per-pixel lightning

yes, dont use so much specular :)

good use of a specular mask map (a greyscale texture that determines where and how much specular is at a certain position on a surface) can really help in this department (rather than just having the whole surface at a constant specular level).

There are lots of other lighting models that can be employed rather than the simple doom3-esque lighting models (which is pretty much just phong).

I might have posted this before, but anyway:
Some sort of bump map self-shadowing/ambient-occlusion can go a long way to removing the 'plastic' look.

eg:
http://www.mhalpin.34sp.com/images/ConeMap.jpg
http://www.mhalpin.34sp.com/images/glareHiRes1.jpg

Those images use cone maps for simple self-shadowing as well as a very approximate ambient-occlusion term. As has already been said, specular mask maps will also help a huge amount.

HTH

Matt Halpin

Quote:

Original post by Matt Halpin I might have posted this before, but anyway: Some sort of bump map self-shadowing/ambient-occlusion can go a long way to removing the 'plastic' look. eg: http://www.mhalpin.34sp.com/images/ConeMap.jpg http://www.mhalpin.34sp.com/images/glareHiRes1.jpg Those images use cone maps for simple self-shadowing as well as a very approximate ambient-occlusion term. As has already been said, specular mask maps will also help a huge amount. HTH Matt Halpin

Another nice technique is using a specular exponent map. This texture stores a per-pixel specular exponent. This way an artist can paint a texture that determines how shiny the material is at a given pixel.

--Chris