Polybump?

[Ibbz]

I recently found out about this technolgy that allows you to simulate much higher polygon counts that are actually used.

 

Far Cry, an FPS coming out sometime later this year is using it to great effect as you can see from these screenshots.....

http://crytek.com/screenshots/index.php?sx=polybump

{Click on the picture in the right bottom corner to see the difference polybump can make}

Its also being used in Doom 3.

 

It apparantly uses some sort of lighting system to simulate more polygons than are actually there. Thought it might be useful in maintaining the low sys requirements while having good looking enviroments. Of course, it may require a huge amount of time to implement and/or be unfeasible - but i thought i mention it just in case

Edited June 10, 2003 by Ibbz

[tamat]

The bad news:

 

I think that it only can be done using the newest cards features like displacement mapping, it's an option of DX9.0.

Maybe using vertex shaders... but it is not only using lightning effect. Its really dificult to code it.

 

The good news, watching the Crytech webs about Polybump you can read this:

 

Pricing:

€ 900 per license (US customers will be billed in dollars)

Polybump is free to students & for non-commercial use.

 

Are we a non-commercial use?

Edited June 10, 2003 by tamat

[hArk]

Looks just like bump mapping to me

[Ibbz]

I thought it did sound like bump mapping - but bump mapping doesnt usually produce graphics quite that good Edited June 11, 2003 by Ibbz

[Puasonen]

open-source=non-commercial?

[Guest drewid]

I believe it would work on any card which supports DX9. Not sure about speed though.

 

and yes. I would guess open source= non commercial.

[Deimos]

My take on the non commercial thing is that it'll be available to anyone who isn't going to make money out of it. That kind of puts us in a strange position as though we won't be making making any money from the project but is open source and some of them can be charged for, look at some of the linux distros.

[red knight]

I thought it did sound like bump mapping - but bump mapping doesnt usually produce graphics quite that good

Bump mapping is done on texture space, so the bigger and detailed the texture and the normal map the bigger the quality you get. The bigger and accuratly the bump mapping is, the slower your app will gonna run. Bump mapping is not the panacea either, there is a threadhold between where even the best Bump Mapping algorithm out there wont handle the model accuratly.

 

About Polybump, those guys would have to learn to put the info straight and clear if they want to sell it... It looks like that it is a Mesh Simplification algorithm, with a Normal Map generator, and PolyBump is the candy for the ears name... That was my impression, maybe I am wrong... anyway not much information in there to really judge it.

 

About DX9.0, only Radeon 9800 and GeForceFX are DX9.0 Compliant, and this one has been tested on Radeon 8500 a DX8.0 compliant card, so it should work with any Radeon 9xxx card and GeForce 4+, they hadnt test it in the MX. There wasnt more features in the Ti as far as I know so it should work there too, the difference is lighting speed.

 

Greetings

Red Knight

[mikker]

sounds like NURBS to me...

 

..DON'T DO IT" :whatwhat: