looks like the work of someone who just discovered bumpmapping ;D
i wouldn't say that OJay... especially not around the folks at iD, or around the Raven dev team...
but anyways, lets take a look at that screenshot you posted... an objective, critical look... ok...
look at the green wall and wood panels on the immediate left... now does that look like a real wall to you, or does it look like a rectangular primitive with a texture, trying to make that overhang at the top of the wall look like its really there... and not quite doing it...
the wood above it... not bad... but it sure doesn't look like real wood to me... no visible depressions in the wood...
those bricks on the ground... hardly any realistic material presentation there either...
take a look at this, there IS bumpmapping, but in a much more inconspicuously way. and THAT makes even this simpel scene look fantastic:
fantastic!!! hardly... good enough... definitely...
now that may be ok for your eyes... but what i'm aiming for is a more realistic presentation, albeit with a lil artistic license here and there...
these boxes looking too bumpy in my eyes.
i think what you mean to say is that they look a lil to shiny... the bumpmapping isn't the issue...
your eyes... maybe that's where the problem lies :)
(just having a lil fun... don't hit me now :) )
the question is...
do you wanna have an environment that looks fake... or do ya wanna have one where the materials look like something in the real world... at least close to something in the real world...
that's the point i'm trying to make here...
no gold stars for you OJay... go stand in the corner... :)
as far as i see it... the only things that show any semblence in that photo above, are the barrels and maybe the piping and the brick walls in the distance...
a world like the one above, where everything at least looks like it has some sorta material reality to it... a scene in which rusted metal looks like rusted metal... where the grooves in the wood planks are clearly noticeable... where bricks and cement has the textured look of rocky material...
don't get me wrong now... HL2 looked great... DOOM and Quake, well, a lil too much bumpy shiny plasticity... but still, some of the scenes looked fantastic...
... the scene from the shot above... a medium between the two... and a lot easier done...
IT'S BLITZ...
and the technique is something that i stumbled on playing around with Gile[s]...
the scene is from the recent tutorial i ran up on in the DarkBASIC Pro forums... i just redid the lights, and change a few of the textures in Gile[s] adding normal maps and changing around the blending... no additional coding...
there's no real demo... but i can put up the modified level so that you can explore it if you want... all you need do is load it and add some camera movement and an ambient light...
no magic... actually, it's kinda simple... and the results are not bad when you stop and consider what it would take to do real bumpmapping on the level...
it works because the lightmap is static... there are no moving lights...
i it adds a dimension of presence to Blitz scenes... now lemme try it with some of my own stuff :)
--Mike