will MMORPG's be using normal maps any time soon?

Justin Meisse

Would it be correct to guess that MMORPG's won't be using normal maps for at least a couple more years?

I'm trying to build up an environmental model portfolio to show off to some different mmo developers and was wondering what I should shoot for, I'm kind of aiming for Mythic's Warhammer Online team

Neo_God

Um...they already are, Everquest 2 uses them.

sinistergfx

Imperator did use them.

Justin Meisse

argh!

KMan

City of Heroes uses them too

snemmy

and Star Wars Galaxies

thomasp

but... do they derive detail from hipoly in doom3-style or do they just use normal maps as a (painted) replacement for "classic" bumpmaps? 'cause some project's i've worked on did exactly that - s/w bumpmaps were converted to normalmaps for performance optimizations. hipoly just didn't fit into the budgets.

Rhinokey

i would guess most mmo normal maps are converted from greyscale maps, painted by artists, tho on imperator we were using a mixture, depending on what was easier at the time.

Renaud Galand

even the new extension packs of EQ1 use normal map

thomasp

per: sure, but the hipoly approach requires hipoly modelling skills

cholden

Yes, Per's right, everyone needs to learn this. That's why you should all enter the September Challenge
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=65795&an=0&page=0#65795
Lots of room for creativity, and the skills you need to know now.

thomasp

well, i didn't want to imply that i am not working with hipoly stuff, infact i do, although there for sure is lot's of room for improvement in my work.
i just guessed the thread starter wasn't so happy to hear that this kind of skills are in demand at a lot of places now.

Justin Meisse

yeah, not happy to hear it, I felt like I was starting from scratch doing environments, needing highpoly skills is like lemon juice on a paper cut. Oh well, I'll just keep trudging along.

KDR_11k

I felt like I was starting from scratch doing environments

Which is probably why there's so few environment modelers.