WOW, How they light the scene.
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Hi guys:
Look at this picture: http://www.blizzard.com/wow/screenshot.aspx?ImageIndex=57&Set=1
How they light the scene, are the scene objects lighted by T&L lighting, or lightmap, or vertex color?
And how they make the shadows, rendered in realtime by shadowvolume?
Any words would be appreciated greatly.
hmm... shadows seems net, so I guess they use stencil shadows. For global illumination, I suppose lightmaps. My guess
Cant really say until the game is released. They might be lightmaps or dynamic shadows.
As for lighting, i think it might not even using lighting at all, those shades might just be lightmaps but it could be hard to say.
I doubt they will use dynamic shadows because in a mmorpg you can have hundreds of characters on screen at once and it will just lag the hell out of the game if it had dynamic shadows.
Doom 3 only has like 3-5 max monsters around at any one scene.
As for lighting, i think it might not even using lighting at all, those shades might just be lightmaps but it could be hard to say.
I doubt they will use dynamic shadows because in a mmorpg you can have hundreds of characters on screen at once and it will just lag the hell out of the game if it had dynamic shadows.
Doom 3 only has like 3-5 max monsters around at any one scene.
Looks to me like they''re using simple vertex lighting, and for shadows that they''re using a small, perhaps precalculated, shadowmap for each unit, which they use to shadow only terrain.
GamerSG> shadow volumes are not the _only_ way to generate dynamic shadows you know... and doom3 isn''t really an example for that matter...
and this lighting is nice, yes, but there''s nothing special about it IMO, it could very well be simple vertex lighting, computed from sunlight... (it should be dynamic if the game is an mmo)
and this lighting is nice, yes, but there''s nothing special about it IMO, it could very well be simple vertex lighting, computed from sunlight... (it should be dynamic if the game is an mmo)
I know there is dynamic shadows which use shadow maps. But i think these produce shadows which look pixelated due to some limitations of current gfx cards. It is much faster than shadow volumes but it still is slow. Also Blizzard games tend to use simple technology in order to cater to a larg number of people who play their games.
From a technical point of view, WC3 was hardly impressive, but the great skill of their modellers and more importantly texture artists made the game look good. If you look at the textures/models in WOW, you will realise that they are actually low poly texture mapped models. But the excellent textures really bring the world alive.
GTA gfx suck, yet it is the top selling game in the past few years. The world is so dynamic and the cutscenes are very well animated which does more for the game then per-pixel lighting/dynamic shadows/5k poly characters would have.
PS From their other screenshots, it is evident that characters do not cast shadows at all, which is a good thing since they are already eating up so much fillrate by using those high res textures and also rendering large number of polygons. I just hope they take into account that not everyone can afford a FX5900 or a Radeon 9800.
[edited by - GamerSg on January 17, 2004 11:17:58 PM]
From a technical point of view, WC3 was hardly impressive, but the great skill of their modellers and more importantly texture artists made the game look good. If you look at the textures/models in WOW, you will realise that they are actually low poly texture mapped models. But the excellent textures really bring the world alive.
GTA gfx suck, yet it is the top selling game in the past few years. The world is so dynamic and the cutscenes are very well animated which does more for the game then per-pixel lighting/dynamic shadows/5k poly characters would have.
PS From their other screenshots, it is evident that characters do not cast shadows at all, which is a good thing since they are already eating up so much fillrate by using those high res textures and also rendering large number of polygons. I just hope they take into account that not everyone can afford a FX5900 or a Radeon 9800.
[edited by - GamerSg on January 17, 2004 11:17:58 PM]
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Sorry for no reply for so long. I couldnt reach the internet for some reasons these days.
The buildings was made by very little ploygons, if they are lighted by vertex light, there should be lighting seams between large triangles IMO, would there? Maybe good texture can elimate this problem?
What are precalcuted shadowmaps? Are they just some pre-rendered textures and polygons?
The buildings was made by very little ploygons, if they are lighted by vertex light, there should be lighting seams between large triangles IMO, would there? Maybe good texture can elimate this problem?
What are precalcuted shadowmaps? Are they just some pre-rendered textures and polygons?
Yeah, that''s pretty much what I meant by "precalculated shadowmap." I simply meant that each unit probably had associated with it a prerendered "silhouette image" that is simply projected onto the terrain, which works because the terrain is relatively flat.
Each building is made of relatively few polys, but they''re still rather small in screen-space, so I think that any artifacts would be rather small. I also agree that good textures minimize the effects of garaud shading by drawing your eye from it.
Whether they use vertex colors or hardware T&L to DO the vertex lightig is anyone''s guess.
Of course, I don''t really know anything. I''m just guessing.
Each building is made of relatively few polys, but they''re still rather small in screen-space, so I think that any artifacts would be rather small. I also agree that good textures minimize the effects of garaud shading by drawing your eye from it.
Whether they use vertex colors or hardware T&L to DO the vertex lightig is anyone''s guess.
Of course, I don''t really know anything. I''m just guessing.
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