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Neat! Though I have to wonder how much the light calculation eats into the savings made by using fewer polygons
Normal maps weren’t as common during the ps2/wii era, were they? I don’t recall seeing that technique in many games at the time
These are great for smaller objects or ones seen as a distance however from certain angles the “flatness” of the actual object itself can be seen
But it isn’t like players will stop and get right up close to a coin at the perfect angles many times at all for it to be a concern
The last part of the description is physically based shading 101.
Normal maps are actual real magic and I won’t hear otherwise
To be clear, this is just a perfect example of an extremely common way modern rendering is done.
Program smarter, not harder.
This is actually extremely common, nearly every modern game utilizes normal maps to some capacity.
A fantastic Hi Rez model will always look shit with a bad texture but the opposite is true for Low Rez model with good texture
Nintendo over here using contour makeup on coins.
I remember someone said somente (without explanation) that Virtua Fighter Remix worked the graphics in a way that they got better results, more details and everything runs better with less polys. I think it also runs on Stv, a hardware below the Model 1 board used for Virtua Fighter.
well yeah… materials and polycount are two different things..
Yeah, I’ve dabbled in 3D rendering, and you can cut a lot of corners with texture maps lol
As a 3D developer I’ve been blown away by how much of a difference modern programmable shader support has made on the Switch. I hadn’t owned a Nintendo console since the Wii and only picked up a Switch recently, and I probably spent way to long just staring at ice in some of the games.
So did yall not know how Bakers work? Orrr
Can someone explain a normal map to me in simple terms here? I get that it’s simulating light, but is it simulating light from multiple angles, or does it just cheat and make a generic “upper corner” light that won’t look weird in 90% of situations?
As someone who’s only created a simple graphics rendering engine from open gl in college… I want to know more about how the normal map is created and applied
bro sending sneak disses to garten of banban
I like learning stuff like this but then I always come to the comments and get bombarded with “well ackshually…” and “psh this is old new I knew this since I was a baby” and honestly… are you really adding anything?
shading? they just used Normal map to get details around it and at the middle
“Bump mapping” has been around for 20+ years in gaming and far longer in rendering engines.
There are examples of this technique used on old wii titles around the same time as Mario galaxy. But back then texture mapping had a higher tax on most hardware, so it was usually better to model a few more polygons to define a shape than rely on vram hogging textures.
This is actually incredibly fascinating. Thank you
Nintendo, and a lot of other companies back then, used a lot of tricks to make their 3D games perform well on not-so-great hardware. Pre-rendered 3D backgrounds that were used as textures, billboarding, static light maps and reflections, etc. That stuff is still used, but cheap shader technology and better graphics cards have made it so a lot more realism can be added with less polys overall, which is crucial for good perf, even on newer hardware. Game development and pushing the limits of hardware is an art of its own.
Normal maps and bump maps have been around for awhile, they just seem to be an underutilized technique.
Halo CE used shaders like this which is why it still holds up pretty well.
Ah yes, Normal maps. That cutting edge advanced rendering technique lol.
Not trying to sound condescending, it is cool, but normal maps have been around for a very long time. They were around on the OG Xbox, before the Wii.
This comparison popped up recently,
It’s a strange comparison because it’s comparing two models from “models-resource”, but Models resource isn’t an archive of ripped assets from the original game, it has models that are recreations of the original asset by users. The poly counts and usage of maps is by the people creating those recreations, and has nothing to do with the original assets except to try to match it visually.
No way. It’s amazing. Imagine if there was something like that but in greyscale to push the geometry, we could have detailed terrains, walls, and shit. If only… Maybe in 200 years.
Imagine other studios doing the same thing as Nintendo, gaming would be so realistic.
Everyone in this thread: “I’m somewhat of a graphics programmer myself”
As any artist can tell you, it is the relationship between the value, textures, saturation, and hues that help brings out an object’s form and details
Come on at least credit @ Supermariobroth on twitter
This is called normal map baking and it is perhaps the most common and basic optimization technique you will see in video games. It has been used pretty heavily since the 360/ps3 era.
You should credit Supper Mario Broth @MarioBrothBlog on Twitter, this is their content. It’s a great account with lots of great trivia like this.