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Parallax Mapping?

sirris

Member
I know what bump mapping is. I know what normal mapping is.
But now the new buzz word is parallax mapping and I have no idea
what that is. Anyone have any good explainations or links discussing it?
 
Because you were too lazy to search the forums, so am I, but an excellent explanation can be found....
 
JRPereira said:
I'd also like to add this website which has a good comparison of all the texture rendering techniques and gives a decent technical explanation of what Steep Parallax Mapping is (the step above regular Parallax Mapping).

http://graphics.cs.brown.edu/games/SteepParallax/index.html

compare2vd.jpg
 
Well if you want to simplify it I would say it's like per-pixel displacement mapping - creating virtual polygons or tacking voxels onto polys.

It makes me wonder - would you be able to do collision detection that matches what you see from parallax mapping?
 
JRPereira said:
It makes me wonder - would you be able to do collision detection that matches what you see from parallax mapping?
Nope since its still mapped onto a flat plane. On future texture rendering techniques? It could be possible, I haven't the foggiest.

Speaking of voxels (volume pixels) I loved that goofy ass technology. Anyone ever play Delta Force 2 or Outcast?
 
Kleegamefan said:
Parallax mapping video:

http://www.powervr.com/Products/Graphics/SGX/Index.asp?Page=6


BTW, Kameo uses Parallas mapping too...
Thanks for reminding me, here's one of the best examples of parallax occlusion mapping available:

http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeonx1k/ATI-Demo-ToyShop-v1.1.zip

Pay special attention to the sign and the cobblestone street. If you haven't seen this video you'll be absolutely floored by what you can acheive with some shader effects, great particle effects, and beautiful texturing work. For the technical minded there are over 700 unique shaders, volumetric lighting, and dynamic soft shadows being used as well.

tom.parallax.18.jpg
 
Raiden said:
And Half Life 2, people just say it because PD0's heavily usage of it, its been around a while.

HL2 doesn't support it yet, but in a few updates it will. Unless the Lost Coast had it...I didn't notice it.

You can basically convert your textures into parrallax maps and actually use them in game, but you don't see the proper result, you just see it as a flat texture, until the appropriate Steam update comes along and then you'll notice it.
 
whats the overhead? surely this is a v.complex shader. So how does this technique compare to drawing some actual bumpy floors from polys?
 
mrklaw said:
whats the overhead? surely this is a v.complex shader. So how does this technique compare to drawing some actual bumpy floors from polys?


Going by Perfect Dark Zero, it's overhead sucks all talent away from the art director and 3D modellers.
 
Actually drawing bumpy floor/walls would be RETARDED with current hardware.
Nevermind the development time it would require.

And voxels rule. They worked out niceley in Tiberian Sun.
 
FEAR used parralax mapping for all the bullet hole, wall deformation effects before PDZ came out.
 
element said:
parallax mapping is old news. Relief Mapping is the new hotness.

Relief mapping is unbelievable.

I'm serious...I just don't believe it could be done.

If someone could use relief mapping in a game and it didn't bog down the hardware...there's no excuse for real looking games.
 
Fight for Freeform said:
Relief mapping is unbelievable.

I'm serious...I just don't believe it could be done.

If someone could use relief mapping in a game and it didn't bog down the hardware...there's no excuse for real looking games.
Pics!
 
I'm actually not too impressed with parallax mapping. That picture with the lion shows why. Things start to look really ultra shiny when they're pulled out too far from the flat plane. It's somewhat obvious in the Doom 3 Parallax mod and really obvious in the improved parallax mod for Quake 4.
 
it appears to be creating the illusion of extra geometry by stretching pixels, which would in turn stretch the specular masks of the shaders causing there to be a lot of undesirable shinyness. Areas highly affected by the relief map should have their specular maps toned down to minimize that effect.
 
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