VFX Artist Simon Trümpler, also known as Simonschreibt, has recently shared one more update for his Four Vertex Volume breakdown, a comprehensive article that provided an overview of various methods used by game developers to fake volume.
The original version of the article showcased the method utilized by Respawn in their 2019 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to make the game's lightsabers look volumetric. Breaking down the game's "luminous knife", Simon made an observation that the main mesh is highly tessellated at its core, being unable to point out why such a high geometry resolution was necessary.
A few days ago, the riddle was answered by a commenter known as brocktoon, who stated that "the lightsaber mesh is that dense to accommodate a smear effect", which upon closer inspection does not come from motion blur. Attached above is the wireframe while swinging the lightsaber, which explains why developers went for such a high resolution.
