umm... the reason to have normal maps IS to rely on them for surface details, the reason there isn't alot of "detail" or I'm guessing you mean shading (most diffuse maps I've seen for games like doom 3 ARE detailed they just have no shading in them) THE REASON they don't have shading is because all of that comes from the…
It happened when games went from 2D-3D, it happened when games went from 300 poly characters to 3,000. One thing you can count on in the industry, is change. Roll with the punches or get left behind crying about how easy life was "back in the day". There never has been (or will be) a point where you can sit back and say I…
[ QUOTE ] Daz: Those ads for Westwood College probably aren't gonna help future prospective (idiot) employees much, then [/ QUOTE ] What are you talking about? My mom said I'd never get anywhere with these games! Now my boss needs me to design another game, but first I need to tighten up the graphics a little bit (after…
Who are you really addressing here tho' Sonic? I dont think that's too clear from your post. Are you talking about level designers? Game designers? The thing to realise that is inevitable is that we are rapidly moving toward a model of making games that utilizes highly specialized talent. I work on a project where…
That wasn't meant to be directed at you. Although now I re-read it it looks like it was I've just worked with some real idiots in my time that have no business making games is all I meant. It was a general comment.
What is PPL? This gets back to what i said in my post about specialization. Before long, I can assure you that level designers wont be doing lighting. Dedicated lighting artists will. This is allready happening in a lot of studios.
Basically, when you can do highpoly you'll be in the match for a long time to come. No matter how much trickery we'll see, most of it will attempt to replicate hipoly models. Unfortunately I can't do highpoly, I'm always confused when there's that many verts in play.
Me and Arshlevon were having this conversation a bit the other night. Bare with me now as I'm gonna ramble a bit. I think there is a huge majority of people in the industry as artists, who aren't really artists. They are technicians. They have learned a very limited ruleset of this+that=game asset. While it results in ok…