Just look how much better MK8 looks compared with the first video's. That's what I call optimalisation. Correct me if I'm wrong but the lighting of the scenes is just soooo incredibly well done. It's what sets it apart from the rest. It looks like the scene's have some kind of global illumination applied to them. Some models and circuits have such nice shadows applied to the characters and models themselves. But in some screens it looks like there are multiple kinds of shadows applied. Objects on the actual track seem to use some lighter lighting engine, just the backgrounds and character models have so many shades. I can't get my ...around it, but I'm actually thinking this looks much more sophisticated to 3DWorld...but in that project the video's where nicer by every new release. Good to see they used that experience to optimize MK8 in its final stage.
Nintendos been getting into global illumination approximations pretty heavily since wii u released.
Nintendoland was first, then windwaker, this appears to take everything they learned and build on top of it with steroids, there are a quite a few prebaked gi solutions being layered in mk8.
There is the main source of light and its shadows (typically considered 'sun' light/shadows
there is Nintendos incredibly well done screen space ambient occlusion
Specular occlusion
gloss
normals alpa and beta (and vertex a,
wetness parameters (characters get wet, and then dry off)
and definately some emissive rgb work going on.
And just layered on top of it all are multiple light sources, animated cube maps (taken from the skybox maybe? the karts and metal mario reflect the fireworks on rainbow road, but not other karters or objects? on second thought, the fireworks are independent of the skybox, so probably another layered cube map featuring the fire work animations).
and so much animation. So incredibly animated. From the characters with animated hair, to animated mustaches blowing in the wind and bouncing from bumps, to tiny machinations in each kart like thumping speakers, to all the critters, road obstacles, cheering bystanders, independently floating boards on a dilapidated bridge, skidmarks that remain for laps....
And the layered textures holy bejeebus there are so manyblayers for texture transitions. So smooth.
The standards for this.... The standards this team set, demanded of themselves. This is what makes 'Nintendo magic'.