‘Nintendo Harness Their Hardware Like Nobody Else’

[curl-6]

lilbroex said:

curl-6 said:

lilbroex said:

Then you have apparently never played Mario Galaxy 2.

Galaxy 2 looks great, but its shaders aren't as advanced as Jett Rocket's. Fewer surfaces feature shader effects, and none of them (as far as I recall) go as far as things like the distortion of a  character's reflection across uneven metal/water surfaces, which features often in Jett Rocket.

You couldn't be farther off on the shaders not being advanced. Mario Galaxy 2 not only had a larger variety of shaders in use, but it also used normal mapping like on the ragon he battles in this video. Normal mapping is nonexistant in Jett Rocket. Mario Galaxy 2 had far more complex shadows and geometry as well more diverse, layered lighting effects without even getting into polygon count. There are plenty of games that use relfective surfaces.

 

Mario Galaxy didn't use reflective surfaces that often because it didn't need them. I can think of games that did it far better than Jett Rocket as well, like The Last Story. Its not as remarkable an effect as you seem to think. I remember seeing it in use on the Dreamcast and PS2 often. Normal mapping, on the other hand, is far more taxing on the hardware. It wasn't even possible on the DC and PS2 unlike dynmaic reflective surfaces.

Jett Rocket used bumpmapping too, on things like the dimpled sand in the beach levels. As for shadows, Mario Galaxy 2's were pretty glitchy in the case of the dragon battle you pointed out. And there were plenty of places where SMG2 could've benefitted from refractive surfaces but didn't, like with ice and metal.

JR's water effects are better than Galaxy 2's also, and where most enemies in SMG2 had just a rim shader, JR's nearly always had specular and environment maps.