Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

For the record despite going off on a personal conversation we did both answer your question to the best of our ability.

It's most likely possible. But unlikely to happen.

For the record, the GameCube and the Wii are already capable of bump mapping, but very few games bothered to use it. I know Rogue Squadron 2 and 3 use it, and I'm sure a few others do as well, but it wasn't common. Adding it in the emulator despite the fact that the developer chose to not use the option seems a little weird to me.

It can decrease performance on weak GPUs, so as the wii's was fairly weak, it was probably skipped by most developers.

Hollywood is faster than my GF2MX which was doing that stuff in >SD back in the day.
And you kids need to stop complaining. Old Economy Steve got a job he just wants a solid work ethic.

Quote:It can decrease performance on weak GPUs, so as the wii's was fairly weak, it was probably skipped by most developers.

Bump mapping is very simple and light, so I don't agree with that. The GameCube and especially the Wii are capable of far more intensive graphical effects. Personally, I think it's mostly due to the fact that the consoles were designed for SDTVs. You couldn't freakin see well enough for it to matter.

It does still reduce performance regardless of whether it's enough to make a huge difference. And it's a lot of extra work, especially if the tools they're using don't generate them for you. Thus developers don't want to bother.

And I would not dream of comparing the capabilities of a geforce 2 vs. the custom fixed function graphics accelerator that the GC/Wii use.

NaturalViolence Wrote:And it's a lot of extra work, especially if the tools they're using don't generate them for you.

Bump maps? Pfft they're nothing! Normal maps require baking and other fussing, but bump maps can (in most cases) just be made from existing textures and use existing UV mapping. It's cake!

What kind of tools are your average GC/Wii devs using for this type of work? Any ideas?

The same thing as today: Photoshop. Since bump maps are just greyscale images, it's very VERY simple to create one by hand in Photoshop, especially in the case of the GameCube-style low resolution textures where everything is exaggerated. And most of the time those details are in the original texture anyway, and that can be used as a base to make a height map. I've made tons of game models, just trust me on this one. Bump maps are cake.

Normal maps are a different story however. Their use of multiple channels makes them impractical to paint by hand. You can, sortof, but you wouldn't want to. It's usually best to use brush modeling ala Zbrush and then bake it. Height map conversion can work in a pinch, but it usually gets inferior results.

*NaturalViolence suddenly realizes how much he has neglected learning about this area of technology in his personal studies*

Thanks dial-up man! You really saved the day.