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Knowledge-based discourse

Lighting Samus’ Visor

A Retro Studios patent for Metroid Prime 4 was granted last week (US12502603). Since the game’s highly dynamic scene is viewed through a visor, they need a lightweight technique to light the inside of the helmet while maintaining 60 fps on Switch 1.

  1. Partition the game scene
  2. Calculate average color for each partition
  3. Blend these colors onto helmet interior via an object mask
  4. Put together the visor view
Drawing from patent US 12502603: FIG. 9D shows the capture from FIG. 9C (with the HUD elements and without the helmet) being partitioned (or divided) into two rows and four columns, as an example.
Drawing from patent US 12502603: The top left of FIG. 9E shows the average colors for each section. The edges of the colors are blurred so as to make transitions less severe. Doing so also helps to hide hard edges and helps the lighting appear softer. In certain example embodiments, all edges of all sections may be blurred. This is shown in the bottom right of FIG. 9E, which is generated from the top left of FIG. 9E.
Drawing from patent US 12502603: FIG. 9B is a mask showing how different lighting effects affect different portions of the helmet. In brief, this object mask defines different effects to be applied to different parts of the virtual object.
Drawing from patent US 12502603: A 2D or other composited image thus is generated, and it is layered onto or otherwise integrated into (disposed in) a view of the virtual environment. This is shown in FIG. 9F.

Read the patent documentation for further details, such as color calculation and edge blurring.

[Originally posted on 2025-12-28 Pacific Time]