this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Plus: Rare were the absolute masters of vertex colors on the N64. The ground in Banjo Kazooie was AFAIK textured gray with only vertex colors making it green for grass, etc.
Can you explain what vertex coloring does? Like does it create a color gradient between vertecies? And how does this help with making... "things" round?
They aren't actually round. Look at the edges on her right breast against the dark background compared to how round her left breast looks. The mesh itself is quite angular still (though perhaps not as bad as Lora Croft), but the shader is using the colour's attached to each vertex to create a gradient that gives the impression of a smooth surface.
There's a maxim in computer graphics: if it looks right, it is right. This is a pretty good example. Lots more angles here than initially appears, but the overall effect looks rounded.
As Nvidia wrote at GDC 2015, "If you're not cheating, you're just not trying."
I see what you mean. If it werent for the edge with the dark background it would be hard to tell where the edges are at all.
It just overlays a color on a vertex. This results in...
bingo.
They used clever coloring to create the shadow/light effects which where way too advanced for the N64 if you did it the "conventional" way.
Thanks for the answer. My searches on the internet just brought up mathematical graph theory.
It's so cool to see what simple yet clever tricks they used to use. The tricks used today are probably still very clever but definitely no longer simple.
I got the info from this german youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EydD_IuSVL0
That guy makes quite interesting stuff. Unfortunately, only in German.