Texture quality?

Cyberlink420

Okay, this is weird...

I've noticed that for some unknown reason, the graphics of the game appear on one of two quality levels for different computers. For example, in Sam and Max's office, the walls and dartboard might look sort of bland and unrealistic on one computer, but on another, you can see ridges and texture on each of them. Any explanation for this inconsistency and/or a way to have the higher resolution regardless of the kind of computer?

Yohmi

The Office's walls are a good example for what is called Normal Mapping. This is a "recent" improvement in graphic cards that makes possible to have a texture who can interact with lightning (using an HDRI map made on it before) in real time.
I may be wrong in the name of the technology (as ormal Mapping is that for me, but sometimes I see also just "HDR" I don't know if it's the same thing). But it doesn't change anything : if your card can't handle this technology, so textures won't be as complete as they can be. You're losing a layer

ShaggE

I could have sworn that the dartboard was bump-mapped... it looks that way anyway, I'm probably wrong :P

AdamG

Normal mapping and bump mapping are essentialy the same thing, but normal mapping does it better.

LuigiHann

I think bump-mapping is the term... it's a flat texture, but designed to react to light sources as if it had 3-dimensional elements, like bumps, ridges, and scratches.

Or maybe it's just a quick Photoshop "Bevel & Emboss" effect. The lights never change enough to tell Perhaps in Season 2 there will be more chances to "Bump the Lamp."

Or perhaps they have, and I just haven't noticed...

Jon

the walls and dartboard (along w/ many other meshes) are using bump mapping. we currently don't do any normal mapping.
we also have HDR (high dynamic range) lightmaps on the static geometry.

schuubars

If the Add Texture is Greyscale then it's a Mump Map, but if it has RGB Values then it's a Normal Map.

Something to read, not the best examples but they will do...

Bump Mapping

Normal Mapping

High Dynamic Range(onl. rendering) (extend the read to HDRI offl rendering. )

ShaggE

Jon wrote: »

the walls and dartboard (along w/ many other meshes) are using bump mapping. we currently don't do any normal mapping.
we also have HDR (high dynamic range) lightmaps on the static geometry.

Wow, I always thought the lights were mostly static... I tend to think of Lost Coast and STALKER when I think of HDR, and Doom 3 and Far Cry when I think of bump-mapping though.

schuubars

I don't know why everyone says bump mapping, yeah basically it's almost the same effect but only almost. (Yeah, i know that J.C. used the term in his Engine, also the ingame render command used that term.)

But yes you can convert Bump Maps(even photos, nice article) Images to Normal Maps.

Most powerful method is Tangent Space Normal Mapping(don't know any Game that uses World Space Normal Mapping, only for statics i guess)


Best Feature for RT/OfflRendering from the last years(IMO). (for Offl. Rendering HDRI too)

Badwolf

Yeah, I was pretty shocked, when I upgraded my graphics card, to see the detail in everything. I ended up playing through all the episodes so far just to see all the fancy textures.

Derwin

Hmm... anyone able to maybe post screenshots of this? One from a low end compy and one from a higher end one? I would be interested to see the difference, anyway.

Cyberlink420

You can see the bump-mapped version of the wall in most (if not all) of the machinima shorts that take place inside the office.

Katana

Wierd that it would use bumpmapping. I would think in a game where lights are almost always in the same place, you could just put a photoshop effect on and be done with it. I mean, bumpmaps are pretty useless if it's just gonna render it the same way each time.

Jake

I don't make environments, I hardly ever render anything or make my own textures, and I'm only going on what I've observed or discovered in my own tinkering, but.... I imagine you'd have to have way larger textures for everything if that was your approach. The way it's done now (which is now most games with pre-rendered lighting do it) you can tile a small texture along a wall, containing for instance a wallpaper pattern, but then on top of that, you can overlay the lighting and bumpmap texture, which might be influenced by light from more than one direction, for instance, so the way the shadows go could change multiple times along the length of the wall. If you did that all in one giant full color texture, it could get fairly large and out of control, I think. It's far easier and more manageable (and just makes more sense) to do your lighting with actual lights and let them figure out how to interact with bump maps throughout the environment.

taumel

It adds detail and as you move the camera (your eyes) the relative light situation changes. The peppermint like ice in Bosco's shop is a good example.

AdamG

Hmmm, it's too late for this now, but it would have been nice if the light in Sam & Max's office swayed slightly so any nearby bump maps would be utilized to their full potential. Oh... Hey, here's an idea... There's train tracks right next to their office. The train could go by every minute or two and that would shake the office slightly, making the light fixture sway. Then everyone could see the bumpmaps.