by cortlong50 » Sun Nov 26, 2017 12:06 am
Okay. Hear me out.
So I’ve been playing Turok 2 remastered (its amazing. That goes without saying.) and one of the simplest, yet most effective effects that were added to the game were screen-space reflections. It adds just the perfect amount of depth to the world and livens up otherwise really dull and ugly textures (N64 wasn’t the best looking console, and Turok 2 is arguably the best one on that console...and the textures are pretty beat.)
NOW. I know reflections are already a thing. But every single time I try to implement them it’s just a taxing mess. They look pretty decent but I know they could be better.
Well on Turok the reflection fades after an object is a certain z-height up. I’d say the doom equivalent is like 8-12 units. Very small. It’s only objects that are close to the plane.
Second there is a very simple blur on the reflection that is used on the reflection and I think the doom equivalent would just be lowering the resolution based on how far away it is from the plane. That might look a little messy but it would be better and less taxing than what we have now, or someone could always write a shaded that blurs it based on distance. If I know how I’d be on it.
Third what we seem to have now is a complete recreation of the world above based on perspective that is mirrored underneath the sector. No critique on anything because it works...but let’s be real...that is an INSANELY inefficient. At the very least why doesn’t it render the “under-world” or “mirror” at half resolution kinda like TCAMTEX does? So that it’s using literally half as many resources. And then take it a step further and make it so you set not only the reflective ness of a surface but also the level at which that reflectiveness stops reflecting.
So let’s say you have a room that’s 256 units tall...you set the “dither” at 80 so anything that is beyond that 80 doesn’t get reflected at all. And anything within that reflection is rendered at 1/2 to 1/3 resolution. This illeviating the huge burden that is reflections and to me getting a better looking, more realistic reflection. I think it would look better and save a lot of GPUs from kicking into over drive.
If you’d like screenshot examples I’d be glad to supply them. They’re super simple and the performance hit is next to none. They did a really good job optimizing this game.
Sorry that was long.
Okay. Hear me out.
So I’ve been playing Turok 2 remastered (its amazing. That goes without saying.) and one of the simplest, yet most effective effects that were added to the game were screen-space reflections. It adds just the perfect amount of depth to the world and livens up otherwise really dull and ugly textures (N64 wasn’t the best looking console, and Turok 2 is arguably the best one on that console...and the textures are pretty beat.)
NOW. I know reflections are already a thing. But every single time I try to implement them it’s just a taxing mess. They look pretty decent but I know they could be better.
Well on Turok the reflection fades after an object is a certain z-height up. I’d say the doom equivalent is like 8-12 units. Very small. It’s only objects that are close to the plane.
Second there is a very simple blur on the reflection that is used on the reflection and I think the doom equivalent would just be lowering the resolution based on how far away it is from the plane. That might look a little messy but it would be better and less taxing than what we have now, or someone could always write a shaded that blurs it based on distance. If I know how I’d be on it.
Third what we seem to have now is a complete recreation of the world above based on perspective that is mirrored underneath the sector. No critique on anything because it works...but let’s be real...that is an INSANELY inefficient. At the very least why doesn’t it render the “under-world” or “mirror” at half resolution kinda like TCAMTEX does? So that it’s using literally half as many resources. And then take it a step further and make it so you set not only the reflective ness of a surface but also the level at which that reflectiveness stops reflecting.
So let’s say you have a room that’s 256 units tall...you set the “dither” at 80 so anything that is beyond that 80 doesn’t get reflected at all. And anything within that reflection is rendered at 1/2 to 1/3 resolution. This illeviating the huge burden that is reflections and to me getting a better looking, more realistic reflection. I think it would look better and save a lot of GPUs from kicking into over drive.
If you’d like screenshot examples I’d be glad to supply them. They’re super simple and the performance hit is next to none. They did a really good job optimizing this game.
Sorry that was long.