Game Test 3: "Trolls Lair"
The third game test is supposed to be more representative of an RPG. This test is another DX8 test that uses many of the features used within Game Test 2.
Like Game Test 2 this is another DX8 test and it uses many of the same principals. Normal Mapping is used to simulate high geometry loads and Stencil Buffers are used to produce real time shadow effects. The same lighting model is used via PS1.1 or PS1.4, if the hardware supports it, and PS1.4 will utilise fewer passes. The same post processing effects are used in this test as in game test 2, if enabled, and the Havok engine is used for the Physics of the test.
Where this test differs greatly from Game Test 2 is with heroine of the test's hair! Rather then simulating hair via per pixel effects, each strand of the main character hair is geometrically generated, individually. The hair follows a custom physics model which is affected by three forces: gravity, hair stiffness and hair curl. The rendering of the hair also uses Anisotropic Lighting, which is an effect that can simulate fine grain effects for lighting.
Game Test 3 Technical Summary:
- DX8 hardware with PS1.1 support required
- 128MB onboard memory required to ensure no host texture uploading during the test
- Vertex Processing via VS1.1
- Pixel Processing uses either PS1.1 or PS1.4 if supported
- Most objects have a colour map, a normal map, and a lookup table for specular and diffuse reflection. Characters are vertex shader skinned.
- Dynamic Shadows via Stencil Buffer
- Utilises Havok real-time physics engine, custom physics model for characters hair
- Approximately 560,000 polygons are rendered per frame using 1.1 Pixel Shaders. With 1.4 Pixel Shaders this number is lowered to approximately 280,000 due to reduced number of rendering passes.
- 64MB video memory used for textures, 19MB for vertex buffers and 2MB for index buffers.
