WTF is "3D scanned TEXTURES" (evermotion) + little talk

#1

Hello

I saw this few weeks ago:

Evermotion Archmodels vol. 226, which consists of “3d-scanned textures” (or models made in app but that use “3d-scanned textures”), here are directly few examples:






Those are low poly models made in some DCC like 3Ds Max using “3d-scanned textures”. My question is, WTF is “3d-scanned textures”?
Did they took one leaf at a time and used standard photogrammetry and took like 15 different (postion/angle) photos of the leave…? Why do that when you gonna use it only for low poly, so you cannot use the hipoly model and cannot use the heightmap. Sure you get quite good looking NORMAL MAP but is it worth it? All these leaves are meant for for low poly usage…

I would just take ONE standard top view photo of each leaf, sure i would NOT get nice hi poly model but what of it if i cannot use it (its meant for low poly), sure i would NOT get nice displacement/height map - but again that isnt a problem, the advantage of taking several photos of one leaf (=using photogrammetry) would be in this case that you would get a better/more accurate/more realistic normal map…
But you could generate somewhat less realistic normal map from the 1 photo too, using programs like Bitamp 2 material etc…

I dont get it… Why did they do that? Or what is exactly “3d-scanned textures” (i understand it as a standard 3D photogrammetry aproach for 3D models)?

Thank you

#2

3d scanner builds a 3d model with a rough triangulated mesh, and also scans diffuse texture. I’m not sure whether there are scanners, which can capture subtle mesh surface details for the model itself.
The point is they got the rough model and the texture, and then it was retopologized and the texture enhanced.
And it sounds “cool” I remember Colin Mcrae Rally 1, where they noted on the back cover that cars were created with 3d-scanning and are very accurate. It sounded really impressive back then.