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NVIDIA GeForce 256 Preview (Page 6/10)

Posted: October 11, 1999
Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

More on Lighting

Have you ever seen a tree in a 3D game? Maybe you have, but you failed to noticed the detail. Trees in games are rarely made of more than a few hundred triangles, at best. This is because it's been nearly impossible to simulate an organic item due to the nature of its shape. I mean, it could be done, but there would be a major speed hit. Are you ready for something wild? Check out the pics below. Believe me, it's worth the wait.

Normal	Wireframe
Click to enlarge (1600x1200 image)	Click to enlarge (1600x1200 image)

See those little objects in the sky? Those are fireflies, courtesy of GeForce 256's eight free hardware lights. And guess what? This tree demo was still smooth as silk, even after making all of the branches even thicker and more realistic. Now, let's see a closeup of the tree...

Click to enlarge

Has your jaw dropped yet? And to think, these are heavily compressed JPEG images. Seeing this tree in real life, in motion, on a GeForce 256, is astounding. It sure is incredible to see what the GeForce 256's T&L engines are capable of handling. With my TNT2 Ultra this demo barely even moves.

Click to enlarge

Per-pixel lighting was clearly shown by the Wanda demo. This amazingly detailed woman was an example of how organic characters will look in real-time. The per-pixel lighting is demonstrated in the hair. As she turns her head, each strand of hair catches the light one at a time. As you can tell, these highly detailed models could lead to even more realistic game play.