Holy Goddam

[Pop]

This is a CG image. It's part of AMD's new "Cinema 2.0" deal, announced with the 2.4 teraflop ATI Radeon HD 4870 x2 (to put it in perspective, the PS3's Nvidia chip exerts 1.8 teraflops of power. The ATI 360 chip puts out about 1 teraflop)

 

I did not suspect that it was a CG image until I was told, but now that I know I think the features of the neck and the shadows are a little off. But the things that you normally notice as being "a little off", notably the features around the eyes and the hair, are not very apparent. Of course, the eyes look a little blank, I suppose. But there wasn't a confluence of flaws that shouted "fake" to me initially. I don't know, maybe it's just me. If you had told me this was a picture taken with a low-quality digital camera and superimposed over a Photoshop background I would've definitely believed it.

 

Here's a CG map of the woman's face:

 

The software for this sort of graphix isn't out yet, and it won't come out with the card. So for now you can only utiize this card to, I don't know, run two games of Crysis at highest settings at the same time. The card will be available for about the price of a low-end custom rig ($599 or thereabouts) and a somewhat less powerful card will be out later for about $399.

 

It's nice and all, but I'm not looking forward to games adding years onto their development times and millions of dollars onto their budgets just for this level of detail. For now this is all flash-and-dazzle eye candy, and it's pretty damn effective.

 

Here are some other rendered shots:

Looks like maybe an approximation of Dog from HL2

A spherical room

 

Of course, the true test is animation. This is without a doubt the single most convincing CG still I've ever seen rendered on a consumer-grade GPU, but they say with these things it takes less than three seconds to catch the falsity of CG animation.

 

And yes I know this should probably go in the tech forum but waaaaaaah, I don't frequent that forum and thus naturally assume no one else does either.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Pop

[Killian Kalthorne]

That is very nice. Imagine NWN2 with that level of graphic detail. *drool*

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Well, I cannot say that I was "fooled" - enough things were off.

[Pidesco]

That's really impressive.

[SteveThaiBinh]

It's very impressive. I suppose it will mostly be used in shooters to show bland emotions on the faces of one-dimensional characters as they plod through cliched storylines. What a waste! Is Laura Bow 3 too much to hope for?

[Morgoth]

I wonder how many games actually will utilize such complex scenes/characters? Maybe 1 of 1000?

[Azure79]

I don't want games to look that realistic, though it is an impressive piece of technology.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I contrast to everyone else, I dont believe the first image is a rendered computer model. Its probably something related to realtime post-effects for film or some such.

 

 

 

edit: our someone's just trying to pull our leg here. Could you post a link to a real article about this instead?

 

 

edit2: here's a link to the real deal http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/17/amds-ci...es-you-ll-play/ I dont know where pop got the rest from, the scene with the robot in the city is the only "real deal" thing AMD displayed

Edited August 13, 2008 by Kaftan Barlast

[Pop]

I got it off of Joystiq, who implied no foolery. The only "cheating" I can surmise they did with the first image is adding a grain that covers flaws and makes it look like the foreground image is actually existing within the background. But the fact that there's a debate makes it even more impressive if it's real. If not, well, blah.

[Moatilliatta]

The eyes are what I think gives it away a lot as they seem quite dead. The mouth also seems strange.

[Stephen Amber]

They've got the graphics part down, now they just need to do something about the gameplay...

[GreasyDogMeat]

IF that face is CG, its the most impressive CG face I've ever seen!

 

I would love to see it in actual motion.

[Kaftan Barlast]

This is what you can accomplish with an elite team of artists and an entire renderfarm:

 

 

And what we're seeing in that top photo is alot more advanced, just look at the hair. Thats why I dont think its real

[Morgoth]

I think what they wanted to demonstrate there is that you just put a real person into this spherical room and then make a 3D scan and performance capture, with the result seeing in the picture below.

[newc0253]

hmm, i suspect this ain't CG as claimed.

 

i believe CG will get there eventually but incrementally, whereas the first pic - esp the eyes and the mouth - seems quite a substantial advance from what we're used to seeing.

 

so, to sum up, i call bullsh1t on this.

[Killian Kalthorne]

I don't want games to look that realistic, though it is an impressive piece of technology.

 

I would. I think it would be great to have a game like GTA4, Mass Effect, or even NWN2 on that level of realism.

[Walsingham]

I believe I can best contribute by repeating the request of others:

 

Gameplay.

 

Please.

 

Seriously.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Oh please. Gameplay is just graphics that animate when you push a button

[Niten_Ryu]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgeVDLpV6k&fmt=18

 

Bit background info about this project. Around 3.35 you see that model in motion.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Niten_Ryu

[Pidesco]

THe thing that really seems impossible to do is the hair. How the hell did they pull that off?

[Morgoth]

THe thing that really seems impossible to do is the hair. How the hell did they pull that off?

With AGEIA physics you now can simulate hair. Heavy Rain for example is supposed to utilize this.

[newc0253]

Bit background info about this project. Around 3.35 you see that model in motion.

yeah, okay, except that's not a model per se so much as super-duper motion capture of a woman's head.

 

impressive but not the same thing.

Edited August 13, 2008 by newc0253

[Pidesco]

THe thing that really seems impossible to do is the hair. How the hell did they pull that off?

With AGEIA physics you now can simulate hair. Heavy Rain for example is supposed to utilize this.

 

That perfectly? With those strands of disheveled hair?

[Morgoth]

THe thing that really seems impossible to do is the hair. How the hell did they pull that off?

With AGEIA physics you now can simulate hair. Heavy Rain for example is supposed to utilize this.

 

That perfectly? With those strands of disheveled hair?

I want to direct you to the leaked Heavy Rain screenshots, a game that utilizes AGEIA Physics for hair, fluids and other stuff.

Click

 

Looks pretty convincing to me, so yeah, why not? Whatever you can do in CG movies, you can also do in realtime, provided the right hardware is available.

[Pidesco]

I've seen those and they're really nice, but I don't think they're quite as good as the screenshot here. And that's really saying something about the stuff here.