Silhouette Maps for Improved Texture Magnification

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As we move closer to present-day, we can see that these blurry textures are still a problem. Here we have a screenshot of Command and Conquer Generals by Electronic Arts, released last year. Shown on the left is the appearance of the game when it is run on a graphics card with a small amount of texture memory, like on my computer at home. Shown on the right is the game with high-resolution textures.

You can see that the high-res textures provide a lot of nice detail that is missing on the image on the left. This is the kind of detail that enriches the game world and creates a more immersive experience. Gamers viewing the blurry textures on the left side completely miss out on all that!

As presented at SIGGRAPH/EUROGRAPHICS Graphics Hardware 2004
by Pradeep Sen on August 30, 2004