CG look - The Shiny Shine

C

chaphack

Veteran
sure that some of you have seen the new HL2 pics, and well, dont you love those shiny surfaces? That, i think, is whats missing in games, that is the *thing* that gives people feel of the CG look. So what gives in making those shiny surfaces? Extra dose of specular lighting? High presicion colors? :?: :?: :?:

For instance, this screen looks pretty normal in todays game.

But with the shiny shine on, things lookie more nice. Though not all objects have the shiny shine on them.

Now future games just need to work on shiney shine EVERYTHING( + more AA/AF), then we will move a step closer to CG quality(as we know presently) in realtime! :oops:
 
sigh. Chap those are from the tech demo. Half life 2 does not have that shine on everything. It only has it on things you would see it on in real life.
 
Half life 2 does not have that shine on everything
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Of course it doesnt. Apparant even from those "tech demo" screens. That is why i said future games should shiny shine EVERYTHING. :oops:

How did I know it would be a Chap post just by looking at the title?
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Sigh, how did i know that was a typical(got it right this time, ya?) Vince post without looking at the username. :LOL:

So would games in their optimal form be just like looking into the sun?
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Not really just *looking at the sun*, but most if not all CGs we know, do have the shiny shine all over them. Want your game to look CGish? Then you have to do shiny shine to it. ;)
 
chaphack said:
Half life 2 does not have that shine on everything
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Of course it doesnt. Apparant even from those "tech demo" screens. That is why i said future games should shiny shine EVERYTHING. :oops:
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I hope they do not overuse (abuse) the "Shiny shine" as not everything should be like that. From the screens I saw earlier, the amount of "Shiny shine" is still acceptable (to me).

And CGish doesn't equal to "Shiny shine", everything Shiny shine is more like brainless techno cheap ass generated images to me.
 
looks like specular + env mapping for the most part. and no I dun think they shoul'd shiney shine everything, only where it is apropriate (or artistically neceessary).

And CGish doesn't equal to "Shiny shine", everything Shiny shine is more like brainless techno cheap ass generated images to me.
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ditto. it probably looks more 'CGish' because it is not often useed (especially in places where is should be) kinda like the early shiny metallic surfaces look from a few years back. looks great but overuse lessens the effect.
 
Doom 3 has this same effect, and it's done much better IMO. every texture has an associated specular map, which defines the "shinyness" so it can vary from very subtle to really "wet" looking. in HL2 it seems like the effect is either set to "on" or "off" for any given surface, which makes it seem kind of fake.
 
but most if not all CGs we know, do have the shiny shine all over them.
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Correction, most BAD CGs we know have the shiny shine all over them.
The best CGs I recently remember seeing (WC3, FFX, Last Flight of the Osiris...) only have it limited to the realm of looking good, not er... shiney.

Admitedly, it is true that in real life a lot, if not most, of materials have at least some amount of specular component to them. Can't say I would classify most of them as shiny shine though :p
 
Chap:

Where do you see shiny shine in GOOD computer-rendered graphics, such as Shrek, for example?

Let me tell you. It's either stuff that's wet or things made out of glass or metal or are otherwise highly polished. Not really anything else.

You best take your shiny shine and stick it where the sun don't... ;)


*G*
 
I think the overbright effects look like total ass. So does the specular lighting on the creature in the HDRR demo video.

You have a combination of completely flat looking surfaces. No bumps, no specularity, no nothing (except some unimpressive texturing). And then you have these completely overdone shiny surfaces. Looks like crap.
 
I said, not sure if it is the extra dose of specular lighting or high precision colors or just better lighting, but most CG models have that shiny shine to them(something which i actually brought up in the past).

We need not have some super crazy intensive level of shiny shine, but just, well, *nice* shiny shine. Its not about looking like real life, but more like the CGs we are used to seeing.

Look at both Yuna below, we can see that shiney shine is missing. We can use any other more complex realtime games and, quality shiny shine is still lacking, thus CG look is lacking, even though other stuffs like resolution/textures/lighting/polys/etc are a step up from FFX.

finalfantasyx_18.jpg

finalfantasyx_1214_screen002.jpg



Forgive me if posts sound incoherent, doing a quickie reply.
 
Chap the Specularity levels are appropriate(ish) in that scene u posted (sweat glistening as it were). is enhances the look of scene by not standing out too much.

We need not have some super crazy intensive level of shiny shine, but just, well, *nice* shiny shine. Its not about looking like real life, but more like the CGs we are used to seeing.
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where that CG is not meant to approximate reality sure specular creates a Toy Storyish look and makes objects appear solid(plasticky). for everything else it's a dead givaway of bad CG.

er what I mean is often no Shiny shine is the best shiny shine.

EDIT: Specularity is not wholly seprate form lighting algorithms I beleive.
 
WTF is the big deal with this shiny stuff. All it is is a damn Shader, Otogi has some "shiny stuff"(Shader) on some of the monsters too.

Want your game to look CGish? Then you have to do shiny shine to it.
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This is just wrong.

Take away that "shine" from Yuna in that FFX cg pic and it would still look like "cg".

That, i think, is whats missing in games, that is the *thing* that gives people feel of the CG look.
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Nope.

It's the insane geometry and incredibly high resolution clean textures.
 
Chap:

Look at both Yuna below, we can see that shiney shine is missing. We can use any other more complex realtime games and, quality shiny shine is still lacking, thus CG look is lacking, even though other stuffs like resolution/textures/lighting/polys/etc are a step up from FFX.
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That FMV scene showing Yuna has that "shine" because she's in a room that has lots of lights and she's sweaty after getting the first Aeon. You don't see that amount of shine in the other fmv's for example and she looks just as real.
 
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