Mike Snowdon · VFX Director

Good question. We've actually got a time of day slider. What I would say is that if I was working on an effect, I can work in this test scene, sure, that's fine, but I would always be making sure we're looking at it in situ as well. If it was in the PU, we'd be looking at it in the PU level. We'd be making sure we look at it on a planet, and if we're looking at it on a planet, we've got to make sure we've moved the sun around or moved the particle around the planet. Essentially, we can't really sign off an effect until it's been tested thoroughly under all the lighting conditions. That also applies to gravity as well, because if I go back to that spark effect, I might have it looking really cool when gravity is on, but I need to make sure it also works in space as well. I can't really cheat as much as maybe we can in other games. We have to be very, very thorough with our testing process.