I know from a very basic standpoint that game devs create a model for a character/object, but how exactly do they keep consistency? Do they use that same exact model for all cutscenes, different angles, different depth distances etc? As in if a model of a character was a mile away, could you theoretically walk all the way up to that model and it would be the same perspective as if you were walking up to a real person/object? Or say for instance you had a camera shot from the foot of a character model looking up at them, is that the same model used for every other shot to keep consistency? Sorry if I’m making no sense here lmao this has just been bugging me
In: Technology
There’s a few things they do to make this work.
Mainly, LOD (Level of Detail), meaning they make a nice high detail model for close up shots, then simplify that model a few times, reducing it’s complexity, and swap it in and out on the fly.
Psyk60 pointed out you can sometimes see this in games.
Other tricks that aren’t really modelling, but semi-related, are normal and displacement maps. Normal maps affect how light reflects off the model, and they can use that to simulate higher detail than there actually is.Displacement maps can affect the geometry itself (maybe DX12 tessellation, I’m absolutely guessing here) or just displace the pixel, which looks nice, just has some limitations and performance improvements.
I’m no expert, that’s all based on my limited Blender knowledge and interest in the area 🙂
EDIT: I pointed out the normal/displacement maps because sometimes you could get away with not having a different model, and just having fancy maps, but usually a combination of both since simple models are easy to spot (old games with pointy faces, etc)
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