Camila's shoulder also shows the disadvantages of Gouraud shading.

3 Dimensional Flatness

You all know that a 3D virtual world is primarily composed of polygons. While each successive generation of consoles rendered more polygons on screen, there’s still a limit for every system. Let say there’s a ten meter road with hundreds of pebbles strewn about. Although they’re small, the amount of pebbles really add up. With the ever increasing need for graphical detail, those extra 500,000 polygons just won’t do. The polygons should be used on more important details than some small pebbles. All they could do in the 64/32-bit days was create a pebble texture. It’s still just a flat piece of paper. Nowadays, we have bump mapping. Artists can now create extra details without the expense of using extra polygons, and look far better than just a plain flat texture. You’re adding detail far beyond what the system’s capable of.

Bump mapping is a very general term that can actually refer to a number of different techniques. Let me go over a few popular effects and give you the basics of what they do. Again, we’re only scratching the surface of what they are, because that’s all I know. Some of them might be too hardware intensive for the Wii, but if developer managed to actually get it running on the Wii, some good old fashion “Oooooooh’s” and “Ahhhhhhh’s” are in ordered.

Bump Mapping – Like I said before, bump mapping is also a general term, but when I say bump mapping, I am referring to this technique. Bump mapping uses a grey scale height map (an image that stores the surface elevation values for 3D graphics) to calculate the brightness and color of each pixel, and how it responds to lights. A texture is place over it to give whatever it’s rendering to appear more realistic. When you compare a simple textured surface with that of a bump mapped surface, the results are much richer.

This is a height map without textures on it.

The GameCube is quite capable of bump mapping, and so was the Xbox. The PS2, not so much (more on this later). The smaller RAM/VRAM on the Cube might have contributed to the lack of bump mapping, but the Wii received quite a boost in RAM. Seems like it just comes down to effort and willingness of the developer.

Click on the images to enlarge and compare the snow in 3 different games. 2 with bump and 1 without.

Normal Mapping – This is probably the most popular right now out of all these techniques. Normal mapping is an enhanced form of bump mapping. It’s commonly used to greatly enhance the appearance of a low polygon model to look like a high polygon model. Unlike bump mapping where it uses a grey scale height map to store 3D data, a normal map is an RGB texture that can be created from various sources. I think the most common is ripped from a high resolution high detailed model, but artists can also render them from scratch, or rip them from height maps. Each texel from the normal map is used to compute lighting rather than the original vertex. The normal map will greatly increase the detail, complexity, and lighting of the original polygonal model. Whereas bump map applies pertusion on the normal (the polygon that you see), the normal map replaces the normal to give the mesh a higher polygon look hence the name normal mapping. Sometimes it’s not about creating bumps, but smooth surfaces to hide the sharp edges of the polygons.

This is a normal map without textures.

Here’s an easy way to visualize how normal mapping works: Imagine a really scrawny guy wearing a latex suit to make him look more muscular. But instead of latex, the suit’s muscle details are actually optical illusions created by light.

Both pictures are the same wall but from different angles. The left image is a frontal view. Notice the bumpiness on the bricks (the right side brick wall). The right image is from another angle, but the bricks are  flat.

Normal mapping can do everything bump mapping can do, and more. I can’t emphasis this enough, but normal mapping isn’t just used to create bumps. You can smooth out a polygonal model and completely hide any sharp edges. Because CG artists are a bunch of douche bags, they like to cause further confusion by calling this bump mapping, when normal mapping isn’t just use to create bumps.

Now for the mind-blowing part. Every console from Dreamcast and on are capable of normal mapping.

To back it up, I have the word of Simon F from the Beyond3d forums. He’s worked in the PowerVR group of Imagination Technologies (nee Videologic) for over 16 years and in other 3D related positions at other companies prior to that. I figured I’d get someone in the know to quote to prevent crazed fan boy outrage.

“Dreamcast had a normal map texture format and could do dot products with an incoming light direction to modify the shading of surfaces (you could even change the opacity if you wanted to).

The normal map vectors, however, were not stored in Cartesian coordinates but in a polar-ish form. At the time I was worried that, if we used Cartesian coordinates, the cost of renormalisation of the vectors in the texture (e.g. due to bilinear filtering) and of the per-vertex light vectors would be too high. I shouldn’t have worried since 1) re-normalisation can be done with relatively little hardware and 2) when other hardware came along that did normal mapping with Cartesian vectors I don’t think it did either.”

Link the Dreamcast patent here.

Did you get all that? Me neither.

The reason I quoted Simon is to dispel any myths about the power required for normal mapping. It isn’t the be all end all of 3D graphics technology, and it isn’t even “next-gen”. I figured it would be better to hear it from someone with real experience in the 3D graphics industry. Just because it wasn’t used doesn’t mean it’s not capable of it.

The first Xbox GPU had hardware support for normal maps. This made it easier for the console to use it. The Wii and PS2 most likely had to use the CPU to do software based normal mapping, and this eats up power from the CPU.

Environment Mapped Bump Mapping (EMBM) – In my opinion, EMBM is by far the most interesting when discussing a weaker hardware like the Wii. EMBM is just bump mapping with an extra coat of light. It can simulate multiple light sources shining on an object; apply environment mapping onto a bump map; fake specular lighting; and — my personal favorite — animate realistic looking water.

Before we go any further, let me clear up environment mapping first. Environment mapping is used to create reflections on polygonal surfaces. While it is possible to perfectly mirror something, it can also simply reflect light. This part is very important, since I made a mistake thinking environment map has to mirror the image, and not just reflect lighting. Many of these effects look very similar, and can be easily confused with one another. I thought DK: Jungle Beat was doing Phong reflections, but it was just environment mapping. Specular lighting can also be faked with EMBM, and vise-versa.

Now then, let’s get back to some of the effects possible thanks to EMBM. As I said before, it can simulate multiple light sources, and it can create bumps. Let’s turn our attention to the screen shot below.

This looks like EMBM, but I can't say for certain since you can do the same thing with normal maps and vice versa.

Look at the lighting on the alien gun. You see how there are different color lights reflecting off of it? That alone created a couple of illusions. It’s telling you there are multiple light sources within the scene, the relative position of the light from the gun, and the surface properties of the gun. Using that information, your mind automatically processes the image into something hard, metallic, and bumpy. Now look at the alien bug creature, and you’ll see the lighting is tracing the contour of the shell. It’s telling you which direction the light is coming from, and the surface properties on the shell. The little bumpy detail is created by the reflection and refraction of light. It creates an optical illusion based on how light bounces off of a hard reflective bumpy surface. What you don’t see is that the light moves along the surface of the creature/gun as it moves. If the light remains perfectly still, it would destroy the illusion. The funny thing is that there may or may not be a dynamic light shining on it. It’s faking so many elements with simple manipulation of lights and color.

If you need more convincing, check out Super Mario Galaxy. That game is the measuring stick for Wii graphics. EMBM is used to create various effects, some subtle, some more eye catching. Just look at the rolling boulders with the red gems. If you pay close attention to them, you’ll see a brief reflection of lighting moving across the surface of the rocky parts. It moves by very quickly, but help add more depth and detail to the boulder. If you think the boulder moves too fast to see it, why not look at the water?

Water is one of my personal favorite graphical effects. It’s inconceivable to think that water could be recreated using bump mapping, but that’s exactly how it’s done. With a combination of moving bump maps and a reflective environment maps, it is able to convincingly simulate the fluid motion of waves with just 4 vertices. What you’re seeing are various bumps moving across the surface while distorting the reflected image. In Mario Galaxy’s case, it’s reflecting light off of the surface of the water. You’ll also notice that you won’t see the reflected light until you’re at a certain angle/distance away from the water. This is a combination of a few more effects that I’ll address later, but it creates a very convincing look and the fluid dynamics of water.

The Gamecube/Wii has built in hardware support for EMBM. Sadly, we rarely got to see the beautiful reflective water that it’s capable of, or used on many surfaces to enhance the look. At least right now on the Wii, there are more games with EMBM rendering for water (especially from 3rd parties) compared to the Gamecube. There’s really no excuse not to have realistic water in the Gamecube, though.

See how the lighting is used to bring out the bumpy details? Seeing it in motion will better explain it.

Parallax Mapping – As we continue to move down the list, the effects get more and more advanced. We’ve finally moved onto something the Wii hasn’t seen before: Parallax Mapping.

While bump mapping adds pertusions, parallax mapping also adds depressions. The groves in brick walls will have extra depth thanks to motion parallax. What it does is distort the texture coordinates based on viewpoint to achieve motion parallax effects. As your viewpoint move, the higher pixels in the height map will move faster, while the lower pixels barely move at all creating motion parallax. The bumps themselves will also pop out more compared to other techniques. This gives the illusion of depth on a flat surface, whereas all the previous effects above only adds geometric detail. Even cooler is the fake bumps can conceal the view of other bumps like real geometry. The only down side is at grazing angles, the textures start to move up incorrectly. It’s very hard to notice, and must be done at grazing angles. There is another downside, but that’s where we have the next effect…

No Parallax Mapping

Parallax Mapping

Parallax mapping also has another use. With its ability to add depth to bumps, parallax maps can be used to create things like 3D bullet holes. Since it’s still very expensive to have the game actually alter the geometry, parallax mapping can give the illusion of a 3D bullet hole without extra polygons.

Parallax Occlusion Mapping – Probably the most advanced bump map on the list. Currently (2009), the only game I know that uses POM is Crysis. Not even the PS3/360 can do it — yet. Whoever is able to get this running in a game on the Wii is a witch and should be burned at the stake.

POM removes the texture problem at steep angle, and also provides occlusion (the absence of light). It is able to properly self-shadow and adds perspective correction to textures. The more precise lighting will solve the swimming problem mentioned before. I really didn’t get to see this in action very much. Crysis isn’t exactly the most friendly game to run on a weaker PC. Things are getting to the point where it’s harder and harder to break it down easily. At the very least, you should understand it can create accurate self-shadows on these fake 3D surfaces. It’s pretty tough to tell them apart from objects rendered with polygons.

This video demonstrates normal, parallax, and parallax occlusion mapping.

Displacement Mapping – I don’t know any game that supports it, or will support it. The reason I went beyond what the Wii’s theoretically limit is because of the crazy displacement mapping patent that Nintendo filed years ago. I never bothered to read it thoroughly because I hate reading patents. It’s such a pain. Whatever that’s there has nothing to do with the Wii. If Nintendo found a way to do displacement mapping their own way, good for them, but that doesn’t mean jack squat for the Wii. Even the PS3/360 can’t render them in realtime.

Displacement mapping uses a height map that actually alters the surface of the polygon. It literally deforms the vertex without adding new polygons to the mesh. It’s like taking clay and molding it into something. You can do a simple demo right now to understand displacement mapping. Take two fingers to pinch your cheeks (the one on your face!!!) and pull it. You’ve just displacement mapped your own face. Your face didn’t actually grow anything, it was just deformed due to the pulling. Your fingers acted like the texture used to displace the vertex on the mesh. The GPU will actually treat the displacement map like real geometry — providing accurate occlusion and self-shadowing. A height map is needed to calculate the new position of the vertex. I think extra hardware like a vertex shader or even the more advanced tessellator is required for this. If not, a very powerful CPU is needed. I can’t name a single game that uses displacement mapping, so just forget about the patent. Oh, and you can let go of your face now.

That about covers the more popular bump mapping effects for now. There are some minor effects I didn’t cover due to lack of knowledge, or they‘re just the same effect with a different name. If you ever see anything that you don’t understand, try googling it, and you might find that it’s something you already know; but with a different name.

Getting all the names correct might not be as important as being able to tell them apart. Remember when everybody thought Wii couldn’t handle normal mapping? Suppose they’re right, but what some might not know is that EMBM is an equally good substitute. EMBM could easily have been used in place of normal mapping, and people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Normal mapping is only more complex due to the lack of hardware support, whereas EMBM is built into the Wii GPU. I could be very wrong about the alien bug creature example from before. When I first started writing this article, The Conduit hasn’t advanced as far as it has today. Right now, I’m doubting whether the example is actually EMBM, but EMBM will look just as good. Unless you actually programmed the game, it’s very hard to tell the difference. I guess due to the hype, normal mapping is perceived to be superior by gamers.

Lights, camera, shadows!

Remember when I compared shading to shading hand-drawn art with your pencil? Imagine lighting as shining a flashlight onto your artwork. Shading (not shader) is a lighting model, while lighting is used to brighten a scene. Where there’s light, there’s shadow. Lighting speaks for itself, but being able to see and appreciate shadowing is tricky. Not only are these effects subtle, but they’re also hardware intensive. Don’t underestimate the power needed to render this black silhouette. It’s also much harder to help you visualize the differences like with the previous bump map section due to its complexity. You either need a high degree of mathematics or just good understanding of how light works in the real world. I don’t understand shadows in 3D graphics very well yet to go too in-depth about them, but I didn’t want to completely avoid talking about it since light and shadows are two sides of the same coin.

Pre-baked Lighting – Also called Light Maps, is lighting and shadows calculated before hand and painted onto the texture. Pre-baked lighting isn’t something rendered in realtime by the GPU. That means they have no affect on other objects; just on the surface it’s painted on. Let say there’s a fireplace, the surrounding walls will glow like it’s being lit by the fire, but if your character walks up to the fire, the light won’t affect your character. If that fire is extinguished, the wall will continue to glow. It’s not like every game will use interactive light, so it won’t be a problem. When used properly, it can improve the look of a game greatly.

Bloom Lighting – One of the most abused effects in recent years. Bloom produces intense light and an optical phenomenon know as “airy disc.” To go in-depth about airy disc would deviate too much into the field of lenses optics, but it’s not hard to see. Airy disc casts a soft blur around the object while the intense light also bleeds into fringe of other objects. If you still don’t understand, just take a look at the picture below.

Besides the bright lights, notice how there’s a fuzzy blur around Samus? That’s the result of bloom.

High Dynamic Range Rendering (HDR) – HDR is like a higher level of bloom. It produces very realistic lighting while preserving a wide range of colors and contrast. According to Nvidia: bright things can be really bright, dark things can be really dark, and details can be seen in both. The thought of seeing more details in dark areas sounds confusing, and I admit I still don’t truly “get” it. Luckily, it’s very easy to see and compare with the images below.

This image I found on wikipedia demonstrates HDR nicely. The brightness is obvious, but also take a close look at the darker areas and compare them. They look darker, and yet you can still see the details better than the non-HDR image.

HDR also computes reflections. When an intense light hits a surfaces, some of that light is also reflected. These reflections are barely noticeable with the older lighting techniques. With HDR, the intense light will also produce an intense reflection. Please don’t confuse this with the reflections I talked about in EMBM. The reflections you see in EMBM doesn’t necessarily mean there’s actually a light shining on the surface; it’s an illusion created with shiny textures. Light from HDR really is light hitting and reflecting off the surface.

The other thing HDR does is add eye adaptation. It’s a simulation of how the pupil copes with changing lighting conditions. There’s a delay in how well you see as you move from a bright place into a dark interior and vise-versa. While you won’t be able to see into a dark interior area from the outside, but your vision will slowly adapt as you go in. Similarly, when you look back out into a bright area, the brightness outside looks greatly intensified. You can barely see anything outside in the bright light, but your dark interior surroundings are quite visible. This is not a feature exclusive to HDR, but I did learn about this from reading about HDR.

I remember HDR being big back in the day. All video cards takes a huge performance hit with it enabled. Both the PS3 and 360 are quite capable of it, but it can be faked on the older systems. It’s been recently confirmed that the Wii is capable of HDR, but it remains to be seen whether they’re faking it or not. If HDR isn’t used carefully, it could end up making games look uglier as a result.

Pre-baked Shadows – Technically, pre-baked lighting already handles shadows as well, but I want to go a little deeper than just a black colors. Used properly, pre-baked shadows can look even better than realtime shadows. These shadows are pre-painted, extra effects like soft edges can be added to increase the realism without taking a hit in performance. If an object casting a shadow is destroyed, the shadow could still be seen. Serious Sam II uses both pre-baked lighting and shadows even on destructible objects. It’s still a good looking game, mind you, but it’s unsettling to see the tree’s shadow on the ground even after I’ve vaporized it.

Look at the shadow on the ground and the tree casting the shadow. The tree is gone from the second pic, but the shadow remains.

Dynamic Shadows – As I said before, my knowledge in shadowing is extremely limited. I still felt it needs to be addresses even with what little I know, because light and shadow are inseparable. When I use the term dynamic shadow, I’m not even sure if it’s a proper term. Perhaps stencil shadows might be more accurate? I’m talking about shadows that actually mimics your character’s movements or rotate depending on the time the position of the sun. Much better than the lousy circle shadows you see in some games. To get a shadow, a model is needed to generate the shadow. By model, I mean a real 3D polygonal model. Imagine a scene out doors with stencil shadows used everywhere. The tree, the leaves, the cliffs, the characters, a fence, and god knows whatever the hell the game needs. That’s a staggering amount of polygons just for some black silhouettes. Luckily, you can cheat by making the shadow model less detailed, but that’s still a lot. PC games like Doom 3 uses very accurate models to generate their shadows. This is also why pre-baked shadows can still have their place since they’re just painted on.

Self-shadowing – The name is self-explanatory. Outside of dynamic shadows, most other shadowing effects are extremely hard to spot the difference. Note the word “self” since that’s exactly what the shadow affects, and nothing else. Any shadows cast onto other objects is a result of other shadows. It really doesn’t get any easier than that. What you might not know is how GPU intensive this is. Even though the Dreamcast is capable of it, I see video card benchmarking games with self shadows turned off. This is probably due to the older systems using less detail geometry putting less stress on the GPU. Like a lot of other shadows, a model is needs to generate the shadows. The more characters and more complex the model, the tougher it is on the GPU. The strengths and weaknesses are the same as stencil shadows. It’s not an eye popping graphical technique, but it’s more processor intensive than you might think.

Notice the hand casts a shadow on its leg? That’s a self shadow.

There is also a “soft” self-shadow that is slightly different. The edges of the shadows have a soft blur that slowly fades as oppose to a solid black color. This is one of the reasons why today’s modern games have horrible shadow edges because they use soft shadows instead of a solid black shadow. Doom 3 doesn’t use soft shadows of any kind, so in some ways, they actually look better. Making the shadows soft once again increases the stress on the GPU. The word “soft” can be applied to anything, it refers to softening the edges.

I know this isn’t realtime, but the soft blur around the shadows with the Doom 3 example from above.

If only more attention was paid to the model detail, lighting, and shadowing, Wii games wouldn’t look so dated. Resident Evil 4 is the perfect example. The human models are quite detailed, and the lighting helps the atmosphere. Now what if someone scotch taped another Gamecubed together and used the extra ram to create more pre-baked shadows from all those trees, and used more bump maps on the rocky surfaces? It wouldn’t look anywhere near Gears of War, but no one would confuse it for a Dreamcast game either.

Now what if there’s still a little power left to render more shaders? What else can you add to enhance the look? There’s a lot more that can be done. They may not be used as wildly as some of the effects mentioned above, but they will add quite a bit to the graphical flare.

Tune next week or whenever the hell I’m done for part 3. No, we’re not even half way through yet.

< Part 1

Graphics is the first and only thing we can experience from a game that is still months or years away. They’re there to give us a first lasting impression — whether it’s good or bad. While gameplay is more important, you can only judge graphics and not gameplay from images. Long before the internet, we had only screen shots to judge a game. Even with advances in technology, we’ve only come so far as being able to see the game in motion. Even then, watching a video doesn’t tell us how the game controls, or how well it plays. Demos don’t come till the game is near completion. So while gameplay is still the all important factor to some of us, we have to agonize over screens and videos until we finally get our hands on it. So let’s start talking about graphics!

I know we’re all tired of the lazy half-assed games by 3rd party Wii developers by now; whether it’s the visuals, the gameplay, the controls, or all of the above. Usually, gameplay and controls don’t depend on a system’s power — just time and skills. What about the graphics? We all know by now that the Wii doesn’t come close to the 360 and PS3 when it comes to graphics, but that doesn’t mean we should accept the vomit pukes out by low level 3rd parties when the less powerful Gamecube is capable of this and this. Honestly, with the way some of the games look, calling the Wii: “Two GameCubes scotch taped together” is a compliment! The irony is that I’ve actually seen good efforts getting lambasted by fans and sites as well. Its probably a combination of unreasonable expectations and ignorance. Art can also attribute to the problem, but good art is very subjective. Maybe if we can understand assorted effects used, we can have a better appreciation for technology we’re seeing, and also develop sensible expectations. While this is written for the Wii crowd, the HD systems play a role. I’m going to try to touch on some misconceptions, basic (very basic) techniques, and even tread on the subjective territory of art.

Godzilla Unleashed was one of the first 3rd party games to use environment map bump mapping on the Wii.

Please note that I am not a game developer, and I have ZERO programming knowledge. What I’ve learned over the years come from extensive research online, and talking to people more knowledgeable than myself. If you’re here expecting example codes for certain shaders, you’re out of luck. If you want to know how the GPU works, you’re out of luck. All I know is that 3D graphics are created with polygons and textures, and this article will only going a little bit beyond that. What I’m trying to do is break things into something easy to digest for the average gamer. We’re picking apart some of the smaller details that aren’t so obvious to the player. I can’t go any further than the surface of what you see.

There’s no such thing as 650p, 600p, or 585p

So what makes the 360 and PS3 so advanced? Is it the HD graphics at 720 or 1080p? Actually, quite a few well known 360 and PS3 games don’t even run at 720p. Halo 3 runs at 650p while COD4 runs at 600p. The recent Ninja Gaiden 2 is 585p. That’s only 105 pixels taller than a Wii game. Honestly now, even if NG2 is but a mere 105 pixels taller, it still blows away whatever the Wii has offer graphically. NG2 has a much higher level of geometry; shaders galore; post processing and filters to enhance the overall scene; lots of high resolution textures; and crazy particle effects fill the screen. Remember, we’re only talking about graphical technology here, and I’m well aware that I’ve left out other things. The PS2 and Xbox can upscale to 720p with clever ways around the frame buffer. Maybe someone could find a solution around the Wii’s smaller frame buffer, but at this point, resolution doesn’t matter. At least it doesn’t prove the Wii is anymore powerful than it really is. I can get my DVD player to upscale to 720p, but that doesn’t automatically make it a Hi-Def player. Things like shaders matter more.

Oh, and the title isn’t a joke. There’s really no such thing as 585p, etc. I use it because people can immediately understand I’m talking about the resolution. The reason I use it is because I have no clue what the horizontal pixel resolution for these games are.

Fun with shaders

The Wii can’t do shaders, or at least that’s what the lazy developers would have you believe. It’s true that the Wii can’t do shaders in the sense that you can’t take the code and have it run on the Wii. The Wii and Gamecube uses something called TEV (Texture Environment). It’s just a different way to do the same thing. The problem also lies in that you need to convert the shaders to into something the Wii can understand. Now I’m going to give you a slightly risky example — I say risky because I don’t know whether some computer geek  might point out some flaws and jump all over me over the example. Running shaders on the Wii is like trying to run a program on PC and Mac. Both the PC and Mac can do the same thing, but you need to reprogram it to run on the other machine. If the Wii/GC couldn’t do shaders, you wouldn’t have effects like bloom lighting, bump maps, self-shadows, and among others. Hell, the PS2 and Dreamcast can do these effects. Just because it uses shaders doesn’t mean it has to look mind-blowing. With the Wii, the question should be how many different shaders it can run and how complex can they be.

Pics from PC games will be use throughout this article for easy screenshot purposes.

Let’s get to the basics of what is a shader first. Here’s a quick and easy to understand definition I found online: “A shader defines the final surface properties of an object. For example, a shader can define the color, reflectivity, and translucency of a surface.” If it was as simple as that, I wouldn’t be writing this. What it doesn’t tell you is that shaders can also be either a hardware or software. You can have a video card/console built with X number of shaders, or you can write a shader program and have it run on a machine. Not only that, but shaders themselves are also split into two categories: Vertex Shaders and Pixel Shaders (I’m aware of Geometry Shaders in DX10). Shaders are used to add a wide range of visual effects. I already gave you some examples in the previous paragraph.

The Wii doesn’t have Vertex Shaders in the hardware. Luckily, Vertex Shaders can be emulated through software. I heard the Wii either handles this through the CPU, or some other different hardware feature. Vertex Shaders are used to manipulate vertices, and they also drive the Pixel Shader (more on this later). One of the simplest functions a Vertex Shader does is animation. Every game has animation. What used to be done with CPU are now handled through the Vertex Shaders. The waves you see in water would be a more subtle example of Vertex Shader at work.

The Wii’s TEVs perform some of the same functions as a pixel shader — but with some differences (which I don’t know). First of all, Pixel Shaders control each pixel you see on screen. The easiest way to think of a Pixel Shader is that it colors the pixel. They can handle something as simple as lighting an object, to adding an incredible amount of detail to a polygon. Imagine a modern game where there would be anywhere from 1-2 million pixels each frame is being rendered, colored, and lit all done 60 (or 30) times a second. The amount of control you have over the image is unprecedented, but that doesn’t make Vertex Shaders obsolete. I couldn’t find any idiots guide to how both vertex and Pixel Shaders work together; but from what I can understand, there are effects that require information from the Vertex Shader before the Pixel Shader kicks in. My best guess would something like a knight in shining armor under various lighting conditions. The armor won’t reflect light unless it moves into the light, and the intensity of the reflection differs at various angles of movement. Remember, Vertex Shaders also control animation. The problem with the Wii (and GC) is that the TEVs are fixed function. What this means is that you can’t control it as well of the modern programmable shaders. The programmers are limited by the algorithms implemented in the GPU. Modern GPUs allow the programmer to use the pipelines however they please by writing their own shaders. I believe the Wii’s architecture of the system is closer to the more primitive T&L (Transform and Light) rendering. Factor 5 found ways around this limitation, but as to how they do it is completely beyond me. Just know that the TEVs are fixed function and less flexible compared to Pixel Shaders; but it’s powerful enough that if you’re smart, you won’t be too restricted by it. A perfect example would be HDR running on the Wii. Before Cursed Mountain, nobody thought it was possible for hardware before DX8’s to support HDR. Now the real question is how well can the game run with HDR. HDR is a very intensive effect; even on a high powered video card. You can easily cut your frame rate in half with HDR enabled.

ShadER =/= ShadING

Don’t you just love tech jargon? It’s bad enough that they have so many different terms, they also have multiple names for the same effect; and similar words for two completely different effects. Shader should not be confused with shading. Shading refers to a lighting model (should not be confused with lighting effects) used to shade everything. It’s not unlike the shading that you would use for hand-drawn art work.

We started out with flat shading (see Star Fox on the SNES) where each side of the polygon is a single color, and the adjacent polygon would be a slightly different shade of the same color, and so on and so forth. It was quickly outdated, so we didn’t see too many flat shaded polygons in games.

We quickly graduated to Gouraud shading by the time the PS1 came out. It looks way more realistic compared to flat shading, but is still flawed. Gouraud shading interpolates (estimation) the colors on a polygon. Because it is only an estimate, the results aren’t perfect. You really have to look very hard to notice the flaws. I have to say, though, I’m tired of Gouraud shading.

Now we’ve moved onto Phong shading, or per-pixel lighting. Per-pixel lighting does just as the name implies. No more estimates, no more single colored surfaces, and every single pixel is lit individually. This lighting model is quite possible on the GC and Xbox, but wasn’t widely adapted until this generation. Obviously, it is the most hardware intensive of the 3, but it’s pretty much flawless. The picture below is a good comparison.

This is a superior comparison picture.

The difference between flat and the other 2 are quite clear, but if you can’t see the difference between Phong and Gouraud shading, just look at the edges of the lighting in the Gouraud shading orb and compare it with the Phong shaded orb. Phong shading hides the polygons better with better shading. This is kind of hard to tell in a game environment, but it should give you a clearer understanding of how it works.

Part 2>

WARNING: The following article contains foul language. You have been warned.

So there I was, sitting in front of my computer, and clicking on some random youtube link I saw — it was a video review. Right away comes a guy grabbing beer from his fridge. So what is this, the Angry Nintendo Nerd? Well, the guy looks kinda nerdy — with his white shirt, pocket full of pens, and the glasses… Oh great, he’s going to complain about the first TMNT on the NES? Oh well, I had nothing better to do anyway, so I decided give it a watch. To be quite honest, that was my first youtube video review, ever. At first, he sounded a bit nitpicky, but as he went on, memories of my childhood came rushing back — the beautiful memories of the second game with my friend, followed by the disappointing prequel; memories of my meager (but damn good) game collection that lacked a TMNT title; followed by memories of the Christmas that a relative bought me a TMNT game. By then, I had 2 out of 3 chances of getting one that kicks ass, instead, I was handed a piece of ass. Yes, I was disappointed, but I still played it with the excitement of a new game (that I hadn’t played in years) back then. Watching the nerd rip apart the game was like seeing my childhood being liberated — liberated from the cage of denial. Watching the AVGN tearing it apart was therapeutic for me. Watching that guy made me laugh! Watching that video made me a fan.

That’s a true story.

As I saw more and more of his videos, his fan base also grew. Pretty soon, I’m hearing my own real-life and internet friends talking about him. To quote one of my friends, “He’s not just known on youtube, you can bring up the AVGN at other non-game related forums, and you’d find fans of his.” Slowly, interviews started appearing, and by now, most fans know the creation of the nerd like the back of their hand. His videos are even breaking down the language barrier to draw in not just European, but Korean fans as well. Right now, his popularity is just starting to seep into mainstream media, and I’m willing to bet that that’s not the last we’ll see of it. He has his own merchandise, makes appearances to autograph signings, and a bonafide internet phenomenon. So how did a small time independent filmmaker become such a beloved person on the internet? How is he able to bring together gamers of all race, gender, and even those who’re younger than the games he reviews? What makes him special and stand out from the rest of the online video reviewers? In this article, I hope to look at what makes the AVGN popular to his fans. Honestly, I just wrote this because I thought it would be fun for me, and fellow AVGN fans.

Seeing how this is a game site, obviously, the first appeal is that he talks about games. For those of you still completely in the dark, the AVGN reviews bad games. Granted, not all of the games he reviews are as bad as he says, but the main idea is to entertain people. Believe it or not, I don’t just watch it for the games, but to watch games entertain me in a different fashion. We know there are shabby game based movie adaptation, and even game magazines disguised as a TV show on cable, but the AVGN are neither of those things. There are hundreds of other youtube reviewers out there, some good, some bad, but many of them serves as a straight up review. The AVGN isn’t just here to tell us this game sucks, he’s here to make us laugh or cry. We’re being entertained even if the person playing isn’t. Think about this for a moment — do you need the nerd to tell you that Shaq Fu sucks? The truth might be that deep in your subconscious, you watch it to be entertained. I know I don’t click on a review wondering if the game in question is good or bad, because they’re all bad. Don’t get me wrong, the games do play a part of making his videos a success. Fans (myself included) enjoy speculating on what game he’ll review next, and hope to see their favorite crap get crapped on. He makes it fun to watch, but I’m willing to bet the nerd wasn’t having fun when he was playing. Notice I said ‘make you laugh or cry’ before? Well, the cry part refers to how I feel when I watch an especially bad game. Watching him play was enough to frustrate me, imagine how bad he feels since he has to play it. Once again, we can watch it cause it’s fun. There’s no way I’d be willing to watch a straight up normal review of Dragon’s Lair on the NES.

I think because he approaches each review more as entertainment than a simple review, that he is able to come up with a different style or theme each time. Sometimes the videos make us laugh for different reasons. He started out just as a man sitting around critiquing games, and it worked well, but that didn’t stop him from trying different things. Sometimes he would bring in his friend, Mike Matei, as special guess star on the show. Even then it’s still anything goes. You could be watching the cowardly lion from Wizard of Oz swear, or see Bugs Bunny get the snot kicked out of him. My personal favorite involve games so bad it’s good. In this case, the comedy isn’t just provided by the nerd, but the pure suckage of the game along with the nerd comes together in a huge laugh riot. The Atari Porn games would be one such example of me laughing at the jokes, and laughing at the game. Fans seem split on what style they like or which review is better. Some say his older reviews were better, while others continue to enjoy each new episode. I find it fascinating that people who watch a man for his opinions would argue with other fans about their opinions. I’m willing to bet that if he didn’t try to experiment with different styles, the show would probably be stale by now.

Another thing that makes it interesting is that the AVGN is a character. He has his trademark costume, his looks, his foul temper, his vocabulary, and his drinking. The nerd curses, but so does everyone, but when the nerd curses, it’s usually funny. Look, I can say fuck right now. Did that make you laugh? What about the line: “It’s like trying to stick your dick in a cheerio?” It’s over the top silly tongue in cheek humor that makes the swear funny. It also makes him one of the most quotable person online. I even caught myself screaming “what a shit load of fuck” when I lose at a game. I’m not going to beat around the bush and tell you this is high class entertainment, but it’s become part of his character that it feels wrong not to see him swear. And you gotta love the drinking to soothe the pain. I can actually see someone going into alcoholism if they had to play so many bad games. People are now even associating beer brands with the nerd. You know you’re a character when people want to dress up as you for Halloween.

I know I found my next Halloween costume… If I could afford all those rockets, missiles, and tanks. Oh well, I guess I’ll settle for Space Marine AVGN then.

The more I watch the nerd, the more I begin to appreciate his cinematography skills. While watching the nerd, I also started watching other reviews on youtube to tie me over till the next episode. At first, I didn’t notice it, but the more I watch, the more I begin to appreciate his skills in cinematography. Compare to some (not all, of course) other reviews that are either badly lit, off screen game footage, or devoid of any camera work. The AVGN videos often possess a clear image with some dynamic shots to show off the scene. It wasn’t until the 2006 Halloween Special that many of us got a glimpse of the true talent within. Using his skills, he put together a mini horror-movie-game-review to showcase his love of horror, and let his filmmaking skills shine. I can’t speak for everyone else, but for me, that video was also the one that opened my eyes to the wide range of works he’s done. To me, he wasn’t just the AVGN anymore, he was filmmaker, James Rolfe.

Remember I said we watch the AVGN because he entertains us? The exposure gave his other works a chance in the spotlight, and it just opened up a whole new world for his fans, and for James himself. For a filmmaker, it’s important to have an audience, and for us fans, we were given more entertainment. Sure, his work isn’t going universally appeal to everyone, but at the very least, it shows that he’s not just a one trick pony. I’m not a horror zombie fan in the least bit, but I went ahead and watched The Deader The Better, and loved it. Like me, other people weren’t just AVGN fans anymore, they were James Rolfe fans. Although he now spends a majority of his time making his AVGN videos, he also dabbles in other projects while showing off more of his old work. Another one of his short satirical rant series known as “You Know What’s Bullshit” has a mere seven parts so far, but the hilarious rant quickly gained support from fans. Watching his documentary on his life and love of filmmaking opened our eyes and allowed us to get to know the him better. It showed off his dedication, and how he developed as a filmmaker in his youth. He was able to break away from the Angry Nerd character, and gave me a look at the real James Rolfe. In my opinion, being able to break away from his character is the biggest secret to his popularity. He’s no longer just a character, but a regular person that many of us fans can connect with. I’ve heard of first hand accounts from other people who met James personally, and expected him to be more flamboyant; but instead, he met a guy who was down to earth and almost seems shy.

Another thing that I personally find fascinating is that I get to see a phenomenon being born before my very eyes. I’m the kind of guy who likes to observe from the shadows and watch things grow. It’s probably also why I enjoy games like Sim City and Harvest Moon. I got to see him go from relatively unknown, to listening to his radio interview on satellite radio, but with success also comes the downfalls of success. By downfall, I don’t mean James himself, but rather the fan base grows out of hand. It’s funny and sad to see that to this very day, people still take some of the Nerd’s word far too seriously. You’d think that after watching a man take a dump all over Bugs Bunny’s face, people would realize these reviews aren’t meant to be taken seriously, but all too often you’ll see someone whine about a game they like being trashed on. The most hilarious of which is seeing Mischief Makers appear in an intro causing a bit of a ruckus among fans. Of course, in the very same video, Fatal Fury Special also showed up in the intro, but no one said a thing about it. To quote the Nerd’s FAQ: “If you take my reviews seriously, you are missing the whole point. Think for yourself. I may actually like some of the games I’m complaining about. I only focus on the negative. Some of my complaints may be legit and others far fetched.” That’s not to say his reviews don’t have their points since I myself agree with his TMNT review quite a bit. His points are pretty dead on, but also exaggerated in some games. While I haven’t encountered any reviews that I disagree with — mainly because I’ve never played most of them — but as a fan, I actually look forward to seeing him rip apart a game that I enjoyed as a kid — Godzilla: Monster of Monsters. If the game gets blasted to hell, you won’t see me get bent out of shape over it.

Cheer up Marina, James doesn’t really hate you… I think…

The worst offense of all are fans going around harassing other youtube video reviewers’ account. Some are imitating the nerd, while others are just trying to do their thing; but to harass someone who is most likely a fellow AVGN fan by other AVGN fans just reflects badly among us more…normal fans. They go so far as to start this idiotic feud with fans of another popular youtube reviewer. This fanatic behavior was even been parodied by The — very funny — Nostalgia Critic, but a quick look at some of the comments in that video just makes you lose hope for humanity. Then again, this is youtube. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad. Some of us are even trying to distant ourselves from these crazed people who are nicknamed the AVGN Nazis. In my mind, these guys aren’t fans, these people are out to make James and his fan base look bad. Right now, there are hundreds of people on youtube making their own video reviews. Some might have been inspired by the nerd, while others just want to be heard. Those who understand his success were able to see beyond just the reviews, while others who lack originality gets the boot. While I admit some fans go a bit overboard on lambasting anyone who even slightly makes an angry review, even I roll my eyes at the blatant uninspired reviews that try to capitalize on this new trend. Now the Happy Video Game Nerd is someone who takes the formula, and gives it a completely original (not to mention simple) twist, thus achieving his own success. I mean, review good games, what a concept! I’m surprise no one thought of this sooner! Now all we need is the Emotionless Video Game Nerd to reviews decent games.

When I first wrote this, the 8th “You Know What’s Bullshit” video hadn’t even been released yet. He’s still one of the top ranking youtube directors, and just got his name on IMDB. His fan base is becoming bigger by the minute. His fame’s already spread as far as Korea where his subtitled Silver Surfer review became a hit. Kyle Justin’s theme song is instantly recognizable, while everyone and their cat is trying to sing the same song on youtube. His first DVD release was sold out in a few days, and the autographed edition was gone within hours (ARRRGGHHH!). Over zealous fans continue to bicker on the forums over whether they like the newest episode or not. As you can see, the Angry Video Game Nerd isn’t going anywhere. Hopefully, I was able to shed some light on what and why he’s popular — at least in my eyes. Who knows, maybe you don’t agree, and have a completely different opinion on why you like him. Whatever the reason, I respect the guy and wish for his continued success.

Originally, I wanted to end this article with a little interview with James, but I realize he’s very busy and probably won’t be able to answer them in a timely fashion. Plus, the recent events have urged me to speed up my plans on the next article. This one was written purely for my own personal entertainment. Instead, I’ll hold back on that and just post this first, and follow up with an interview later.

Cow Cow

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