One of the major complaints I have with this generation of videogames on a visual level is that of hair. More specifically, longer hair that behaves unrealistically and usually just, well, sits there. I thought we'd be done thinking about this annoyance in the year 2010, but it still happens frequently.
Enter NVIDIA and its real-time hair-rendering tech demonstration from GDC last week. It's hair that reacts to light, wind, you name it. What's great about it being done in real time is that less hair is rendered depending on how far away the camera is from the character, making it less taxing on the GPU.
Here's to hoping this technology -- or something similar -- gets adopted on a larger scale. Vote yes on Prop 9 for gorgeous hair in games.
Jordan Devore is Destructoid's PC gaming manager and founding ginger editor. He is said to be easy to love but difficult to know. When Samit inquired about his curious bio photo Jordan simply replied: "bitches love sandcastles" ... yet, there is no sandcastle in that photo. We may never truly understand his ways.
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Very true, Xzyliac.
It's one thing that annoys me in a lot of games (NWN2, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Dragon Age, just to name a few). Surely some degree of realism isn't too hard to do?
@Lazy Eyelids: the reason most games feature bald space marines is because its been really difficult to make characters with unique and interesting hair.
If this is an API that ships with directX , Im really hoping all the major engines can plug it in, and we can finally get normal looking women in our games, instead of the weird buzzcut and styrofoam-hair protagonists we've been dealing with since thing went 3d a decade ago. Valve, Epic, ID, Crytek, Garage Games, etc, I'm looking at you !
its good compared to the hair physics of today...but in the first part of the video, the red hair one, hair doesnt move that way when someone is standing still..itlooks like its flowing in its own accord, it kinda looks underwater imo..unless maybe it has too much conditioner but it looks great but im sure its gonna be better in the future
The problem with hair in games is that there's either no effort put into it or too much effort is put into it to the point where it just looks ridiculous. I'd love to see this implemented into games, personally.
Suprising.
I hope this isn't nVidia unique tech and is able to run on more than just nVidia cards, because everything I've heard about Fermi is awful, what with costing $60 more than my current card and being SLOWER and all.
Aaaanyway, technobabble aside, this tech looks nice, and it's quite a big part of character designs, the hair. Static hair looks awful, as does nasty clipping, so this should mean less bald space marines and more fancy, unique do's.
Listened to the video a bit more, by the sounds of things it's using standard DX11 tessellation.
Am happy now. Even though it takes a 400FPS hit at close range, eh, we're only on first gen DX11 cards right now.
A big leap for hair-rendering. You could probably animate hair realistically with this engine.
They didn't in this video, though. The hair is a bit too animate and slow. Like jiggle-physics, they seem to have chosen what looks pretty over what looks real.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. If they can make video games more appealing than real life, then all the better.
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Contest:
9:00 PM on 03.16.2010
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The only thing worse than awkward hair is that terrible "pasted together," hair. I'm looking at you Dragon Age and that one style in Rock Band.
I can see a better future for 3D character designs, but a damn problem for updating my graphics card too lmao.
How can I gate something?
It's one thing that annoys me in a lot of games (NWN2, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Dragon Age, just to name a few). Surely some degree of realism isn't too hard to do?
duck iPhone!
....
If this is an API that ships with directX , Im really hoping all the major engines can plug it in, and we can finally get normal looking women in our games, instead of the weird buzzcut and styrofoam-hair protagonists we've been dealing with since thing went 3d a decade ago. Valve, Epic, ID, Crytek, Garage Games, etc, I'm looking at you !
Suprising.
I hope this isn't nVidia unique tech and is able to run on more than just nVidia cards, because everything I've heard about Fermi is awful, what with costing $60 more than my current card and being SLOWER and all.
Aaaanyway, technobabble aside, this tech looks nice, and it's quite a big part of character designs, the hair. Static hair looks awful, as does nasty clipping, so this should mean less bald space marines and more fancy, unique do's.
Am happy now. Even though it takes a 400FPS hit at close range, eh, we're only on first gen DX11 cards right now.
They didn't in this video, though. The hair is a bit too animate and slow. Like jiggle-physics, they seem to have chosen what looks pretty over what looks real.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. If they can make video games more appealing than real life, then all the better.
I just started playing Dragon Age: Awakening and the hair is beyond atrocious. Fix it, NVIDIA!