Art pipeline
To harness the power of the modern rendering pipeline, Blitz
Tech Tools feature a dynamic material editor which facilitates full
interactive control and preview of material shader effects such as
per-pixel lighting, multiple texture stages, normal mapping,
environment mapping and refraction in real-time. The interactive
design of the Editor places the ability to build highly complex
effects into the hands of the artists. PC, Xbox 360™ and
PlayStation 3™ are all fully supported.
Visual Shader Editing
To ensure that artists have as much power as possible with the creation of these effects, a visual drag-and-drop user interface has been created allowing new shader effects to be visually constructed from components without requiring editing of the shader code. This interface allows artists to create new effects from a library of components without in-depth technical know-how, encouraging experimentation.
Real-time Material Preview
See immediate results of all material changes mapped on actual game assets, or use one of the many stock meshes and textures. Every material is parameterised to give control over the final effect, with any changes updated immediately in the real-time preview window.
Library of Customisable Effects
Every database includes a library of stock material effects that can be used straight away or as a base for a game-specific effect. All of the library materials can be edited and tweaked using the integrated shader editor. Alternatively new materials can be constructed from scratch. Each of the parameterised inputs and outputs are shown and can be simply added or removed. Syntax highlighting aids editing at the shader code level by increasing readability. The parameters are easily adjusted within the editor, giving vital artist tweak control.Stock materials include:
Normal Mapping
Normal map shaders are a key technology, allowing fine surface lighting detail to be added to game meshes, making them appear many times more complex than they are.
Parallax Mapping
A virtual displacement map technique that can greatly enhance the three dimensional appearance of surfaces.
Cube Mapping
The included cube map shader utilises a technique for rendering environmental reflections using separate reflection textures for each axis.
Refraction Mapping
Full pixel control over refraction is provided using the refraction shader supplied with the Editor library for effects such as textured glass and water surfaces.Fur
Our latest fur shader moves well beyond the previous state of the art multiple shell technique to develop an entirely new process allowing much greater artist control of hair length, movement and direction.
Sub-Surface Scattering
This technique models the transmission of light through an object as well as the usual direct lighting model. Materials such as marble, plastic and wax show this property clearly. It is also just one building block of a full skin shader.
Skin Shader
The skin shader included in Blitz Tech uses many layers in subtle combination to produce convincing skin lighting.
Eye Shader
Much of a character's realism comes from the appearance of the eyes. The library includes a specific shader for eyes to simulate the specular highlights seen on the iris and cornea.Cinematic Effects
Just as in pre-rendered and film footage, image postprocessing is now becoming very important to the final appearance. The engine provides stock effects that adjust and composite over the image in real-time.
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
HDR gives an essential vibrancy to current generation titles. It allows a wider range of light and dark to be rendered without loss of detail. The HDR image is converted down to a standard image in real-time every frame. The parameters of this process are controlled by tone mapping � a process that simulates how the eyes adjust to light and dark situations over time. A frequently-seen visual effect combined with HDR is bloom where very bright areas bleed light over the surrounding area. HDR can also be combined with image-based lighting that uses light reflected in the scene to create more complex lighting.
Depth of Field
To simulate the focus range and length effects seen through a camera lens, a depth of field shader effect is included as a post-process effect which operates in real-time. It allows, for example, objects closer to the view to be in focus and distant ones to be blurred.
SSAO
Screen space ambient occlusion is a cutting edge post-process effect to simulate ambient lighting in real-time. It adds a huge degree of realism and depth to a scene and can be combined seamlessly with other lighting and shadowing techniques.It has no pre-computed element so is highly suited to dynamic objects where shading will be updated to reflect the scene in real-time. It also means no need for costly rendering of ambient occlusion texture maps. Our pipeline fully supports this effect and allows for a high degree of adjustment to suit the scene.
Motion Blur
Although motion blur originates as a side effect of camera exposure in film, it is an effect that is frequently recreated in graphics, to give an impression of speed or realistic filmic quality. Two principle classes of post-process effect are supported – full screen blur and localized blurring based on the velocity of individual objects in the scene.
Procedural shaders
Fully procedural shaders can be used to create visual effects entirely through algorithms, for example to simulate the flow of liquid over a surface, fractal patterns, noise or other turbulent effects not possible through traditional animation techniques.Wii™ Effects
The Wii™ graphics hardware is incredibly flexible and fully supported by our engine and tools to create highly configurable effects:
Embossing
A bump mapping technique similar to normal mapping this effect provides a surface relief appearance that increases perceived detail.
Variable environment mapping
A powerful technique using multiple channels to control how environment maps are blended enables a wealth of visual and lighting effects to be recreated with much more subtlety than traditional uniform shiny surface.
Distort mapping
Use of multiple texture channels to offset textures on a per-texel basis allowing impression warp and displacement effects to be created such as liquid surfaces, shockwaves and magical effects.The effects and materials above are a subset of those implemented in our current Blitz Tech. Work is in progress to enhance the material library with effects such as parallax occlusion mapping. The library of materials will be continuously expanded as new techniques are devised.
