Engineering the Mists: Our Custom Render Pipeline

The "Mists" in our name isn't just a fantasy trope—it's a core technical pillar of our game. From the very beginning, we knew that atmosphere would be paramount to the player's experience. Grianan needed to feel mysterious, ancient, and at times, oppressive. To achieve this, we invested heavily in developing a custom rendering pipeline focused on volumetric effects and dynamic lighting.

Making the Mists Volumetric

Standard fog in games is often a simple, flat layer that obscures distance. We wanted our mists to have presence and volume. We wanted you to feel like you were *in* it, not just looking through it. That's where volumetric fog comes in.

Our system treats fog as a 3D volume of particles within the world. This allows it to interact realistically with light. Light sources don't just stop at the fog; they pierce through it, creating visible beams and rays (often called "god rays"). A torch in a misty cavern won't just illuminate the wall, it will cast a cone of light through the air itself, catching dust and moisture. This single feature transforms a simple cave into a cinematic, atmospheric space.

The Pipeline: Tying It All Together

Volumetrics are just one part of the puzzle. Our custom render pipeline is what allows all our visual systems to talk to each other. It ensures that the dynamic weather system, the day/night cycle, and our global illumination all feed into the volumetric fog correctly.

When a storm rolls in, the fog density increases. When the sun sets, the color of the light scattering through the mist changes from a bright white to a deep, moody orange. It's a complex dance of systems, but the result is a world that feels alive, dynamic, and incredibly atmospheric. It's a huge technical challenge, but when we see players stop just to watch the sun's rays break through the misty canopy of a forest, we know it's worth it.