Revolution = teh w1n graphically?

Speculation.

No link.

The New Patent

Just because competitors can work around patents doesn\'t mean that Nintendo will stop patenting their inventions. The newest discovery at the U.S. patent office is a process called displacement mapping. If the Revolution uses this process, it might create high-end graphics with low-end processing.

Displacement mapping, according to multiple resources, is used to create a highly detailed 3D texture with fewer polygons. Think of Mario from Super Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. Mario is crafted into a three dimensional character by using polygons. Since polygons have straight edges and pointed corners, the Mario in 64 can look blocky where a real person would look curved and smooth. The Mario in Sunshine looks more lifelike because he is made from more polygons to create the illusion of smooth curves. Textures are painted onto the polygons to give Mario a hat, overalls, hair and skin to his polygon frame. Right now, sharper textures and more lifelike characters are usually the result of more polygons.

Displacement mapping would allow a polygon to be "painted" with height factors. For example, instead of using 10 polygons to create Mario\'s 3D hat, the process would use one polygon painted with a 3D texture to create the same effect. Therefore, one polygon could do the work of many. This would potentially mean that a system with lower physical power could create graphics equal to a more powerful machine. The idea that the Revolution uses some new type of mapping (or a more efficient version of a current process-- displacement mapping is not a new idea) to create better graphics at a lower cost has surfaced on and off for over a year. Nintendo could be downplaying the role of graphics to promote the new interface, and then amaze viewers when they do show something game videos. Remember, this is mostly speculation. There is no concrete evidence that this process will be capable of providing dominating visuals on the Revolution, let alone any evidence that it will even be used by the Revolution. It is, however, promising news, and the first indication that Iwata wasn\'t lying when he said the Revolution\'s graphics would make us say "wow".

-Dan

lol. Displacement Mapping, wether used in prerendered CGi or in realtime is not Nintendo\'s invention.

It\'s just a general computergraphics technique which already exists for years. The Source engine is one of the many which already uses it.

Also the console with the most games using displacement mapping = NOT teh win graphically.  haha !

No doubt the Revolution will have some really nice visuals though.

Despite the lack of innovation in displacement mapping (it\'s been done for years and is already being utilized in gaming) ....

If Nintendo/ATi developed a specialized system in which displacement mapping is really cheap on the hardware.. like unusually cheap.. it\'d be a huge asset.

Well, yeah, there are many (game) studios coding this graphics techniques in different ways.

Atm I\'m at the virge of doing freelance stuff for a young game company. They showed me some sort of displacement mapping of their own.

They had pillars which consisted of 4 or 8 segments, polygon rows.... while the pillars looked like they were made from stones with very round bevels which would take conventional modeling alot of sub div poly\'s.

They have this technique more or less ready for 3D webgame use ; so it should be playable on average office pc\'s.

Indeed, it\'s about the effectiveness and use of such stuff ; becuz in alot of cases such techniques are limited to 1 or 2 stylings which isn\'t very cost effective. Maybe Nintendo has found a way to improve those factors. Could indeed be.

gimmick

Silly goose. Polygons are not art.

-Dan

hay isn\'t displacement mapping one of the big things in DirectX9. I seem to remember reading about it.

[nO-One]

as has been said by Knotter displacement mapping has been around for years, while Matrox was still somewhat interested in competing in the 3d arena they touted displacement mapping as one of their special features.

Just like bump-mapping in 1998, it was a rarely-to-never used feature.

Too intensive. Even now it drags down some of the best cards.

Actually, bump mapping exists since 1978.

Today\'s ingame normal mapping, which is a wholesome name for techniques such as bumpmapping.

In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that displacement mapping is a form of normal mapping as they both involve a poly face it\'s normal vector.

Displacement mapping goes a step further where it actually manipulates that normal. In Cgi ; Sub Polygon Displacement is a term much used these days.

Okay, Mr.Wizard.. I never said that bump-mapping was invented in 1998. In fact, by 1998 it was a feature in several consumer video cards.

But, of course.. a game like Doom III that relies heavily on bump-mapping would never have run in 1998. Very few games used even a fraction of Doom III\'s bump-mapping, and if this did.. it sure as hell wasn\'t Dot3. I also never made the comparison of normal/Dot3-bump mapping to displacement.

They have similar effects, though.

Sorry, it certainly was not my intention to try & outsmart anybody.

It\'s just that in 3D theory classes we learned that the actual technique was used since 1978 ; purposes ; visualizing
planet/moon surfaces and such stuff.

Yeah, they used huge (now) ancient renderfarms.

In Nintendo\'s case I can easily imagine a game where you can do virtual Play-Doh becuz the technique allows the player to deform surfaces (in graphics there\'s no such thing as actual solid material) in real time.

ZBrush and Maya are cgi packages where artists can brush/mold their artworks already with Wacom pen/tablet combo.

Maybe Nintendo might try something like that in a kinetic puzzle adventure using the Rev controller as \'Wacom pen\' . Who knows !

Let\'s pray.

You guys should rent "The Last Starfighter" and pay attention to the CGI.

Don\'t forget Wrath of Kahn and the genisis planet visualisations.