Despite looking much more detailed, the model for the coins in Super Mario Odyssey is actually 65% simpler than the one used in Super Mario Galaxy, due to taking advantage of modern rendering techniques. Details in image.
While the technical details of the rendering are common knowledge among gaming/computer graphics enthusiasts, I hope that the unexpected conclusion that the coin models actually became simpler over time is interesting enough to warrant the post!
@MarioBrothBlog I swear Nintendo has some sort of black magic when it comes to stuff like this. I remember when screenshots of Smash Wii U were just releasing I couldn’t believe how good the plush texture looked on Greninja’s substitute
@MarioBrothBlog That's neat! Reminds me of Master Chief's Halo 2 model also using fewer polygons than in Halo 1
@MarioBrothBlog Are there any other notable examples of models in Mario Odyssey which are much more efficient than older ones
@MarioBrothBlog The only problem with normal mapping is the name because it's way cooler than it sounds
@MarioBrothBlog Normal mapping is honestly such a cool thing.
@MarioBrothBlog However, neither are as detailed as Banban, who uses over 10,000 triangles.
@MarioBrothBlog Bump mapping has got to be the greatest cheat in all of 3D graphic history and implementing them into video games. They really make things POP to life. I love using them in my renders
@MarioBrothBlog If people think this is cool, Pikmin 3 also shows a mastery of normal textures and such Also question for modelers, why are the edges triangles instead of full squares?
@MarioBrothBlog This is so refreshing to see after the 17 trillion tri poptart
@MarioBrothBlog It's all normal mapping?
@MarioBrothBlog Cool, but is that a 1 in the center of the coin or just an indent? It's bothered me for years.
@MarioBrothBlog Clown question: are multiple raster maps cheaper than multiple triangles still? At what point does it lean in the other direction where having a more detailed model is more efficient?
@MarioBrothBlog So, in other words, the coins in Mario Odyssey are being rendered in a more efficient way than in Mario Galaxy. That has its advantages: less polygons to render, the less work the CPU (or Graphics Card, I'm not sure) will have to do. So, it will be easier to keep a steady FPS
@MarioBrothBlog normal mapping always feels like black magic i stg i love the cobblestones in Revenant's Toll in FFXIV, the whole ground is a flat surface but from any top-down perspective it looks DETAILED, it looks TEXTURED~
@MarioBrothBlog That's insane, did Nintendo not realise Normals and Spec maps could do that until recently...? Very interesting! 👏
@MarioBrothBlog Normal maps have existed since GameCube. You'd think Nintendo would use them for a common collectable.
@MarioBrothBlog It’s like the coins are “minted” using less material, so as to make them easier to protrude! I like that!
@MarioBrothBlog I feel like calling this a "modern" rendering technique is a tad misleading given normals have been in use for 20 years, this same technique was possible during SMG's development as well (not 100% sure about the roughness map but that's less relevant)
@MarioBrothBlog Man, textures and maps are one of the things that I will literally just never be able to comprehend, I may love coding, but this is just straight up wizardry to me.
@MarioBrothBlog It’s probably worth noting that the Wii was actually very good at pushing triangles - one of the advantages of its architecture. Plus as there wasn’t any hardware support for what you’d call pixel shaders, it was actually quite efficient to build details out of polygons instead
@MarioBrothBlog So this is one of the nintendo's optimization spells..
@MarioBrothBlog @Nervatel Learning what normal maps were ruined me for a while cause I started recognising them and actually noticing that the mesh wasn’t deformed at all, it was just a flat surface with light tricks.
@MarioBrothBlog How in the fu.....
@MarioBrothBlog Never knew. I thought Odyssey's coins were just high quality models like Galaxy. Interesting
@MarioBrothBlog There’s no way normal and roughness maps didn’t exist when Galaxy came out?? Why was Nintendo not using normal maps back then?????!
@MarioBrothBlog So the detail comes from just the lighting itself? Honestly, that's pretty cool
