How to remove unityslop look

[ionic raven]

Ive tried many different "retro" art styles in my fps project but none can seem to capture the look of ultrakill. It isnt the textures or models, it seems to be the rendering. My friend calls it "unity slop" and says that my game just looks like it was made in unity. How do i remake the lighting and rendering on ultrakill? I am using urp btw

[simple flicker]

It's basically impossible to answer your question without some context and reference images.

Take a screenshot of your project and ultrakill, put them side by side and start comparing. If you need help with that, you'll need to share them with us...

[ionic raven]

now these are two very different map looks. mine is more quake vibed and the other is more industrial but im mostly talking about the lighting.

[simple flicker]

In terms of lighting, the second screenshot seems to have baked lights with emission or point light baked at various points.
This is more of an artistic/design issue, rather than technical IMHO. For example, having some light around the lava would make the scene more interesting.

[ionic raven]

yes i do see that. it also is weird because it looks like theres constant ambient light in each scene in ultrakill. everythings well lit despite there only being a few emmision lights and such but i dont think they use ambient light because dark places are really dark.

[simple flicker]

They probably do use ambient light. Maybe not making extremely bright. Because t other than that baking lights helps with lighting up the scene.

[ionic raven]

i find point lights have a very set radius. do baked lights like bounce off better and light the whole scene?

[simple flicker]

Yes. It's not just point lights. Emissive material also produce light that bounces around the scene.

[shell notch]

I can't say that I recognize Unity games by lighting alone unlike Unreal. Unityslop is a better term for asset flips ;p

Second screen shot has more emissive colors going on, and some toning on the ambient color of the textures

[whole garnet]

I wouldn't focus on the technology so much. The second shot has a reduced color palette. Yours looks more neutral / realistically colored, which is simply less interesting.

Same difference in these two shots. The left is a realistic representation. It looks good, but makes no stylistic choices so it says nothing. The plants are green because that's just how they look

The right, heavily color graded. It's a hot, harsh environment. You can almost feel how oppressive the sun is.

For successful stylized art, you want to be like that. Pick your colors with purpose.

[runic idol]

Ultrakill has a clearly distinct art direction, and probably a custom lighting model

But ultimately it only matters to look interesting

Whether it's gameplay or visuals you can check all the "slop" boxes and people won't mind if they've got reasons to like it

Same goes for "good" or "bad" graphics in general

The best advice may be to aspire to do what you think is cool, whether that is unique or derivative

Ultrakill's monsters seem to be totally unlit, which could be considered a "mistake" if it wasn't a consistent deliberate choice

[wild orchid]

it does. It's using a free PSX Shader mentioned in the license information.txt file with custom PS1 lighting and stuff

[sonic needle]

unity slop is wild