EricChadwick
16-11-2004, 08:48 PM
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf1.html
"Beautiful, Yet Friendly, Parts 1 & 2"
by Guillaume Provost, Pseudo Interactive.
These great articles originally appeared in Game Developer magazine. If you missed them, they're now available online, courtesy Mr. Provost (and a little time I spent with some optical character recognition software).
He offers tons of useful info about how game engines treat your art, and how to squeeze the most juice out of your engine's performance.
Many of the senior artists probably know this kind of info already, but I think many more of you will appreciate the insights. I know I did, even though I've been at it for awhile. Most of this I learned the hard way, on the job, pestering programmers to explain it in a way my non-coder brain could understand. Or by struggling through technical whitepapers and hardware reviews. I wonder if any school courses are teaching this to the game art students these days?
Admittedly, some of the subject matter may be difficult to wrap your head around. It may take multiple readings for things to sink in, it did for me. But I think much of it is essential information if you want your framerate to improve.
Some of the points I tend to disagree with, like keeping texels an even density across the entire character (although he makes it clear this is an issue for particular hardware). Other issues may not be relevant on next-gen hardware either, but most of it still holds true.
I'd like to hear what you think.
"Beautiful, Yet Friendly, Parts 1 & 2"
by Guillaume Provost, Pseudo Interactive.
These great articles originally appeared in Game Developer magazine. If you missed them, they're now available online, courtesy Mr. Provost (and a little time I spent with some optical character recognition software).
He offers tons of useful info about how game engines treat your art, and how to squeeze the most juice out of your engine's performance.
Many of the senior artists probably know this kind of info already, but I think many more of you will appreciate the insights. I know I did, even though I've been at it for awhile. Most of this I learned the hard way, on the job, pestering programmers to explain it in a way my non-coder brain could understand. Or by struggling through technical whitepapers and hardware reviews. I wonder if any school courses are teaching this to the game art students these days?
Admittedly, some of the subject matter may be difficult to wrap your head around. It may take multiple readings for things to sink in, it did for me. But I think much of it is essential information if you want your framerate to improve.
Some of the points I tend to disagree with, like keeping texels an even density across the entire character (although he makes it clear this is an issue for particular hardware). Other issues may not be relevant on next-gen hardware either, but most of it still holds true.
I'd like to hear what you think.