Mastering Unity 2017 Game Development with C# - Second Edition

Meshes - Simulating bump details without geometry

As mentioned, try keeping meshes as low-poly as possible. Low-poly meshes are, however, of lower quality than higher-resolution meshes. They have fewer polygons and thereby hold fewer details. Yet, this need not be problematic. Techniques exist for simulating detail in low-poly meshes, making them appear at a higher resolution than they really are. Normal Mapping is one example of this. Normal Maps are special textures that define the orientation and roughness of a mesh surface across its polygons and how those polygons interact with lighting. In short, a Normal Map specifies how lighting interacts over a mesh and ultimately effects how the mesh is shaded in game. This influences how we perceive ...