive, and we will continue to watch for your feedback.
      Thank you for week one, and here’s to many more
      Finally, we want to ensure games play out fairly for all players in all matches. In a future patch, we’ll fix an issue that could cause some rubber banding in-game. We also want to be certain that hit registration for shots fired is working pixel-perfectly. We have investigated reports from players about hit registration, and many reports are actually related to how our replay tool works, which does not perfectly capture the alignment of each player’s aim. 
      There are also misconceptions about how our controller settings on PC work, which does not affect mouse input. As an example, aim smoothing under gamepad does not impact mouse input latency or precision. However, in one report, we discovered a bug that affected the hitbox alignment of our rendered objects for Junker Queen in some specific situations, and we’re working diligently to fix this issue. 
      We also understand that some PC players have concerns with input responsiveness and recommend trying out these changes to improve how quickly the game responds to player input:
      Make sure the in-game resolution setting matches your actual monitor’s set resolution. Set the capped frame rate to a value that matches your monitor’s maximum frame rate. If you have an NVidia graphics card, turn on NVidia Reflex + Boost. Otherwise, turn on Reduced Buffering for other GPUs. Finally, in your gameplay options, turn on Enable High Precision Mouse Input to speed up how frequently your mouse captures position in the game. Thank you to all the players who were a part of the first week of Overwatch 2. While this time has been incredibly exciting for the community and our team, it’s also come with many challenges that we're looking to address quickly. We will continue to listen to player feedback as we strive to make Overwatch 2 the best game it can be, and we are looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks leading up to Season Two. In the meantime, we hope everyone is having a blast in the game, and we will talk again soon! 
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