<p>Taken from <a href="http://www.froyok.fr/documents/making_of_sotc.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Making Of &quot;Shadow Of The Colossus&quot;:
</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The rough algorithm is outlined below:</p>
<ol>
<li>Rendering the distant view, and save it.</li>
<li>Foreground rendering.</li>
<li>Composite the distant view and foreground together. It uses the contents of the Z-buffer like a mask pattern (see image 2).</li>
<li>Again using the Z-buffer, generate a separate image of the mask pattern.</li>
<li>Reduce this to 64x64 pixels, using a bilinear filter. (This makes it ultra-low resolution.) This gets reused in step (8).</li>
<li>Blend in the previous frame (from step 7) using a percentage specified in the scene box.</li>
<li>Store the image for use in step (6). It is used for drawing the next frame.</li>
<li>Expand step (5) to a suitable resolution, using the bilinear filter. Thus, it becomes the material for the bloom effect where the
distant view starts bleeding out from the shape of the foreground.</li>
<li>Blend (7) and (8) using a ratio specified in the scene box.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ePJ61.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ePJ61.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></li>
</ol>
<p>Landscape rendering is divided into 3 stages, the furthest background
being either a rendered image or a texture, which is stuck on a
distant polygon. The internal development team nicknamed this &quot;Super
Low&quot;.</p>
<p>Consequently, most of the medium range which goes from nearby to
just past the furthest background, is rendered using a low-resolution
landscape. This is managed in units of 600x600m, and as the player
approaches it, once he gets nearer than a certain fixed distance, it
changes to the high-res landscape model for the foreground. This
switch is designed to blend well so it not obvious.</p>
<p>In addition before
being combined down into one picture for the Super Low, most of the
distant scenery being managed in 600x600m chunks has been reduced to
around 1/30th - 1/100th of the polygons. Because there is little
memory, we usually try and spread it around the landmark which
represents that area. The combined image for the most distance scenery
is done using this low-res model. With this, the low-resolution model
appears seamlessly out of the Super Low image. By connecting the
foreground and distant background well, we are able to produce a
landscape rendering system which seems very natural.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/UTSjG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/UTSjG.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T23:56:58.570Z
2018-02-06T23:56:58.570Z
2020-06-18T08:32:12.800Z
Pikalek
<p>"How does the Shadow of The Colossus™ engine perform its seamless long distance rendering?"
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/PIa8J.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/PIa8J.jpg" alt="SS from http://www.businessinsider.com/shadow-of-the-colossus-remake-playstation-4-video-2017-9"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-14T09:08:25.027Z
Perhaps if you posted an image from a different game where you feel there's a discontinuity it might make things clearer. Also, it's a bit difficult to tell from a single frame.
Simon F
<rendering><gpu>
"How does the Shadow of The Colossus's™ proprietary (Sony's) engine perform its seamless long distance rendering?"
Havoc Lamperouge
# "How does the Shadow of The Colossus's™ proprietary (Sony's) engine perform its seamless long distance rendering?"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-05)

"How does the Shadow of The Colossus™ engine perform its seamless long distance rendering?"
[![SS from http://www.businessinsider.com/shadow-of-the-colossus-remake-playstation-4-video-2017-9](https://i.sstatic.net/PIa8J.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/PIa8J.jpg)

**Tags:** rendering, gpu

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Perhaps if you posted an image from a different game where you feel there's a discontinuity it might make things clearer. Also, it's a bit difficult to tell from a single frame.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-02-06. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Taken from [The Making Of "Shadow Of The Colossus":](http://www.froyok.fr/documents/making_of_sotc.pdf)

> The rough algorithm is outlined below:
>
> 1. Rendering the distant view, and save it.
> 2. Foreground rendering.
> 3. Composite the distant view and foreground together. It uses the contents of the Z-buffer like a mask pattern (see image 2).
> 4. Again using the Z-buffer, generate a separate image of the mask pattern.
> 5. Reduce this to 64x64 pixels, using a bilinear filter. (This makes it ultra-low resolution.) This gets reused in step (8).
> 6. Blend in the previous frame (from step 7) using a percentage specified in the scene box.
> 7. Store the image for use in step (6). It is used for drawing the next frame.
> 8. Expand step (5) to a suitable resolution, using the bilinear filter. Thus, it becomes the material for the bloom effect where the
>    distant view starts bleeding out from the shape of the foreground.
> 9. Blend (7) and (8) using a ratio specified in the scene box.
>    [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ePJ61.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ePJ61.png)
>
> Landscape rendering is divided into 3 stages, the furthest background
> being either a rendered image or a texture, which is stuck on a
> distant polygon. The internal development team nicknamed this "Super
> Low".
>
> Consequently, most of the medium range which goes from nearby to
> just past the furthest background, is rendered using a low-resolution
> landscape. This is managed in units of 600x600m, and as the player
> approaches it, once he gets nearer than a certain fixed distance, it
> changes to the high-res landscape model for the foreground. This
> switch is designed to blend well so it not obvious.
>
> In addition before
> being combined down into one picture for the Super Low, most of the
> distant scenery being managed in 600x600m chunks has been reduced to
> around 1/30th - 1/100th of the polygons. Because there is little
> memory, we usually try and spread it around the landmark which
> represents that area. The combined image for the most distance scenery
> is done using this low-res model. With this, the low-resolution model
> appears seamlessly out of the Super Low image. By connecting the
> foreground and distant background well, we are able to produce a
> landscape rendering system which seems very natural.
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/UTSjG.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/UTSjG.png)


---

