Illustrative rendering in Team Fortress 2

We present a set of artistic choices and novel real-time shading techniques which support each other to enable the unique rendering style of the game Team Fortress 2. Grounded in the conventions of early 20th century commercial illustration, the look of Team Fortress 2 is the result of tight collaboration between artists and engineers. In this paper, we will discuss the way in which the art direction and technology choices combine to support artistic goals and gameplay constraints. In addition to achieving a compelling style, the shading techniques are designed to quickly convey geometric information using rim highlights as well as variation in luminance and hue, so that game players are consistently able to visually "read" the scene and identify other players in a variety of lighting conditions.

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