Darkness Volumes
Used to create areas of darkness in a level. Normally you would just use a post process camera effect, but the desire was for the darkness to be dark even if the camera was outside of the volume, and the outside to be bright even if the camera is inside the volume.
A similar affect could have been achieved with Decals, however with the other post process in the project and the celshader causing all objects to have high emission, this method gave better results and allowed better control over darkness colours for the artists.
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Junkster is an unreleased project from by Stormcloud Games. Currently stalled by lack of publisher but with some luck the product will release to the public, but as yet it is unknown when.
Wishlist on steam if you want to see it released: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675860/Junkster/
Darkness volume typical usage. Shows tunnel inside is dark while outside tunnel is light.
Comparison of the active Darkness Volume on the Left, and an inactive Darkness Volume on the right. Note the opening of the tunnel views outside, which is unaffected by the darkness volume.
Darkness volume post process material breakdown.
Darkness volume viewed from the outside in typical usage.
Video showing darkness volumes can be moved around and rotated for accurate placement.
Simple Darkness Volume Blueprint that updates Material Parameter Collection values so the post process can read the values and darken relevant areas of the screen.