Context of Practice 3: Existing Games With the Northern Lights

Before moving onto creating my final level I wanted to look at games that already had the Northern Lights present to get an idea of how they have created them and what works well and what doesn't so I can look to using the techniques myself.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I started by looking at Skyrim as this is one of the most famous games for using the Northern Lights. They can be seen in most places as the whole land is in the mountains, providing that there is a clear sky, and they are very nice to look at. When comparing them with the actual Northern Lights there are some obvious differences. The first being when you look up to see them they appear to swirl around the horizon line upwards instead of just going straight across the sky above the character. This does look nice but obviously isn't an actuate representation of the real lights, but this could be their own version as again this is a fantasy based game, and so real life can be moved to one side. Along with the overall shape the only other thing to look at is the colour. The Northern Lights do vary in colour a large amount but this turquoise that has been used is not the most obvious colour choice to go with, but again this could be down to the fantasy setting. 

Assassins Creed: Rogue
The next game that I wanted to look at was AC: Rogue. This takes a very different approach to looking at the Northern Lights and that can definitely be seen in this shot below. They are not as common to see, unlike Skyrim, but when you do see them they very clearly streak across the sky. This movement is typical to the real Northern Lights, but there is some very obvious streaking that occurs in the pattern and the way that they overlap does look slightly odd. This, unlike Skyrim, is more factual, and based upon real historical events throughout history and the fact that the lights lack some of the key characteristics is a little disappointing. Although in terms of colour is does look very nice, opting for the traditional and more common bluey-green, it does make it more obvious to what it's trying to portray, but there is something slightly lacking in the overall final appearance.