Wolfire Development Blog!
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Viking Zippy
- Wooter
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Whoa neato!
Ha ha, it's funny, every time we get new updates I get to learn new things!
Thank god for wikipedia.
I still don't know exactly what normal mapping is (nor the differences between that and bump mapping and using "Appearance Preserving Simplification" instead of "A general method for recovering attribute values on simplified meshes". That's probably not a very correctly stated problem either), but I do know that it looks really cool. It lets images get influenced by shaders as if they were high poly count models. That's why the wrinkles on the bed and the grooves on the pottery are all properly shaded even though they appear somewhat blocky-ish; They still have the shading and complex 3-d appearance of a high poly-count object.
I'm not sure if normal mapping is used exactly like in this case, but here's wikipedia's image for it.
As you can imagine, without such normal mapping, the pile of cloth would look alot simpler than it is now (unless it was viewed with a tremendously high-poly count!), and would probably require you to shade the texture yourself like in Lugaru 1. Talk about optimizations!
Oh, and as for the whole sheet physics! Well, at least we know that the engine can implement complex rigid body dynamix and model skinning. If nothing else, it sure has the capabilities to surpass Oblivion's beds, it looks like it can match up to (and possibly move better than) Half-Life 2's mattresses.
Ha ha, it's funny, every time we get new updates I get to learn new things!
Thank god for wikipedia.
I still don't know exactly what normal mapping is (nor the differences between that and bump mapping and using "Appearance Preserving Simplification" instead of "A general method for recovering attribute values on simplified meshes". That's probably not a very correctly stated problem either), but I do know that it looks really cool. It lets images get influenced by shaders as if they were high poly count models. That's why the wrinkles on the bed and the grooves on the pottery are all properly shaded even though they appear somewhat blocky-ish; They still have the shading and complex 3-d appearance of a high poly-count object.
I'm not sure if normal mapping is used exactly like in this case, but here's wikipedia's image for it.
As you can imagine, without such normal mapping, the pile of cloth would look alot simpler than it is now (unless it was viewed with a tremendously high-poly count!), and would probably require you to shade the texture yourself like in Lugaru 1. Talk about optimizations!
Oh, and as for the whole sheet physics! Well, at least we know that the engine can implement complex rigid body dynamix and model skinning. If nothing else, it sure has the capabilities to surpass Oblivion's beds, it looks like it can match up to (and possibly move better than) Half-Life 2's mattresses.
yes. it allows you to 'bake' all the detail from a hi-detail mesh onto a lowpoly one. pretty much all you have to worry about is the silhouette. Personally, I find its best use is in static objects and terrain/walls etc.
The DOOM3 engine uses normals a lot, but poorly, resulting in the harsh black shadows. As the image shows, David made sure not to suffer from the same.
And just so you know, that bed surface is modelled perfectly flat, none of that cloth detail is actually there.
The DOOM3 engine uses normals a lot, but poorly, resulting in the harsh black shadows. As the image shows, David made sure not to suffer from the same.
And just so you know, that bed surface is modelled perfectly flat, none of that cloth detail is actually there.
Ok, flat? No way, that's cazy! Now, do you mean it is flat and squared off at the tops and bottoms or is it just flat on the top? At first, it looked like some kind of mushroom, all curvey at the front and backs. I mean, is it just the normal mapping that's giving you that illusion of puffyness, or has some floppy "model skinning" (not sure I'm using the correct term), been applied to it? That looks, that is some, that would be some pretty drastic mapping to, I mean, you're saying that was a flat object to start off as? how the? Well what the heck, does it like automatically bake objects to puff out like that? I am very confused, that's really... that's really cool.
Wait a, is the shading apart of the texture or has the mapping automatically.. does that mean David has to go over optimizing every object and bumping it up manually whenever you have to apply a new 'normal' to it? (I can say 'normal' right? Sounds funny when I write it...)
Ahh well, that sounds like what you meant by allowing you to bake objects, by doing it all manually.
I wonder what the pile of cloth originally looked like. Can you believe that "jar" thing is only two inches high? I can't.
Oh oh and one more thing! By static objects, do you mean objects that aren't controlled like bendable pieces of rope, or as in objects like crates that roll around but still retain their shape, OR do you mean completely unmovable objects like boulders that are 'nailed' to the ground?
I guess mobile objects like Turner would just look funny with lowpoly count and bump mapping.
Hmm, this sounds a bit pointless after a ton of edits... Submit!
Wait a, is the shading apart of the texture or has the mapping automatically.. does that mean David has to go over optimizing every object and bumping it up manually whenever you have to apply a new 'normal' to it? (I can say 'normal' right? Sounds funny when I write it...)
Ahh well, that sounds like what you meant by allowing you to bake objects, by doing it all manually.
I wonder what the pile of cloth originally looked like. Can you believe that "jar" thing is only two inches high? I can't.
Oh oh and one more thing! By static objects, do you mean objects that aren't controlled like bendable pieces of rope, or as in objects like crates that roll around but still retain their shape, OR do you mean completely unmovable objects like boulders that are 'nailed' to the ground?
I guess mobile objects like Turner would just look funny with lowpoly count and bump mapping.
Hmm, this sounds a bit pointless after a ton of edits... Submit!
by static objects i meant props that are inorganic, like beds and chairs and trees and rocks and ropes.
the "baking" that I mentioned is done by the artists and is produced along with the other maps; diffuse, bump, opacity, specularity, etc.
when I said flat, I meant all the wrinkles, layers of blankets and such are all in the texture/normal map. if i remember correctly...
ask ninjas
the "baking" that I mentioned is done by the artists and is produced along with the other maps; diffuse, bump, opacity, specularity, etc.
when I said flat, I meant all the wrinkles, layers of blankets and such are all in the texture/normal map. if i remember correctly...
ask ninjas-
Viking Zippy
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- Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:56 pm
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Hey, I noticed on the blog for first time the new Wolfire page. Looks nice, is this going to replace the current main page eventually?
Holy crap, Silb and Vib Rib are featured on the blog!
Man I had no idea until today that there had been a new blog post. Aww Jeff, you didn't mention it in the forums!
Oh and one last thing, what's up with these blog posters? By blog posters I really mean macwiggy (eep, that sounds really mean after I reread this), but alot of these comments would be great for the forum, as they don't really have anything to do with the topic. They sort of blow down the whole proffesional blog feeling with the kind of mean flamebait directed at you guys, it just seems like the blog is where all the gaming news people get their info on Lugaru 2, it might be a little odd for them to find comments where the developers have to put up with arguements with seemingless random people. If it was possible, to perhaps move that stuff over to the forums so I wouldn't have to fill the blog by "taking the bait." But then again, maybe you just want to leave it in there, maybe 'interactivity' between the people and the developers is just what the gaming industry needs... or not, I don't know, odd comment.
Hey isn't that funny that forum users go light or get... "uneasy" about posting on the blog, but Blog people are just the same with posting on the forums? It's neat how that works.
(but MAN who is this MacWiggy? He really needs to get on these forums instead!
certainly has alot to say that would be a whole lot easier to reply to on here. Poor users like Zaph that have to reiterate everything that was mentioned here on the forums... 
)
Hmm, again with the posts getting alot bigger than I imagined, ahh well, cheers!
(where did the word/saying cheers come from? Kind of an odd thing to say since I'm not drinking anything right now)
Man I had no idea until today that there had been a new blog post. Aww Jeff, you didn't mention it in the forums!
Ha ha, you just noticed the new website? Dude, you missed out on opening night! (which is odd because Jeff first posted it, deleted it in like in hour, and then re-posted it again the following day or maybe the day after... I dunno, but it was cool to have a feeling of knowing that all you had to do was type /new after wolfire.com, very cool indeed)Nazgul11 wrote:Hey, I noticed on the blog for first time the new Wolfire page. Looks nice, is this going to replace the current main page eventually?
Oh and one last thing, what's up with these blog posters? By blog posters I really mean macwiggy (eep, that sounds really mean after I reread this), but alot of these comments would be great for the forum, as they don't really have anything to do with the topic. They sort of blow down the whole proffesional blog feeling with the kind of mean flamebait directed at you guys, it just seems like the blog is where all the gaming news people get their info on Lugaru 2, it might be a little odd for them to find comments where the developers have to put up with arguements with seemingless random people. If it was possible, to perhaps move that stuff over to the forums so I wouldn't have to fill the blog by "taking the bait." But then again, maybe you just want to leave it in there, maybe 'interactivity' between the people and the developers is just what the gaming industry needs... or not, I don't know, odd comment.
Hey isn't that funny that forum users go light or get... "uneasy" about posting on the blog, but Blog people are just the same with posting on the forums? It's neat how that works.
(but MAN who is this MacWiggy? He really needs to get on these forums instead!
certainly has alot to say that would be a whole lot easier to reply to on here. Poor users like Zaph that have to reiterate everything that was mentioned here on the forums... )Hmm, again with the posts getting alot bigger than I imagined, ahh well, cheers!
(where did the word/saying cheers come from? Kind of an odd thing to say since I'm not drinking anything right now)
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Renegade_Turner
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