How do I do this lighting trick.

#1

So I was playing a game called Allods Online and noticed this metallic pillar.
http://i.imgur.com/q7JGNLM.jpg
The light reacted very smooth to it and I thought for sure that it must have had a lot of subdivisions for it to look that smooth,but then I looked from a different angle:
http://i.imgur.com/s0Ikaps.jpg
what???There is only like 8 subdivisions,I thought there would have to be at least 30 for the light to react so smoothly to it as if it did.
Please tell me how this effect is achieved.
And also if you can,please tell me how I can also replicate the results,I use Maya.
Thank You for reading.

#2

These stuffs are game oriented. In order to achieve this you will have to do a research on normal maps and normal map baking. not only normal map baking but others like ambient occlusion and specular. Baking means you will have to model a high detailed model of whatever and bake those details on to a lower version of the model. Lights can also be baked and preserved. You can view these stuffs in viewport without rendering them, with the support of some particular shaders and plug-ins. Or can view in game engines. Creation and baking of all these stuffs are done in 3d applications like 3ds Max, Maya etc and later exported to game engines. Hope it helped.