Bump mapping and F-zero Gx

[kokiri]

In some of the Italian forums that frequent a discussion was born on the fact that is in F-zero Gx or no of the '' bump mapping ''. Considering that I know that on this forum it sails serious and prepared people I would like to know the truth. In F-zero Gx is implemented '' bump mapping '' or no? Thanks.

 

[Tagrineth]

Doubtful. A game like F-Zero won't really benefit much from BM, except for some very limited use on vehicles (damage, even if it's static like in Rogue Leader)... and F-Z *needs* to stay at 60fps at any cost. Just look at F-Zero X - most of that game's brilliance is that it NEVER slows down. Ever. And that's because its graphics are... well, the vehicles are goraud shaded with a very small handful of textures (a number and maybe one small detail like stripes) and a lovely specular highlight, and the tracks have a very repetitive strip texture. 8) However, I really think that game must be using HOS or something... the tracks are soooooo smooth...

 

[kokiri]

Thank you very much. Can you explain me the difference beetwen georgeous textures (as so thats on the tracks in F-zero Gx) and bump mupping witch i think to see on some of the tracks on the game?
Thank you again.

 

[Tagrineth]

Gorgeous textures would mean they're either very good resolution, or very detailed and don't blur excessively up close.

Bump maps react to light. Picture a golf ball. It has a number of pits all over its surface which would be very awkward to model... so instead one could use a 'bump map' which simulates light playing across those pits and shading them, giving the appearance of depth even when it isn't there.

 

[Grall]

Don't really understand the frenzy over bumpmapping in a racing game, it's not as if anyone would ever notice it while flying along at 500+ MPH...

One would never know if a texture is bumpmapped or not unless there's dynamic lighting involved as well and I don't know if the cars in FZ count as lightsources (engine exhaust, I mean).


*G*

 

[[maven]]

Sometimes people mistake a clever use of gloss-maps for bump-mapping (e.g. Burnout2 on GC where AFAICS the normal is not perturbed, only intensity after the 2nd texture-lookup)

 

[LisaJoy]

"Don't really understand the frenzy over bumpmapping in a racing game, it's not as if anyone would ever notice it while flying along at 500+ MPH... "

thats true enough, but I can appreciate it in games like Rallisport Challenge, where the effects on the road are just amazing. Granted its not something one would really care if its not there, but it is a nice touch.

 

[archie4oz]

Picture a golf ball. It has a number of pits all over its surface which would be very awkward to model... so instead one could use a 'bump map' which simulates light playing across those pits and shading them, giving the appearance of depth even when it isn't there.

Actually the golf ball would be a poor example as that's not only easy to model, but trivial to write a displacement shader for... (assuming you wanted a golf ball with that level of detail)

 

[Tagrineth]

Archie, it was just an easy example of where a bump map could be used. I believe at least one IHV used that same example at some point recently. Not sure though.