Dead by Daylight - The Judgment - Sub-Realm: Exile

Your Choices, Your Chapter.

The Judgment Subrealm was a unique project built around a community driven creation process. players had the opportunity to shape their own DbD chapter by choosing different elements that would eventually define the final direction.

Once the environment was built, lighting became a key part of guiding the player's eye, creating mood, and supporting the story of the space.

This map was a particularly interesting challenge because it needed to feel divine while still being unsettling. Horror environments often rely on darkness and heavy shadows, but this one required the opposite approach: creating a bright, almost overwhelming scene that could still feel mysterious and intimidating.

A big part of achieving this came from controlling how light shaped the environment. I created a custom skybox, adjusted cloud formations to influence where sunlight would hit, and used volumetric effects to create large god rays that naturally guide the player's attention toward the statue and the main vista.

The lighting was built through a combination of:
Directional Light to create the dramatic sun angle and silhouette around the statue.
Custom cloud shadows to control the composition and highlight important areas of the map.
Volumetric fog to give the light something to interact with and make the rays visible.
Light rays to enhance the scale and cinematic feeling of the environment.
Skylight to bounce light back into the scene and keep shadows natural.
Post Process to bring everything together through color, contrast, and atmosphere.

One of the things I love about lighting in games is that it isn't always about physical accuracy. Sometimes the strongest result comes from a little bit of illusion. If a lighting trick helps guide the player's eye or creates a stronger emotional response, then it's doing its job.