So the iPhone 4 RAGE demo from QuakeCon has been doing the rounds this week, looking a bit like-a-this:
While the static nature of the scene’s lighting suggests the referenced radiosity is baked, that seems like a pretty good way to employ megatexture technology (what with a megatexture being streamed, pre-rendered data). Similarly, ‘blob’ shadows may disappoint the nerds but, to my eye, they’re often more aesthetically pleasing than their more technologically advanced counterparts (can you imagine Resident Evil 4 with stencil shadows? Horrid!)
If there’s a point of concern it has to be that constantly streaming texture-data is going to hammer the battery life of mobile devices and, when you consider the size of the iPhone/iPod Touch’s screen, it may be doing so to very little discernable effect. Are you really going to notice that every surface is uniquely textured on a display that small when, arguably, a straightforward light-map already lends that appearance to non-unique textures convincingly enough?
So RAGE may be a better fit for the iPad, where its superior graphical fidelity will be obvious enough to outweigh any effect it has on battery life (and where battery life is arguably less of an issue anyway given that the iPad is, by virtue of its size, less mobile than its wee brethren). The main point of interest for me, though, will be exactly what id does with the tech, because it can’t be gearing up for yet another FPS… can it?!