By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

I posted this a while ago in responce to a thread about SMG not looking very good compared to SMS. I'll post it again since it serves a similar purpose of showing what the Wii is capable of in the hands of great development team:

An example of Specular Highlights

An example of Specular Reflection

Before Applying Bump mapAfter applying Bump map
^^Note how bump mapping is used to take advantage of specular highlights.


I also really liked their fur shaders....

 

 

I also wanted to point out that normal mapping is really nothing more than the proper application of bump maps. In essence a bump map is a heightmap (essentially a specialized texture) that is used to "change" the way the object is shaded. Typically to have amazing looking models you would need millions of polygons to get all of the detail required...the idea however is that with this extra texture you can impose the detail without the use of millions of polygons per model. I can't show you an in-game usage of normal mapping simply because when its done right you shouldn't be able to just tell from a screenshot. But I can give an example of what I mean:

 

In the bump mapping example I showed above with the orange here is what the heightmap looks like:

Model Before Bump Mapping
Heightmap to be used Result of Bump Mapping

 

The techniques used aren't that wild and crazy, they just aren't really ever explained to folks so everybody has this almost mystical view of them.



To Each Man, Responsibility