Trees in Diablo 3
In the wonderful translation of the excellent resource bubble article in Diablo 3, I found a link to another great article - “Diablo 3 - Trees” , about trees, which is also great. I offer the community a translation of this text. I hope the author of the above article will not shoot me for it.
So let's go.
When I first saw the trees in Diablo 3 in the screenshot, I noticed one feature. Their silhouettes were smoothed, while on other objects typical “steps” of the missing smoothing were visible.
')
I could not believe my eyes when I saw how they made the trees.
They painted them (alpha8) on curved planes. Yes, with such an approach they could be used only from a certain perspective, but they also looked just incredibly detailed. Due to the fact that the rotation of the camera is generally an optional attribute in ARPG, Blizzard has once again proved that they are masters in the combination of graphics and gameplay.
Robert asked for better gif in the comments, and I, frankly, never liked the quality of the one you can see a little higher. Thanks to Robert's great APP-OBJ converter (.APP is the type of files for Diablo 3 models in MPQ archives), I was able to do just such beauty in excellent quality:
And Robert also asked, wasn’t it possible to achieve the same result with “real” geometry? Here is my answer: of course, it is possible, but for such a level of detail, much more polygons would be needed. Here, for example, one branch:
For this beautiful branch, they used as few as 2 triangles instead of x-thousands for a “realistic” model. By the way, never forget that even the largest mega-super-high-poly model (high poly-from highpoly, i.e. with a large number of polygons — approx. Per . ) Is rendered on a flat surface (frame buffer or easier, your monitor). So if we are not talking about the Oculus Rift (or other technologies that provide “realistic” 3D) and there is no possibility of a strong change in perspective (turning the camera, zooming, etc.) in the game, then perhaps it’s better not to go crazy and just use 2D elements instead of thousands of polygons. But this is my opinion, which can be challenged.
By the way, if interested - here is the texture of the tree (left: diffuse, right: alpha). It is difficult to look at them without envy ... they are such beautiful!
The question is: why not resort to this method more often? I think this is due to the severity of such a decision. To look at computer graphics from a traditional artistic perspective is not easy all the time. Especially when there are people who only want awesome new technologies. “You have a 3D engine? So we want to turn the camera! ” And if a person who speaks like this is higher than you by the position, then your arguments, they say, camera rotation is not necessary (either for the gameplay or for the artistic part of the game), they will fight like a wall of peas.
I would recommend to see the whole presentation. To see the Blizzard approach in the field of computer graphics is very cool and informative, especially when there are people around you who just apply new technologies of some kind of DX99 - and don't care that the game doesn't need them.
Roger gave us a new converter models Diablo 3! Since they changed the format of .APP files (Diablo 3 models) in the Reaper of Souls add-on, the old converter did not work. You will also need vcredist_x86.exe (containing msvcrt * .dll) - you can download it on the Microsoft website (I downloaded the German version, and you remember to choose the language you need).
ATP, Roger!
So let's go.
When I first saw the trees in Diablo 3 in the screenshot, I noticed one feature. Their silhouettes were smoothed, while on other objects typical “steps” of the missing smoothing were visible.
')
I could not believe my eyes when I saw how they made the trees.
They painted them (alpha8) on curved planes. Yes, with such an approach they could be used only from a certain perspective, but they also looked just incredibly detailed. Due to the fact that the rotation of the camera is generally an optional attribute in ARPG, Blizzard has once again proved that they are masters in the combination of graphics and gameplay.
Robert asked for better gif in the comments, and I, frankly, never liked the quality of the one you can see a little higher. Thanks to Robert's great APP-OBJ converter (.APP is the type of files for Diablo 3 models in MPQ archives), I was able to do just such beauty in excellent quality:
And Robert also asked, wasn’t it possible to achieve the same result with “real” geometry? Here is my answer: of course, it is possible, but for such a level of detail, much more polygons would be needed. Here, for example, one branch:
For this beautiful branch, they used as few as 2 triangles instead of x-thousands for a “realistic” model. By the way, never forget that even the largest mega-super-high-poly model (high poly-from highpoly, i.e. with a large number of polygons — approx. Per . ) Is rendered on a flat surface (frame buffer or easier, your monitor). So if we are not talking about the Oculus Rift (or other technologies that provide “realistic” 3D) and there is no possibility of a strong change in perspective (turning the camera, zooming, etc.) in the game, then perhaps it’s better not to go crazy and just use 2D elements instead of thousands of polygons. But this is my opinion, which can be challenged.
By the way, if interested - here is the texture of the tree (left: diffuse, right: alpha). It is difficult to look at them without envy ... they are such beautiful!
The question is: why not resort to this method more often? I think this is due to the severity of such a decision. To look at computer graphics from a traditional artistic perspective is not easy all the time. Especially when there are people who only want awesome new technologies. “You have a 3D engine? So we want to turn the camera! ” And if a person who speaks like this is higher than you by the position, then your arguments, they say, camera rotation is not necessary (either for the gameplay or for the artistic part of the game), they will fight like a wall of peas.
I would recommend to see the whole presentation. To see the Blizzard approach in the field of computer graphics is very cool and informative, especially when there are people around you who just apply new technologies of some kind of DX99 - and don't care that the game doesn't need them.
Addition # 1
Roger gave us a new converter models Diablo 3! Since they changed the format of .APP files (Diablo 3 models) in the Reaper of Souls add-on, the old converter did not work. You will also need vcredist_x86.exe (containing msvcrt * .dll) - you can download it on the Microsoft website (I downloaded the German version, and you remember to choose the language you need).
ATP, Roger!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/250261/
All Articles