Game Art Terms

[Nekronom]

Heres just a short list of a terms and definitions, so everyone can stay on the right page and not reinvent the wheel and have a place to look if they don't know a correct term. . Those marked with an asterisk are directly related to OB.

*Diffuse map: Texture map holding only color information for a mesh.

*Normal map: Texture map generated from a high polygon mesh or heightmap, directly affects normal direction and lighting.

Heightmap: Texture map used to store elevation data, usually used to generate terrain.

*Specular map: Texture map that defines how shiny a material is (shiny metal=white Dull cloth=dark grey).

Ambient Occlusion pass: Texture map used to simulate global illumination, very useful in bringing out shapes.

*Mesh (game ready): A properly triangulated mesh ready for import into a game engine.

Mesh (High Poly): A mesh far beyond the poly count of any game engine, quads must be maintained to refrain from pinching or other artifacts. Used for baking Ao, Nrml, Disp, Bmp, and Hgt maps.

Quad: Four sided polygon, regarded as the holy grail of polygons, a mesh consisting of all quads will give you very little fuss, lest it is to animate.

*Tri: Three sided polygon, perfectly acceptable in low poly work and a must for an animated mesh, not good for high poly work, will cause pinching.

Ngon: Five or more sided polygon. Not acceptable. Except in extremely rare circumstances.

Vertex: Single point on a mesh.

*UVW mapping: Laying out the 3d mesh, in a 2d environment, UV's should be well packed and layed out to avoid stretching, but allow at least 8px of bleed to avoid seams.

Texture baking: The process of "baking" the information in a high poly model (or model with a material layout) into a low polygon game mesh.

Greebles: Extra geometry or baked texture that doesn't do anything practical (Greebles can be anything, from nuts and bolts, to sky scrapers).

Keep an eye out, I'll update this regularly, and answer any questions posted.

Cheers guys!

Nek

Edited June 28, 2011 by Nekronom

[InsanitySorrow]

I think you should colour code some of the writing so it's easier to see, like:

AO pass: Texture map used to simulate global illumination, very useful in bringing out shapes.

Also you should explain things in a bit more detail, taking AO Pass as an example, would be better as Ambient Occlussion pass.