speaking of cool cheap effects: the shadow from the ceiling fan in Robo Recall is not a real shadow or even a light function or even a decal, it's a rotating translucent mesh
Fave visual trick in Halo 1: swapping out the warthog tire texture for a blurry one when they're spinning fast. Fake motion blurrrr
Feb 6, 2026 05:23A while ago I was surprised to find some obscure game from 2003 (Chaser) to have *really* great fake volumetric lighting by using static textures projected onto particles. Projectors weren't entirely new, but I don't remember *any* sort of lighting on particles being common back then.
