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Adinnieken on 27 June 2013
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Slimebeast said:
Adinnieken said:
Slimebeast said:
I don't understand, what's the difference between this and mipmapping?

Mipmapping is Mipmapping.  Tiled resources are tiled resources.

You can use mipmaps with tiled resources, but tiled resources deal with 3D geometric shapes, where as mipmaps deal with added detail levels.  Tiled resources takes a geometric image and breaks it down into smaller tiles.  Textures, like those used in mipmaps cane then be applied.  

Because the shape is already broken down into smaller pieces, zooming in and applying a more detailed texture to the tile is easier to do rather than recalculating the geometric image. 

Mipmaps are now standard.  Tiled resources are in limited use.  In consoles, the only systems to use it have been the DreamCast, Xbox 360, PS Vita, and now the Xbox One.  DirectX 11.2 simplifies this process by making it directly available to programmers, rather than having to build tiled resources into their engine.

All right. But that was hard for me to understand. I'm too old to grasp technical things in such a short time.

So this will be used in next gen games. That is PS4 games too, right? Will this technique improve performance or does it tax the hardware heavily?

No, it won't be available on the PS4.  The PS Vita uses a PowerVR-based GPU.  Only Microsoft, Nvidia, and PowerVR (formerly VideoLogic) have technology patents for tiled resources.

EDIT:  Didn't answer everything.

Yes, most likely but it doesn't have to be.  I don't know if it's more efficient, but it can potentially offer better graphic fidelity.  Nothing I've read suggests it's more taxing.  If anything it would be less taxing.  For example, if you have an irregular object, the normal way to build it would be to render the closest shape, then add to it with more polygons.  With tiled resources, you don't.  The entire shape of the object is calculated and only the final object is rendered.  Another example would be an open window.  Normally, an open window isn't open.  It's a part of the shell.  The texture and physics associated with it are just different.  You still render that "empty" space.  With tiled resources, you don't.  With tiled resources an open window is an open window.  A crack in a wall is a crack in a wall.  It isn't a matter of a texture that gives you the impression of it not being there, and it isn't tessellation.  The void space of the crack isn't rendered.