how this game renders millions of blades of grass

[hyperdreamsurfer]

For a deeper explanation in relation to Breath of the Wild's grass, the grass blades closest to the player (within about 10m) are gpu instanced polygons which are there in order to react and displace relative to the player and objects, wind simulation, fire and other environmental factors. This grass pops into view blade by blade as the player moves, with higher density of blades closer to the player/camera.

Beyond that range (up to about 20m) are unreactive billboarded 2D grass doubles, which blend between the nearby grass blades and the distant field texture. These help to keep the illusion of density further from the camera, and you can sometimes see them mixed in with the reactive grass.

Both of these types of grass are coloured in such a way that they blend closely into the ground texture so as to hide any unpopulated areas of the screen, and to smooth the transition between the different levels of detail.

[IstyManame]

Wow, it felt like 20 minutes, in a good way. You managed to condense a LOT in a 5 minute video, thx for appreciating my time!

[bird]

and then there is skyrim players who spend 8 hours generating LODs to make sure that the grass on the other side of the map has proper lighting

[kingdanett]

Culling is also why wide screen hacks for some older games aren't always recommended. Most of the time it will only be small objects though like lamp posts and trees

[mrjdavidt]

Isn’t it amazing how Nintendo did this on the Switch and not only made an amazing looking game; but, one that is actually fun to play.

[CrocoDylianVT]

Fun fact: LODS has been used since a pretty long time, in Mario 64 it occurs as well, if you move the camera far from Mario he switched to a low poly model, also happens in Ocarina of Time

[HolyHadou]

As someone who hasn't touched grass in a long time, I appreciated this.

[thisisKushagr]

This is such a good recap of many videos by Stylized Station combined. Thanks for always creating such good content, man!!

[TheBreadPirate]

BotW is so impressive! Thanks for sharing a bit about the way they handle all that green stuff.

[TheGrimReapTM]

The fact that people are angry about the joke in the beginning is much funnier than the joke itself

[popskar]

The lower detail of painting depending on lighting and distance is also a good way of contrasting and directing the viewers eye to the focal points of the composition. The same philosophy can be applied to video games!

[izzy-jdft]

im not into game developing but still watch these till the end, you explain in a very engaging manner.

[SynthAir]

The first time I remember seeing dense grass in a game was as a kid at a Gamecube kiosk at BestBuy. I _think_ it was a Transformers game? I just remember being some kind of blue vehicle in a forest and that the dense grass all around me blew my tiny little mind compared to the flat ground with a grass texture on it that I had always seen in games before. Does anyone else remember that game or know what it was called?

[awpenheimer]

The first thing he said got me saying "OMG this guy just wants pure chaos"

[ravioli-ooku]

This is literally the explanation I was looking for for ages.

[toastbrot]

Would be nice if you could also cover why vegetation in games is usually pointing perpendicular to the surface it's placed on rather than straight up, like it should in most instances. I have my own theories to why that is, but i'd like to see some examples of it being done properly if you can think of any.

[sanketvaria]

one more technique is that artist would make the world purposefully in a way that he can hide most of the grass to save performance like add a house in the middle, uneven terrain, a large rock or cliff, water body, wtc... also it even feels natural and organic.

[davie]

Dude that is such a great timing...I was trying to look into this. Love the video 👍

[Gredran]

Awesome video!

If you talk about LODs, I hope you cover how UE 5 works with ITS massive detailed landscapes.

Also a basic example of an early LOD change was Mario 64, that Mario’s model would be swapped out for a low poly one when the camera was far

[Aligames]

That "Genshin Impact Clone" joke had me dead laughing