Create a simple circular light effect (2D, no OpenGL)

Game Development
1

Hello.
I want to create an effect of a circular light - no projections, no OpenGL, thank you - in my game, much like the Zelda:
https://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda03/Walkthrough/02/033.png

I was able to create the effect with a single light source. I have a dark surface and one with a transparent gradient circle that I blend on the first using SDL_BLENDMODE_NONE, then I blend the dark texture into the screen:

light_problem_001
light_problem_001.png1368×768 136 KB

The problem is that, when I have two of them, the intersection if mixed:

light_problem_002
light_problem_002.png773×501 101 KB

So, my idea is to create an image with a white circle using gradient to transparent, and subtract the alpha, in my black surface, from the white pixels in the image.
But I could not figure out how to do that. I tried different combinations of custom blend, and still I am unable to do so.

So, in short my question is:
Given a dark texture, I want to use custom blend to make transparent all white pixels from a second texture, respecting its alpha level. Do anyone knows how to do that?

Thanks in advance.

2

For this, you only to draw the light once. You draw the lights to the black overlay that has SDL_BLENDMODE_MOD for its blend mode and SDL_BLENDMODE_ADD for the lights. When you are done with all your lights, just render the black overlay last.

1 Like
3

Works like a charm. Thanks a lot.

1 Like