NVIDIA: Makers of fine virtual hair

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.

GDC 2010: Nvidia’s Sarah Tariq on Simulating Realistic Hair [Netbooknews via CrunchGear]