Page 51 · 21 Oct · all 18 maps + the 2 new pieces, live, at DARK VIVID 70%

EVERY MAP,RELIT.

The guns just got LIT VIVID: true colours and a thin moonlight edge on every part. Next to them the maps read flat. Here is a new look for every map, made to the same standard and kept in your full-night DARK VIVID. You can drag any phone on this page: left of the handle is today, right is the new look. The fighters, guns, HUD and controls stay the same on both sides; only the map changes.

YOU SAID“We need to update each map’s overall look, like we did to weapons etc. Generate me visuals and show me.”

DRAG: TODAY ↔ A · MOONLIT DIORAMA

SAME FIGHTERSSAME GUNSONLY THE MAP CHANGES NIGHT 70% · DARK VIVID

Hero map

1WHY THEY LOOK FLATMeasured on real frames, found in the code. 2THREE LOOKSBig and live on three maps. Pick one. 3EVERY MAPAll 18 + 2 new, one by one, in play. 45 DECISIONSDepth, edges, motion, day, phones. 5EDGE CASESHazards, teams, blood, LIGHTS OUT, picker, store. ★OUR PICKSOne tap for every recommendation.

WHY THE MAPS LOOK FLAT

Read in Render/Night.cs, Level/Background.cs, Shaders/Surface.shader, Render/WorldGrade.cs and every map file, and measured on the real night frames.

The night is one multiply on everything behind the fighters: sky, hills, ground and planks all lose the same 80–90% of their light under the same blue tint, so they land on one dark value. The layers merge, the ground goes flat and platform edges vanish, while the fighters and the new guns (which skip the night) blaze on top of a wall of navy.

TODAY · REAL iPHONE FRAME · BACKYARD, THE NEW LIT VIVID GUNS

Today's Backyard at night 70%: vivid guns and fighters over a flat navy sky and a dark brown block

THE VALUE LADDER, MEASURED

Relative luminance of each layer, sampled from the real frame (today) and from the same spots in look A. A night scene needs steps: a bright horizon, darker silhouettes stepping toward you, then a lit play layer. Today every step is the same height.

LAYERTODAYA · MOONLIT DIORAMA

Contrast is the WCAG ratio against the sky behind (1 : 1 = invisible, 3 : 1 = clearly separate). Numbers are computed live in your browser from the pictures above and below.

FLAT FILLSNight mode grades each layer with one multiply: 2^(−4.4·k) times a cool tint (Night.cs Mul). At 70% that is ×0.12 for sky and scenery and ×0.22 for floors. Every colour lands in the same narrow dark band.

THE LAYERS MERGEThe backdrop already has 3 parallax layers (0.85 / 0.6 / 0.3, Background.cs), but they share the tint and their fog colour is darkened too. On this frame the sky is 0.030, the mountains 0.029 and the hills 0.022: one wash.

NO LIGHT ON THE PLATFORMSThe surface shader’s bevel adds +0.22 inside a 0.035 m line, and then the night multiplies it away. Plank against sky: 1.1 : 1. The planks you jump to are the least visible thing on screen.

DULL GROUNDBackyard dirt 7A4E2D reaches the screen as 332927. Its noise texture (±12%) survives as a few RGB steps. Only the thin grass lip still reads.

WEAK SILHOUETTES0.16 m planks and hill outlines in the same value as the sky behind them. Shapes are told apart only by their 3 px ink line.

NO ATMOSPHERENo fog between layers and no pools of light. The only night lights are the moon, a few stars and lit windows (the “night touches”). Nothing warm sits against the cold.

LITTLE MOTIONOne particle kind per theme (Theme.ambient: Leaves here) and drifting clouds. Lamps don’t flicker, nothing sways, nothing reacts.

NEXT TO THE NEW GUNSFighters, guns, items and FX never get the night grade, and the guns now carry true colours and a moonlight edge. They sit 6–15× brighter than the floor they stand on. The fix is to light the map, not to dim the guns.

The store's Spike Castle frame: a blue-violet wall with flat bricks — **SPIKE CASTLE (STORE SHOT)**The keep behind and the wall in front share one lilac value; the plank is a grey line.

Dusty Saloon at night: black silhouettes around a big pale disc — **DUSTY SALOON**The town is black cut-outs; the balconies are thin rails; the deck is a grey block.

Monsoon Rooftops at night: navy wash, lit windows, thin boards — **MONSOON ROOFTOPS**Rain you can barely see; roofs that look like the sky; boards you can’t find.

THREE LOOKS FOR THE WHOLE SET

Three distinct art directions, each drawn big and live on three hero maps, with the same fight running. Drag to compare with today. Each one has a live readability check: how much the fighters and the platforms stand out from what’s behind them, measured on the pictures.

YOU SAID“like we did to weapons”

THE SAME MOMENT, THREE LOOKS

The squint test blurs and greys all three. What survives a squint is what a player sees in a busy fight.

Map

View

EVERY MAP, ONE BY ONE

All 18 maps plus the TF round’s two new pieces, in look A (recommended), live and in play: the CALM CORE controls at 10% / 35%, the HUD pills, the names, and the game’s blood when FIDA takes NITHA out (so the gore is checked on every floor colour). Each map lists what changes and what stays. If any map isn’t right, tap REDO THIS MAP and it lands in your picks.

BEFORE FRAMESREAL CAPTURE: today’s game · FIGHTERS PAINTED OUT: a real capture with the fighters removed · DRAWN FROM CODE: no capture exists yet (page 46 drew them from the level code)

FIVE DECISIONS INSIDE THE LOOK

The look (02) sets the direction. These five set how far it goes. Every option below switches the live phone, so you see exactly what you pick.

DEPTH: HOW MANY PARALLAX LAYERS?

Today each arena has 3 backdrop layers that the night merges. The new look separates them by value and fog. More layers means more space, more art and more fill on the GPU.

TEMPLE STEPS · 5 LAYERS

THE LAYERS, PULLED APART

33 LAYERSToday’s count (far · mid · near), now separated by value and fog. The cheapest, and the flattest.

RECOMMENDED

55 LAYERSAdds a second far layer and a drifting fog band. Each step is lighter and cooler than the one in front of it.

77 LAYERSAdds a front layer in front of the fight (grass and leaves in the bottom corners) and a low fog under the arena. The lushest look, but the front layer crowds the controls’ corners and costs the most.

★Why 5: five is where the night reads as real space, with no layer in front of the fight. The 7th (front) layer looks lush in a still but hides fighters at the screen edges.

HOW PLATFORMS READ

The edge treatment on every platform, ledge, crate and stair. The loupe shows a platform edge at 3×.

DUSTY SALOON · MOON RIM

3× LOUPE · THE BALCONY EDGE

RECOMMENDED

AMOON RIMA crisp cool line along every top edge, a soft bloom, a short rim down the moon side, and glints that travel. It is the same light language as the guns’ LIT VIVID edge.

BINK OUTLINEA fat ink outline, an offset sticker shadow and a white inner line. Very graphic, with no glow.

CGLOW EDGEAn emissive accent line with bloom, like neon tubing on every edge.

★Why the moon rim: it is light from the scene, not a new graphic, and the guns already carry it (page 42 B). An ink outline gives the floor the same weight as the fighters’ outlines; a glow edge reads like neon or a hazard.

AMBIENT MOTION: HOW ALIVE?

How much each map moves on its own: rain, steam, gears, bubbles, flickering lights. The meter counts what is moving in this frame.

MONSOON ROOFTOPS · LIVELY

0moving bits

0lights

0draw passes

–reacts to the fight

1CALMAbout half the particles, slow sway, steadier lights. The map breathes, and that is all.

RECOMMENDED

2LIVELYEach map’s identity moves: monsoon rain and gusts, saloon dust and a tumbleweed, deep-sea bubbles, kitchen steam, clock gears. It all stays behind the fight.

3REACTIVELively, and the world answers the fight: landings kick up dust and debris, shots spark metal, puddles splash, lamps sway after a blast.

★Why lively: it gives every map its own life with nothing moving in front of the fighters. Reactive is juicier but adds noise in 8-player scrums; we’d add it later, on HIGH phones only.

DOES DAYTIME STILL EXIST?

You picked full night (DARK VIVID, 70% by default), and the settings slider NIGHT LEVEL still scales toward day. Drag the slider to see the new Backyard across the whole range.

BACKYARD · NIGHT LEVEL 70%

NIGHT LEVEL70%

1ALL NIGHTThe art exists only at night. NIGHT LEVEL just dims the practical lights. Least art; the slider becomes nearly meaningless.

RECOMMENDED

2NIGHT FIRST + SLIDERMade for night at 70%. The slider still blends each map to a day palette of the same art: the sky turns blue, the lamps fade out, the moon becomes the sun. Wi-Fi room NIGHT presets still win.

3NIGHT + DUSK MAPSMost maps stay night, but a few keep a fixed warm dusk for variety (Saloon, Canyon, Forts, Temple), whatever the slider says.

★Why night first: it keeps your full-night pick and the slider you already decided on. Each map needs one extra palette, not a second set of art.

THE LOW-END PATH

The new look has more layers, light and motion. Older phones need a cheaper path that keeps the look’s structure. Switch the tier to see the same map drawn three ways.

PIRATE SHIP · HIGH

Tier on the phone

0draw passes

0glows

0particles

0baked images

RECOMMENDED

13 TIERS, AUTOHIGH: all layers, fog sheets, glows, every particle. MID: flat fog, about 65% of the particles. LOW: 3 layers, the rim as a flat line, no additive glow, about a third of the particles. Graphics AUTO and the phone governor choose, like DARK VIVID’s cheap path.

22 TIERSHIGH and LOW only. Simpler to test, but mid-range phones drop straight to LOW and lose the fog and glows.

3ONE BAKED LOOKEvery phone gets the static layers baked into a few big images; only particles and lights stay live. Fewest moving parts, but the biggest textures, which are a memory risk on the big maps.

★Why 3 tiers: the game already has Graphics AUTO and a governor (WorldGrade.Cheap), and three tiers let mid-range phones keep the fog and the glows. Even LOW keeps the value steps and the platform rims, so it still reads.

EDGE CASES

Our answer for each one. If you agree with all of them, tap ALL OK. To change one, flag it with its CHANGE button.

1HAZARDS STAY UNMISTAKABLE

The new maps are richer, so danger must never blend in. Live and zoomed in: the spike ball, the burners, the explosive barrels, the oasis water.

RULEDanger has its own reserved language: hot red-orange, a slow pulse and black / yellow stripes. No decoration may use it, and hazards never get the moon rim, so they always stand apart from what you can safely touch. Water hazards get a bright, clear surface line.

2TEAM COLOURS ON EVERY FLOOR

Team 0 is always blue and team 1 always orange, in light shades (decisions 43). Here they are on seven of the new maps (zoomed on a floor), with the team discs, measured against what is really behind them.

RULENo floor or backdrop uses a saturated blue or orange near the fight. The team disc and outline carry the team, and the moon rim stays cool white so it never tints a team.

3BLOOD ON EVERY FLOOR

The picked WET AND HEAVY blood (38 B) on the same seven floors: a pool, splats and a severed head.

RULENo floor is deep red. The blood keeps its dark rim and white glint, so it reads on light floors (canvas, marble) by its dark edge and on dark floors (soil, steel) by its glint.

4LIGHTS OUT ON THE NEW ROOFTOPS

Page 37’s LIGHTS OUT darkens the real Rooftops. On the new map: left of the handle is page 37’s darkness over today’s map, right is the new map in the dark.

DRAG: PAGE 37 ↔ THE NEW MAP IN THE DARK

RULEUnder LIGHTS OUT the map’s rims, windows and signs switch off (they would give positions away). Fighters keep a faint 46 px glow so nobody is completely invisible. The flashlight cone is visible in the rain, muzzle flashes and the flare light 190 px, and each lightning strike shows the whole relit city for about 0.2 s. Name plates show only when someone is lit.

5THE PRACTICE PICKER (PAGE 46)

The PICK AN ARENA drop sheet, with thumbnails of the new looks rendered on this page.

PICK AN ARENA

RULEThumbnails are the real arena rendered by Thumbs.Arena (it already redraws when the night changes), so the picker updates by itself. The 7 maps that have no thumbnail today get theirs for free.

6STORE SCREENSHOTS

The store’s named fight on Spike Castle: today’s raw frame, and the same moment on the new map.

Today's store frame on Spike Castle — TODAY (STORE RAW 02)

THE NEW SPIKE CASTLE

RULEOnce the maps land, all 10 store frames are re-shot with the same names (FARIS BASHA and FIDA in every multiplayer shot) and captions. Only the backdrops change. No store build until you say.

7CALM CORE BUTTONS OVER A BUSIER MAP

The controls sit at 10% body and 35% icons (decided). A richer map behind them must not swallow them, so the two control corners stay calm.

DUSTY SALOON · THE CONTROL-SAFE CORNERS

CALM CORNERCALM CORNER

RULENo bright light, neon or fast motion in the bottom-left and right control zones of the backdrop. Lamps and signs go in the upper middle, and particles there are dimmed by 40%. The SAFE FRAME camera (decided) keeps the fight in the clear middle anyway.

★

OUR PICKS, IN ONE TAP

If you’re happy with every recommendation, one tap picks them all, and you can still change any of them above. Then COPY MY PICKS and paste it in chat.

LookA · MOONLIT DIORAMAFighters and vivid guns stay the brightest thing; one moonlight edge for guns and maps.

Depth5 LAYERSReal space at night, nothing in front of the fight.

Platform edgeMOON RIMThe guns’ LIT VIVID edge, on the world.

Ambient motionLIVELYEach map’s identity moves, behind the fight.

Day / nightNIGHT FIRST + SLIDER70% night by default; the slider still works.

Phones3 TIERS, AUTOEven LOW keeps the value steps and the rims.

Picks the 6 above + ALL OK for the edge cases. Maps to redo stay empty unless you flag one.

Stickbash · page 51 · every scene is drawn live in your browser from the level code (layouts from Level/Arenas.cs, Maps.cs and the map files) and page 50’s fighters and guns. Nothing is built until you pick.