SubPixel Displacement / Relief Mapping Demo

RedBull · 01-26-2006, 03:23 PM

Here is a quick test for Relief Mapping / Subpixel Displacement Shader for LW.
The Shader is currently an Alpha version. More tests to come...

Pavlov · 01-26-2006, 06:38 PM

Very interesting, i'm keeping an eye on this.
But aren't we supposed to get this in 9 ?

Paolo

Captain Obvious · 01-26-2006, 06:43 PM

Nope. LW9 will have some kind of adaptive subdivision thingie that's kind of similar to micropoly displacement. Relief mapping doesn't require additional geometry, as far as I know. A single polygon can contain a hundred bricks sticking out. Very nifty, but not without weaknesses. I don't think it supports self-shadowing, for example, so it doesn't really look that much better than bump mapping.

connerh · 01-26-2006, 07:01 PM

Looks nice! Looking forward to the release of this. I always figured that for good subpixel displacement simulation in LW to work, it would have to be done by means of volumetrics, but we'll see how this turns out.

jeremyhardin · 01-26-2006, 07:24 PM

interesting. i'll be keeping an eye on this.

RedBull · 01-26-2006, 08:25 PM

This shader will work in 8.x and above....
LW's Adaptive Camera technique, will most likely improve on this....

As for the shadow thing, Releif mapping can deal with shadows, although some iplemtations do not handle them accurately, (you can often get weird shadows) I must say that this shader is working well with shadows so far.....
And i'm yet to see any errors.

The bottom two pics clearly show the shadow increase when the brick indent does, which is the major improvement over bump mapping...
For distance shots bumps are fine, but for closeups Relief Mapping
fills the gap between Displacement and Bump mapping....

And of course displacements in 8.x or below, require way to many polys..
The Wall object i used in those tests, was 9 polys...
I could of really used just 2 polys.

Rendertimes aren't great, but acceptable..... The shader is only in the Alpha stage, but i'm quite impressed with the results thus far....
I will try and add some more eloborate tests tomorrow...

duke · 01-26-2006, 09:31 PM

That TB guy released a demo of his aswell, however the link died before I got to it

http://home.att.ne.jp/omega/tabo/3dlabo/zakki.html

Weepul · 01-26-2006, 10:26 PM

This looks fantastic! It's like what bump mapping OUGHT to be!

Please tell me a Mac OS X version is planned?

Panikos · 01-26-2006, 11:42 PM

RedBull, very nice.

I wonder if other functions see the effect, like reflections, refractions etc.

duke · 01-27-2006, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panikos

RedBull, very nice.

I wonder if other functions see the effect, like reflections, refractions etc.

If it's a pixel shader then no, if it's a surfaceshader then yes. To get shadows I'm pretty darn (da-mn is censored?!) sure there needs to be a pixel shader in there somewhere so it probably isn't reflected. Ofcourse I'm just ranting here and have no idea wether this is the case or not :P

Remember though, parallax/relief mapping is bloody excellent but falls apart at the silloutte of the object. You'll notice in any games that use relief mapping like Unreal3, ES4: Oblivion, they'll always cover up the edges. I'll try to find some examples.

RedBull · 01-29-2006, 06:14 PM

Hey Guys....
To answer some questions......
It is a Surface Shader and not a Pixel Shader.

Yes reflections work fine...

I can't be sure of the shadow thing, only to say that it seems to have quite
good shadowing and shadowing in the reflection render i just did.
I will do some more tests to confirm it. (have not had time to play)

LW SDK Does not support UV interpolation, so it makes this plugin harder
to work as intended at the moment, it does have a workaround in the version i'm using. And it's good but does have some issues.

The version without the SDK hack work around could only work with triangles
when using UV's.... The new version works but with the "enhanced reflief edges" mode the object needs to be double sided to work correctly.
Which is not so cool...... (That Edge mode was not seen in those test shots)
I will post some more tests soon.

Like all mapping yes it does have it downsides...
But it can be kinda fun to play with...

Gregg "T.Rex" · 01-29-2006, 06:48 PM

I'm very interesting on this...
Show us examples on balls or curved models, instead of flat surfaces...
Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Jarno · 01-29-2006, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedBull

LW SDK Does not support UV interpolation, so it makes this plugin harder

Please do drop me an email about what you are trying to do with UV interpolation that you can't do with the SDK. I can probably help.

---JvdL---

RedBull · 01-30-2006, 06:53 PM

Thanks Jarno,

I was just playing with your fantastic Vizier and Sketch Plugins for LW9.
Sketch is kinda fun, and Vizier should of been standard years back.

And Gregg i will post something round later today sometime....

Cheers!

dballesg · 01-31-2006, 03:48 AM

Hi Red Bull

Vizier and Sketch for LW 9?

That it is why the title bar is covered by them on your image?

The relief plugin, it is beign developed by you?

Only curiosity!

Best regards,
David

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedBull

Thanks Jarno,

I was just playing with your fantastic Vizier and Sketch Plugins for LW9.
Sketch is kinda fun, and Vizier should of been standard years back.

And Gregg i will post something round later today sometime....

Cheers!