Advice needed: Best workflow for 2.5D Lighthouse scene (Beam Occlusion & Water)

PixelSVK

Hi AC community,

I am starting my first project using Adventure Creator. I am aiming for a short, atmospheric point-and-click adventure with a pre-rendered 2.5D style (similar to Syberia or Resident Evil 1, but stylized).

I am currently designing a scene with a Lighthouse during a storm and I would appreciate your advice on the best workflow to handle two specific elements within Unity/AC:

1. The Rotating Light Beam (Occlusion) I have a pre-rendered background of the lighthouse. I need the light beam to rotate 360 degrees, but it must be visually blocked (occluded) by the lighthouse pillars in the foreground as it spins. I am considering two approaches:

Approach A (Full Pre-render): Render the rotating beam and the pillars as a 24fps image sequence (animation clip) in Blender and simply play it on loop over the background.

Approach B (Real-time Unity): Use a separate "Foreground Mask" sprite for the pillars (sorted above) and a Unity 2D Light (or a 3D Cone mesh) rotating in between the background and the mask.

2. The Stormy Ocean Similarly for the water surrounding the island:

Should I use a pre-rendered image sequence of the water loop?

Or is it better practice to use a static sprite with a Distortion Shader + Particle effects to fake the storm in Unity?

Given that this is my first project, which workflow would you recommend for the best balance of visual quality and ease of integration with Adventure Creator?

Thank you for your time and for creating such an amazing tool!

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @PixelSVK.

To clarify: are you combining 2D backgrounds and cameras with 3D characters, or are you using AC's dedicated "2.5D" mode, which involves 3D cameras and background art overlaid in 3D space? The screenshots suggest the former, but as it affects the approach I'll need to be clear. If you're working in 2D save for the characters, then this is less of an AC topic and one more general to Unity.

Pre-rendered image sequences would certainly get the job done. These wouldn't need to be full-background replacements - just alpha-blended sprites that overlay on top, e.g. the lighthouse beam and the pillars. You'd also only need frames for a 180 turn as it should then seamlessly loop.

Ultimately I'd say the choice would come down to whichever gives you the visual quality you're going for.

If you're using 2D cameras and sprites, I'd say it's probably best to avoid a 3D cone mesh for the beam, as an orthographic camera won't give that sense of depth as it rotates, and you'd also need a good shader to get it looking natural. The 2D lights you have already look good from the side, and they can be animated in Animator or Timeline, so it's a question of how convincing it looks when adjusted to look from the front/back.

The sea is a similar story, but you'd need more frames to avoid the loop becoming obvious - so I'd lean more towards dynamic elements such as shaders/particles for that.

PixelSVK

Hi Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to reply and for the detailed advice.

To be honest, I’m still not 100% decided whether the character will end up being 3D or 2D. Right now I’m testing both directions and trying to lock down a workflow for these kinds of scenes first.

One thing I’m unsure about is the practicality of pre-rendered image sequences. I’m a bit worried that if I pre-render things like the rotating beam (and potentially the ocean), it could get pretty heavy in terms of file size and texture memory, and I don’t really know what’s considered a reasonable or “normal” amount for this kind of overlay animation in Unity/AC.

The 2D lights I’m using in Unity actually look great already, and I’ve animated them, so I’d love to keep that solution if possible. The issue is that I can’t get the foreground pillars of the lighthouse to properly block the beam. Visually it ends up looking like the light is in front of the tower, which kills the illusion. What I need is for the beam to sit between the background and a foreground mask, so the pillars occlude it as it rotates.

I understand this is more of a Unity question than an AC one, I just wanted to hear your opinion on whether using a pre-rendered sprite sequence for something like this is a common/acceptable approach (even if it’s larger), or if it’s generally better practice to keep it dynamic with masks/shaders/lights where possible.

Thanks again!