> Normal trickery is very good for creating surface roughness. The problems 
> start when people try to use it to fake large structures such as waves. 
> (Yeah, now go look obliquely across the surface. Look wavey? No, I thought 
> not.)

That's why parallax mapping was invented :-)

> The other problem is that usually the bumpmap (and texture map, BTW) is 
> far too low-res. (Certainly in a game setting anyway.)

I don't understand why more games don't use scripted textures like POV.  To 
create things like noise and other effects is remarkably simple inside a 
pixel shader and means you never get the "blocky texture" problem.  But I 
guess that would need programmers who were good at art and design, usually 
these two areas are split.

> Looking at HL1, and then HL2, the increase in texture resultion seems 
> substantial. I wonder when textures will reach the point that you can 
> *read* the papers laying on the person's desk? ;-)

That's possible now, you just need a separate texture for the papers on the 
desk.  I suspect the limiting factor is a) the amount of storage space 
available on the media, and b) the amount of time and effort the designers 
want to put into the levels.

> I'd be surprised if you can actually do that.

It's a piece of cake in Blender, you just select the faces that you want to 
be smooth or solid, then choose the appropriate menu item.

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