🧵 PS2 character graphics
Anonymous at Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:33:24 UTC No. 933525
Making this thread cause it could be worth a discussion that doesn't have its place in the /questions/ thread.
So with all the PS1 graphics guide out there (wich is easy to replicate since they shared looks that all these ps1 games have are born from the console limitations), I tried to search some stuff on how to make Ps2 graphics.
What I know (there's not a lot of info on this btw) is that PS1 and PS2 graphics differ only in the fact that
> The polycount is higher
> The texture file is bigger (went from 128x128 to 256x256 and/or 512x512 textures for the PS2)
> PS2 has real time lightning and a different shading option
But something I can't really know how most of the studios handled is how detailed were their high poly characters before baking the details on the lower poly version. Also did they limit themselves on the details since baking all the shit on a model that's "low-poly" can maybe create over-detailed textures? I'm thinkg especially about games that have an art style of realistically proportioned characters like MGS, DMC3, FFX, TEKKEN 4, etc.
Anything to say on this? I'm kind of lost on the step between the modeling (I don't even know the polycount I should generally aim for) and the baking (or painting maybe) of the textures.
Anyway if you have ANYTHING to say on this, please share your knowledge.
Anonymous at Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:50:56 UTC No. 933527
From what I understand for the moment, the best way to replicate it would be to tackle character creation with this process (correct me if I'm wrong tho)
> Polymodel the character
> Export it to Zbrush and make it high poly
> Sculpt the details on it without changing the proportions of the mesh
> Bake the high poly details onto the low poly mesh
> Paint and done
Personally I learned making characters the AAA way so I first sculpt and then I retopo on top of the high poly mesh to capture the maximum amount of details from its shape.
Anonymous at Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:20:54 UTC No. 933549
Normal maps weren't a thing in the ps2 era. They didn't become widely used until 2005 onwards and were limited to a few xbox titles. Not many games would have used a 512 texture either.
Anonymous at Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:26:10 UTC No. 933562
modeling and texture no sculpt
Anonymous at Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:43:20 UTC No. 933563
>>933542
It's cheap on ebay. I don't know what specific computers or software were used. In archeological reconstruction studies they often use only materials used in the period in question. Why not the same here? Cut the middleman of modern 3D out.
Anonymous at Mon, 16 Jan 2023 03:53:12 UTC No. 933577
>>933525
don't think many or any of the ps2 games baked their maps, i think it was all photos as textures and handpainted.
Anonymous at Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:41:06 UTC No. 933756
>>933525
PS2 didn't support normal mapping so there was no need for high poly models
Unwrap your models with straight edges and obvious orientation for painting
Just use photoshop to make textures from photo sources and hand painting. Don't use substance or anything procedual, it stands out at such a low res
For rendering use vertex lighting and gamma color space. I'm not sure if modern engines even let you do this
Anonymous at Tue, 17 Jan 2023 15:42:53 UTC No. 933764
>>933756
In terms of high poly models you had gameplay and cutscene models like in Final Fantasy there.
Anonymous at Tue, 17 Jan 2023 22:54:29 UTC No. 933817
>>933811
Yeah I've always admired mgs peace walker models too. Perfect planning of uv
Anonymous at Wed, 18 Jan 2023 01:28:46 UTC No. 933835
>>933525
PS2 games predate texture baking as standard practice, that became the norm around Doom 3 and Half Life 2 in 2004 when pixelshaders employed in a big way.
That said if you where making something for PS2 hardware with tools available today you'd def bake textures. When baking there is no restriction in how many polygons to use, you use as many as you need or as many as your system can handle
Anonymous at Wed, 18 Jan 2023 02:20:17 UTC No. 933841
>>933756
>PS2 didn't support normal mapping so there was no need for high poly models
Normal mapping isn't the only reason you'd wanna bake your textures if you had texture baking available.
You could for example make a ~10 million polygon character sculpt and render that into a 'lit from above' GI pass.
project it down onto a 3000 poly realtime model and use it as a flat diffuse texture with the shading burnt in.
It'd still look great compared to handpainted shading for a fraction of the time spent.
It's just that pixel shaders and sclupt tools arrived in a big way at the same time baking became a thing so artists did cooler
stuff than PS2 graphics with it from the get go. But look at very late PS2 titles like 'Toy Story 3' from 2010 and you see tons of baked textures.
>For rendering use vertex lighting and gamma color space. I'm not sure if modern engines even let you do this.
Ofcourse they do. Modern shaders are divided into a 'vertex shader' that handles all your geometry and additional model data
such as vertex colors and vectors for your lightsource UV coordinates and the projection matrix of the camera etc.
And a 'Pixel Shader' that takes data from your vertex shader and any additional data you feed it such as texture maps and cubemaps
and do arbitrary complex lighting calculations per pixel.
Everything that determine the value of the pixel you end up seeing on screen is stated inside shader and you can go as fancy or as simple as you want.
Anonymous at Wed, 18 Jan 2023 17:22:28 UTC No. 933929
>>933527
>Personally I learned making characters the AAA way
oh who's going to believe THAT? lmao