Non-Spring Random WIP

[Mr. Bob]

1024. The idea is to spread very small pieces across large areas for the basic diffuse, norm, spec etc, but then to tile a detail normal across it.



For instance, there you have a fairly small diffuse and normal making the general shape and color but then you have a very fine normal tiled over it that it only visible up close.

[smoth]

but that structure is going to be part of that terrain texture? are you mostly doing solid colors?

[Mr. Bob]

No no it's going to be a separate shader lol. Imagine the atlas we did for BAR but less cartoony and bigger pieces.

[smoth]

Ah, ok.

[Mr. Bob]

Grass! Better lighting! Yaay

(Right click and open for better image size)

[Das Bruce]

Looks like the same grass in every game. Why has this element of graphics stalled for so long?

[Mr. Bob]

Has it? From what I can tell it's vastly improved over the past 20 years...

The fact that we can have blades of grass at all, in the gaming world, is amazing. You realize how many polies goes into foliage instanced millions of times? Many...many polies. Now add lighting to every single one individually...

It's not an "element of graphics" any more than the idea of polies is an element of graphics. It's difficult to do for the same reason you don't see characters with literally every single hair on their head individually modeled with their own physical properties. So, no, nothing has "stalled" at all.

As for what we personally are doing, you have to consider the sheer magnitude of the open area here. We have grass objects instanced all over the place. Getting millions of grass models to be individually lit with less performance hit is an incredibly daunting task.

[BaNa]

I guess what he was trying to say (and what I can second) was that it resembles oblivion (& other similar current large world games) grass. That may be because grass is, after all, grass and thus there is only so much you can do with it, I dunno.

[Mr. Bob]

Right, except, unlike oblivion grass, this isn't indirectly lit, it is shadowed, it has a simulated sub surface scattering effect, and it doesn't need an lod distance.

There is loads you can do to improve grass from something like oblivion. It's a fairly old game.

[Karl]

Get a lawnmower then you don't need to see the stupid same grass all over again and again... Even though a flamethrower would be more fun to use then a boring lawnmower... Unless you strap a Semtex bomb on it

[AF]

I would argue that real grass on real lawns is failing to keep pace with the current rate of technological advancement. Grass has never been so patchy in such affluent times

[PicassoCT]

yep.. but well.. there is a reason for grass to use the furshadder +highdetail indiv grass for the border patches..



little ironic side story.. years ago..i requested spring using some sort of dynamic texture to simulate grass- now that i have read into the fure-shadder.. i understand.. that this is actually the thing this one does.. just dots.. generated, colourgardient over it.. and there you are..

brofist with the one feature request of all the featurerequests in the past which wasnt nuts!


http://matrep.parastudios.de/index.php? ... stic-grass

[Mr. Bob]

I'm Bob and I'll be acting as the legal counsel for this grass during this investigation.

Keep in mind we're dealing with a desert where grass is really just a collection of shrubs. Also, keep in mind that while these fur systems are incredibly nice for renders, this is a game. Performance is a big issue here.

[Beherith]

Anyone who doesnt want to drive their GPU to the max thermal design power just for nice grass is a pansy.

[KaiserJ]

yeah dude i got 2x 580's to run lawn simulator pro 2012 in SLI mode, PVP deathmatch is awesome on the riding mowers

was actually trying some foliage the other day;



i guess it's decent for 43 polies (including the mound) but i think i need some variation in the limbs



also lots and lots of posing / animating

[smoth]

mazekraft? mazekraft

[SwiftSpear]

yep.. but well.. there is a reason for grass to use the furshadder +highdetail indiv grass for the border patches..



little ironic side story.. years ago..i requested spring using some sort of dynamic texture to simulate grass- now that i have read into the fure-shadder.. i understand.. that this is actually the thing this one does.. just dots.. generated, colourgardient over it.. and there you are..

brofist with the one feature request of all the featurerequests in the past which wasnt nuts!


http://matrep.parastudios.de/index.php? ... stic-grass

To be fair, it's a little bit crazy. This type of thing is not impossible to make work in games, but it's not trivial either. You generally don't want to use an entirely new shader for only one aspect of your project rendering... although they are constantly making exceptions to that for water, so meh...

[PicassoCT]

So if i have a exception for something that in realLife only covers 70 of the planets surface.. thats okay, but to make a exception for something that in HalfLife, covers 70 of the surface the game takes place.. thats a fallacy.

Thats a paddlin.

[Mr. Bob]

DAT PROGRESS

[knorke]

In the beginning Bob created earth.
Now the earth was unformed and void, and a red glare was upon the face of the deep.
And Bob said "let there be rocks", and behold, there were rocks.
And he saw that it was good, so he made a screenshot.