Texture Optimization Update : Lead Designer

AmazingAvery

Hey, Ole Herbjornsen has just updated his blog here: http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5724372

And talks about textures / optimisation and implementation in this stage of beta. Nice read and you can see the difference here:

OLD GROUND:

 

New Ground:

 

looking good, I'm happy the game looks like its going to be nicely detailed and better than the average bland game out there.

Lobotomist

Good texturing is the paramount of good graphic.

Unfortunately many people do not realize that (including some game developers).

Good work Funcom

TurnX

I agree... not that the textures looked bad before, but bump mapping just adds that extra element of realism that can really make a huge difference in how the game looks.

AmazingAvery

If performance as well as looks are improved well thats not a bad thing

Katova

Thats awesome. I hope my computer will be good enough to be able to tell the difference lol.

Arioc

Man I hope the bumps are specific to the color map and not a global coverage map like in Vanguard. I dislike how the coverage bump blends grass and stone together in the mid-ground and distance as if it were one material. Makes the world feel flat. If the bumps between snow and grass and rock and dirt differ you'll retain the seperation of elements. Of course that means more batch's and passes. But hell if WoW can do 4 layers with a spec map on each, they can do 4 with a bump on each.

Amy571

Looking good. Glad to hear things are coming along and improving. So far the textures and rendering of the game look really nice. I love seeing the landscapes and scenery screen shots, some really beautiful stuff there. To know that they have apparently improved on even some of the great early stuff I saw a while back, well, its pretty exciting.

xxreaper008

Damn that looks nice!