How Crimson Desert Fakes Realism (It’s Genius) — Transcript

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1. 0:02One of the main visual features of
2. 0:04Crimson Desert is this.
3. 0:07But what is this? And how could they use
4. 0:10it everywhere?
5. 0:12While a lot of players reported some
6. 0:14flickering and visual glitches here and
7. 0:16there,
8. 0:17most environment artists and many other
9. 0:20devs have been trying to put the finger
10. 0:22on how Pearl Abyss did it.
11. 0:25How could their engine get away with
12. 0:27using this effect everywhere without
13. 0:30crippling the performances?
14. 0:33And I'm talking about running the game
15. 0:35on a high-end PC that has no issues.
16. 0:38This is not meant to start a debate
17. 0:39around the base PS5 version and how come
18. 0:42the game looks like this on this console
19. 0:45and all that jazz. Let's keep our focus
20. 0:47here.
21. 0:48You can hear my assumption in this video
22. 0:50that I made a few weeks ago.
23. 0:53I was concluding that it was
24. 0:54displacement with a distance from the
25. 0:56camera system to turn it on and off.
26. 0:59Many in the comment section suggested it
27. 1:01was in fact parallax occlusion mapping.
28. 1:04But me and many other devs that I talked
29. 1:06to and others online were not convinced.
30. 1:10In my case, the specific reason I did
31. 1:12not believe it was POM or parallax
32. 1:14occlusion mapping was that the
33. 1:16silhouettes were not flat
34. 1:19like it's usually the case with POM.
35. 1:22And here's another thing suggesting that
36. 1:24it was not your standard parallax
37. 1:26occlusion mapping. While it's really
38. 1:28cool to see the effect appear when
39. 1:30reaching a certain distance, parallax
40. 1:32occlusion mapping or let's call it POM
41. 1:35should not be visible in the depth
42. 1:37buffer. It is rendered later on in the
43. 1:39pipeline and would usually not be seen
44. 1:41here at all. By the way, this is done
45. 1:44using ReShade which is a great tool,
46. 1:46free and open source that you can use if
47. 1:49you run the game on your PC.
48. 1:51Link will be in the description.
49. 1:54For those who might not be familiar with
50. 1:56these topics, let's say that
51. 1:58displacement, which relies on vertices,
52. 2:01so geometry, takes the information from
53. 2:04a height map and with the added geometry
54. 2:07created by the tessellation, which is
55. 2:09really like adding a lot of vertices, it
56. 2:12then pushes in and out those vertices to
57. 2:14create depth.
58. 2:16Parallax occlusion mapping simulates
59. 2:19displacement by shifting UV coordinates
60. 2:22based on camera angle and height. And it
61. 2:25does not add any geometry.
62. 2:28That's why it's cutting straight at the
63. 2:29edge.
64. 2:31Regarding performance,
65. 2:33displacement is usually more expensive
66. 2:35because of the increased vertex count,
67. 2:37while parallax occlusion mapping is a
68. 2:39pixel shader trick. It's considered
69. 2:42moderately expensive, so less than
70. 2:44displacement.
71. 2:48Logically, that must be the technique
72. 2:50Pearl Abyss chose, right? Seeing that it
73. 2:53is everywhere and that the general
74. 2:55performances of the game are stable. I
75. 2:57mean, the FPS is holding up, right?
76. 3:00Except this fact.
77. 3:02POM doesn't do silhouette. And we can
78. 3:05see the wall silhouettes on every wall
79. 3:08corner in the game.
80. 3:10So, the mystery remained.
81. 3:12And since Pearl Abyss did not officially
82. 3:14reveal what techniques were used, we
83. 3:17have been left to speculate.
84. 3:20But some people are very curious and
85. 3:22wanted to get to the bottom of this.
86. 3:25In my first video on the game, the one
87. 3:27about the engine, I mentioned the next
88. 3:29dev from Pearl Abyss talking about the
89. 3:31team being obsessed with optimization
90. 3:34and that they were using very old
91. 3:35techniques that are nowadays not
92. 3:37forgotten, but not common for modern
93. 3:40games. So, this gentleman, Georgian
94. 3:43Avram Iancu,
95. 3:45sorry if the pronunciation is incorrect.
96. 3:48So, he posted this on X. He says it
97. 3:51appears to be parallax mapping with
98. 3:53offset limiting.
99. 3:54And it can easily be switched on and
100. 3:56off.
101. 3:57He also gave the link to a paper which
102. 3:59is from the early 2000s, which I will
103. 4:01get back to in a minute and link in the
104. 4:03description, of course. Another dev
105. 4:05named Joshua Stubbles suggested that it
106. 4:08was indeed what Pearl Abyss used for
107. 4:11their game and it was also called SPOM
108. 4:15or silhouette parallax occlusion
109. 4:17mapping. So, let's take a look at the
110. 4:19magic trick. This is also an old
111. 4:21document, but look at the issue with
112. 4:23standard POM.
113. 4:25So, you got your normal mapping, which
114. 4:27we're all used to, we learned that in
115. 4:28schools. It's basically one of the first
116. 4:30things we learn. But look at the edge of
117. 4:32the wall with the parallax occlusion
118. 4:34mapping
119. 4:36and you understand that it's quite
120. 4:37limiting. And it's usually used for
121. 4:40ground. So, it's like a continuous
122. 4:42surface
123. 4:43on which you can put, you know, of
124. 4:45course, rocks, uh twigs,
125. 4:47grass, absolutely anything. So, it's
126. 4:50really easy to fix this issue.
127. 4:53But on walls,
128. 4:55uh we have certain limitations. But then
129. 4:57with the parallax occlusion mapping with
130. 4:59silhouette or silhouette parallax
131. 5:02occlusion mapping,
132. 5:03this issue is gone.
133. 5:05And the cost remains reasonable. So,
134. 5:08this is another example where it does
135. 5:10bricks very nicely like we can see here.
136. 5:13And this was used commonly, but we
137. 5:15needed to add beams or columns to hide
138. 5:17the hard edge of the flat geometry. But
139. 5:20SPOM or silPOM for silhouette parallax
140. 5:24occlusion mapping seems to be solving
141. 5:26this issue. I will add many links in the
142. 5:29description so you can find a lot of
143. 5:31reading material. There are some very
144. 5:33intense definitions, but some of you
145. 5:35might be interested in reading that.
146. 5:37It's also interesting to see that
147. 5:38CryEngine was using this technique more
148. 5:41than 10 years ago. In case you were not
149. 5:43aware, CryEngine is or was available for
150. 5:46free and before Unreal Engine 4 and 5,
151. 5:50it was the next gen engine that anyone
152. 5:52could use. I remember using it a few
153. 5:54times while in school 13 years ago
154. 5:57and back then we were using Unreal
155. 5:59Engine 3. I know, I'm old and I hated
156. 6:02Unreal Engine at the time. It was clunky
157. 6:05and ugly and had so many issues.
158. 6:07CryEngine was so ahead of this. It was
159. 6:10just a blast working with this engine.
160. 6:12Anyways, I will put the link to the
161. 6:14documentation from CryEngine that
162. 6:16explains that SPOM is like using
163. 6:18tessellation without actually being
164. 6:21tessellated. You know, this kind of
165. 6:23wizardry. And same thing for this video
166. 6:25that shows this very technique and you
167. 6:28can see that it can very well be what
168. 6:30Pearl Abyss has been using in their
169. 6:32Black Space engine. Also, it was
170. 6:34possible to use this technique in Unreal
171. 6:36Engine 4 in 2015.
172. 6:39So, it's really nothing new and it's
173. 6:41high-level optimization and shader
174. 6:43trickery.
175. 6:45You can see here that the movement that
176. 6:47you see on the edge of the screen is
177. 6:49typical of POM.
178. 6:51Displacement does not do that. So, it
179. 6:53further proves, quote unquote, that this
180. 6:56is what is being used here. So, while
181. 6:59many people playing the game are
182. 7:01complaining about some weird visual
183. 7:03flickering and glitches that annoys
184. 7:05them, which is a legitimate complaint,
185. 7:07by the way,
186. 7:08but most devs, especially artists like
187. 7:11environment, texture, and tech artists,
188. 7:14have been trying to crack the code since
189. 7:16the game launched. We're trying to
190. 7:18understand how is it possible? How is
191. 7:21this game running smoothly with that
192. 7:23level of displacement or POM all over?
193. 7:27What kind of magic trick did Pearl Abyss
194. 7:29pull? Note that all of this is still
195. 7:31speculation at this point, but we're
196. 7:33making very well-educated guesses at
197. 7:35this point.
198. 7:37The community is coming together to
199. 7:38explore the technology behind this
200. 7:40wonderful game.
201. 7:42Just like those who have been playing or
202. 7:44exploring the vast lands of this world,
203. 7:46this game keeps us obsessed and is
204. 7:49moving things forward.
205. 7:52But here's the conclusion of this
206. 7:54investigation so far.
207. 7:56It really looks like the devs at Pearl
208. 7:58Abyss have been using a very
209. 7:59well-optimized silhouette parallax
210. 8:02occlusion mapping for most of their
211. 8:04tileable materials.
212. 8:06And the byproduct of that decision is
213. 8:09some flickering here and there.
214. 8:11I would say your experience will vary
215. 8:13depending on your hardware. And we're
216. 8:15talking about PC hardware here.
217. 8:18And while this decision makes a lot of
218. 8:19sense and actually explains a lot of
219. 8:21things, it is also a source of division
220. 8:24among the players.
221. 8:26Some can live with the artifacts created
222. 8:28by the use of this technique while
223. 8:30others see this as a cheap-looking
224. 8:32glitch and they think it's poor
225. 8:34optimization from the team.
226. 8:36The least we can say is that this game
227. 8:38is making a lot of noise in the industry
228. 8:41and looking at the sales numbers, which
229. 8:44has been announced this week, 4 million
230. 8:46copies sold, it's touching the gaming
231. 8:49community and finding its audience.
232. 8:54If you're learning from these videos,
233. 8:56but are still struggling to put
234. 8:58everything together into a full
235. 8:59environment, that's exactly why I built
236. 9:02my full course.
237. 9:04You'll build the entire scene step by
238. 9:06step in real time.
239. 9:09Understanding composition, scale,
240. 9:12materials, and lighting, so you can
241. 9:14apply the same process to your own
242. 9:16worlds. These environments were created
243. 9:18by students using the same workflow you
244. 9:20will learn here. It's designed for
245. 9:22artists who already know the basics and
246. 9:25want to create a professional portfolio
247. 9:27work, not just isolated studies.
248. 9:30This isn't about learning tools, it's
249. 9:32about learning how professionals build
250. 9:34environments. If that's where you're
251. 9:36trying to get to, you can check the link
252. 9:38in the description.
253. 9:40And a quick thank you to the members
254. 9:42supporting the channel. Your support
255. 9:44helps make these videos possible.