Non-Resource Hungry Enhanced Graphics

[BoysenReed]

Just thought i would plop in a suggestion for the Simulator's real-time rendering shaders. I see a lot of people are 'baking' lighting on their models via direct textures, but as these images are static i cannot see whether they are truly normal maps, or whether they are baked in texture form. I pose this question and/or possible suggestion:

The game would really benefit from the following shading:

- Ambient Occlusion
- Normal/Bump/Displacement
- Specular

Are these currently in development? The game would look stunning if if had even one of these.

[yzmxer608]

There are normal and specular maps, they aren't just baked onto the normal model texture, they are a separate png.

[Garasaki]

The effect of the normal and spec maps is more evident when the game is in motion then when it is in static shots, ie screenshots.

[BoysenReed]

Wow, ok well ive only got the demo version (until tomorrow ), so i guess when I put some custom textures and actually try applying normal and specular maps this game is going to look sweet

So glad that these features are available

Has the development team thought about any indirect lighting as part of the rendering engine? That would set the outdoor environments OFF!!!

Thanks for the info btw,

Regards

[DJ99X]

What do you mean by indirect lighting?

BTW, its a one man development team

[Garasaki]

Has the development team thought about ...

Ha ha, I can tell you are new 'round here

It was a very exciting time when normal and spec maps were introduced!

[BoysenReed]

It was a very exciting time when normal and spec maps were introduced!

I Bet!!! ha ha, they really do help

BTW, its a one man development team

An excellent display of true indie game developing i say, good to see that a useful community is right behind him as well

And by indirect lighting, i mean bounce lighting - a consequence of direct lighting, take the following example:

Direct Light (from the sun) comes through the front windscreen of a car, it bounces off the matte white dash, which illuminates the interior roof of the car even though the 'direct' light from the sun is not shining on it.

This in application to MXS, say... if direct light from the sun was blocked by the rider, but bounces off the white plastics of the bike and slightly illuminates the rider's chest, would look amazing in combination with shadows from the direct light itself. If im talking nonsense, maybe this following image tells the story a little better....



Direct lighting coming through the windows, which bounces off the floor and helps light the ambient of the room.

I dont know much about the physics and maths behind such a complex rendering algorithm, and now I understand that it is a 'one man army', but if it were to be pulled off, even slightly, it would look amazing! I notice this method of lighting in many games, and in my opinion it sets them off. But that is just my opinion, and i could not begin to imagine how difficult it would be to do But if the overall graphics of the sim were to be an object of further development in the future, this might be a great place to start

[ddmx]

I wouldn't doubt that jlv could most definitely do that. What I do doubt is that it will ever be implemented into the game. I'm sure he's nearing the end of what he wants to do with the game, except for some other minor adjustments. Of course, I can't speak for him though.

[jlv]

That's called radiosity. I'm not aware of any real time radiosity systems.

[BoysenReed]

Ah right you are, i might be getting confused with ambient occlusion... I notice games, say colin mcrae dirt 2, have some sort of indirect lighting, not sure if it is baked or real time, but it sure looks good.

Dynamic shadow mapping maybe? Although I believe this has already been brought up/ in development.

[jlv]

I'm not sure about Dirt 2, but there are plenty of games that use precomputed radiosity.

Visually my top priorities would be shaders for the terrain and dynamic shadows.

[BoysenReed]

Ah I see, that would explain why they are rendered in real-time. Initially this topic was intended to confirm 'non-resource hungry graphics', namely specular and normal mapping, but i kind of went off topic with the whole radiosity thing, which I know kills processors when rendering...

Those developments sound very exciting, they would def make the MXS world look awesome

[rainey06au]

Visually my top priorities would be shaders for the terrain and dynamic shadows.

Here here! JLV with these two things the game would look really amazing, seeing the bike physics combined with dynamic shadows of both the rider onto the terrain and the terrain/object shadows back onto the rider would enhance the presentation realism ten-fold and eliminate the 'floating rider' look it currently has.