Developing Knitewings is evolving S2Engine
One of the most exciting parts of developing Knitewings is seeing how the game itself is pushing S2Engine in new directions. During the development of the demo, I started redesigning parts of the rendering pipeline to better support stylized visuals, anime-inspired effects and ad
One of the most exciting parts of developing Knitewings is seeing how the game itself is pushing S2Engine in new directions.
During the development of the demo, I started redesigning parts of the rendering pipeline to better support stylized visuals, anime-inspired effects and advanced VFX workflows.
One of the biggest rendering changes introduced during the development of Knitewings is the new "Shader Archetype" system inside S2Engine.
Instead of treating all materials the same way, materials are now grouped into dedicated rendering archetypes.
Each archetype is rendered in a different stage of the pipeline depending on its visual purpose.
Original post Shader Archetypes
One of the biggest rendering changes introduced during the development of Knitewings is the new "Shader Archetype" system inside S2Engine.
Instead of treating all materials the same way, materials are now grouped into dedicated rendering archetypes.
Each archetype is rendered in a different stage of the pipeline depending on its visual purpose.
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PBR Archetype
The PBR archetype uses the traditional deferred rendering pipeline and is mainly used for environments, props and physically-based lighting. -
TOON Archetype
The TOON archetype uses a dedicated rendering path designed specifically for cel-shaded characters and stylized lighting.
This separation allows me to independently control the visual language of characters without affecting the rest of the scene.
Both PBR and TOON materials coexist within the same rendering framework, allowing realistic environments and stylized characters to interact naturally with the same lighting and shadowing systems.
This approach avoids the visual disconnect often seen when toon-shaded characters are rendered through a completely separate pipeline.
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EMIT Archetype
The EMIT archetype is rendered during the emissive rendering pass and is designed for energy effects, magical attacks, animated glows, weapon effects and advanced VFX.
This system is currently being used extensively in Knitewings to redesign weapons and improve the readability and visual progression of attacks.
- PBR materials focus on physically-based surface properties
- TOON materials expose stylized shading controls
- EMIT materials provide parameters for animated emissive effects, scrolling masks, fresnel glow, distortion, pulse animations and energy-based VFX
What originally started as a dark environment pack for horror projects gradually became one of the most appreciated asset collections in its category.
To celebrate this milestone:
The S2ENGINE Cemetery DLC is currently on sale on Steam
The full Cemetery Pack with original FBX source files is also on sale on CGTrader
These assets were created for real production workflows and were also used during the development of my horror projects.
Thank you to everyone who supported the project over the years. Your support helps me continue improving S2ENGINE and creating new environments, tools and games.
CGTrader:
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/exterior/historic-exterior/the-cemetery-pack
Steam DLC:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2987820/S2ENGINE_HD__Cemetery_Pack_20
Here, instead, are come comparison screenshots related to the UPCOMING New Cementery Pack, on the same reference system:
Finally are some comparison screenshots in HELLSEED (on the same reference system):
As you can see from these screenshots the improvements are HUGE.
The AZDO way seems to be the right way for an incredible performance evolution of the engine, so I'll continue to develop it by including all the remaining most recent AZDO functions in future.