Bungie Halo2 illustration of dot3 bump map modeling

[duffer]

Master Chief 2 X-Ray

Just saw this on 3D Festival .COM: The Bungie guys have put up a Flash demo that lets you compare the wireframe, shaded, bump mapped, and textured versions of the Halo 2 Master Chief model.

 

[randycat99]

Now THAT is a cool shockwave/flash application!

 

[alexsok]

Now that is very cool m8!

Thanks a lot!

 

[BoddoZerg]

Looks like doom3 polybump to me.

It seems like Halo 2 is nearly the same as DOOM3 in its graphics capability. It just doesn't seem to have as much multitexturing, which is why DOOM3 looks much more impressive.

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

More multi-texturing?

er, do we even know how many layers of textures either game is pushing in a given seen? Because Halo 2 looks like a texture monster to me.

 

[Tagrineth]

Looks like doom3 polybump to me.

It seems like Halo 2 is nearly the same as DOOM3 in its graphics capability. It just doesn't seem to have as much multitexturing, which is why DOOM3 looks much more impressive.

Polybump = DOT3, for all intents and purposes.

 

[cybamerc]

Polybump is a Crytek GmbH trademark. It's the name of their tools (normal map creator and viewer software).

 

[BoddoZerg]

More multi-texturing?

er, do we even know how many layers of textures either game is pushing in a given seen? Because Halo 2 looks like a texture monster to me.

Nah. Look at the pcgamer DOOM screenies, the texture detail is insane, and clearly multilayered; you can see veins underneath monster skin... Halo2 has nearly as good lighting and bumpmapping as DOOM3, but there is no way its texture quality can compare.

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

Well, I'm not going to pretend to be a technical guru, but I'm pretty sure the veins in the monter's skin are a result of bump-mapping and not multi-texturing (and honestly, can there be any arguement that Halo 2 doesn't use multiple texture layers?). Just look at the MC's armor.

Just from what I've seen, Halo 2 is every bit as good as DOOM technically, and infinately better artisticly (imho, of course).

 

[Thowllly]

I've never seen any ingame shots from Halo2, does anybody have a link?

 

[duffer]

There haven't been any in-game Halo 2 shots released yet. There are plenty of shots of the game's engine running cut scenes and there are plenty of shots of the game's models and vehicles.

If you want those try Bungie.net Halo 2 screen shots

 

[malcolm]

how many polygons are in that guy?
Id guess 1000-2000?
I cant understand doom models of 5000 polys could look low poly.
Or are they less than that?
5000 seems a lot to me

 

[zurich]

Doom3 and Halo2 use low poly models (Halo > Halo2), but make up for it with normal maps

 

[V3]

5000 seems a lot to me

5000 is pretty low. Consider, the bump map, is made from 250,000+ poly model.

 

[cybamerc]

Mr. Angry Pants:

> I'm pretty sure the veins in the monter's skin are a result of
> bump-mapping and not multi-texturing

Larger veins may be bump-mapped but the smaller ones are part of the color map. Multi-texturing just means you use multiple textures on the same model. Since you have a color map and a bump map you are clearly using multi-texturing.

Doom 3 characters use (up to?) 5 textures layers. Master Chief has at least 4. Anyway, both games look good but until we see some actual in-game footage (from an actual playable level) it's pretty hard to compary the two in great detail. However, Doom 3 is likely to have superior texturing simply because PC gfx cards have more RAM.

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

Interesting. Thanks for the clearing that up. Wouldn't the only difference be texture resolution, though?

And we don't all own a next generation Geforce. Case in point, Doom will likely run better on my Xbox than on my computer.

 

[Tagrineth]

5000 seems a lot to me

5000 is pretty low. Consider, the bump map, is made from 250,000+ poly model.

Consider also that bump maps don't directly increase poly counts, and in fact completely break down when viewed at extreme angles.

Displacement maps, OTOH, actually DO increase poly counts...

 

[KnightBreed]

5000 seems a lot to me

5000 is pretty low. Consider, the bump map, is made from 250,000+ poly model.

Consider also that bump maps don't directly increase poly counts, and in fact completely break down when viewed at extreme angles.

Displacement maps, OTOH, actually DO increase poly counts...

V3 didn't say bump maps increase poly count. I think he was implying that the normal map was calculated from the 250K poly model.

 

[Tagrineth]

True, but also as I said the normal maps lose their effect at extreme angles, the end result being a great big waste™.

Basically though 5,000 polys per model is pretty high, minus nitpicky details

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Remind me again, I'm getting so old: Why don't the developers "pre-bake" the textures before rendering? As in, you have a base texture map, a specular / diffuse, lightmap.. etc. All of these are going to be combined (multi-textured) before the final values arrive. Why don't they combine these textures into one and bake them into ONE texture beforehand instead of doing the combining at the rendering stage? The only thing I can think of is the option of turning some of these textures off, but that wouldn't matter on a console. What need could there possibly be for a texture map and a damage map (scratches, dents) separately? Why not press them into one and save a texture unit?