im not talking about the ingame models, im only talking about the autovista mode, with the super-high-res models.
remember, for shadow and light, basic reflection/specular masking, you dont need much accuracy in the map, some objects you identified could easily use baked vertex colors.
if you want in-game fullcar maps (and some titles do use it, sometimes just on the bodywork for scratchmaps) but also sometimes for full maps well with baked occlusion. your game can still run at 60,
then there is using the partial / tile map with either vertex colors for lighting/occlusion or a 2nd uv set for a low-res baked lightmap.
you are right about it being done, but the question is how much would they have to go out of their way to make it on parallel or better than the geometry they can use at hand. technically what i mentioned earlier is that they have lower LODs models with baked textures and whatnot on to the model already. so basically what you mean is just use those models and add more prettier effects to them for auto vista instead.
In the Halo 4 warthog's case, it would be
"this" with better textures, lightmaps and effects.
To an extent yeah it actually would work, but the problem is that it would restrict the amount of viewing angles you would want to see the model in. auto vista basically is about glorifying the vistas and opening compartments; braking things down into peaces.
in a low polygon situation they wouldn't be able to elaborate on many things if they can't view the individual parts......that's one reason why those highres models are being put to use.
and what do you mean "raw studio dumps" ? if you mean a cad, then your an order of magnitude off, not to mention converting cad to polys is a pain in the ass. its better to treat a cad as a guide and model around it. not to mention most manufactures wont hand over a cad easily either. most cars ive done were photo reference, a handful of cads...from unlikely sources, and the odd laser scan because cads of those cars dont exist.
the scans that turn10 do, when they can mind you, seems to be point based, nice and fast for a decent base, but that also requires physical access to the car in question. and its just a base, you still need to clean it up afterwards anyway.
you're right about that, and that's what i'm partially talking about.
Car Sourcing
In that video they have the vista meshes and say more less how they're made.
as you say depending on their agreements to the cars rendered, they do have it done in two ways. for specification purposes they can scan the coordinates and translate it into a raw mesh. and the other is photo based references which is what you've mentioned.
But these particular meshes used in the auto vista, from what I've analyzed in both of the vids and in the actual meshes; quite a few are left with little tampering, and deployed as is in the auto vista mode.
you are right that it's a lazy concept in the post before but it's because the game engine can accept it, and that's why turn 10 is working pretty fast with making car content. I don't know the exact time they take on their cars, but for quite a few of them it seems pretty much like a strait forward task. that's what i meant to say on that.:smile2:
