A New Era for Videogame Graphics?

[phyzik]

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/107/1070543p1.html

Duo creates algorithm that will vastly improve the way games look.

Videogames are about to get a whole lot better-looking. Thanks to a new algorithm created by Morgan McGuire, Williams College assistant professor of computer science, and Dr. David Luebke, senior research manager at Nvidia, videogames will achieve film-quality graphics in the near future, or so the pair promises.

McGuire took a year sabbatical from Williams College to work with Dr. Luebke at Nvidia Research, where they created Image Space Photon Mapping, a fast new method to produce light effects and light sources in 3D worlds. The pair's paper, "Hardware-Accelerated Global Illumination by Image Space Photon Mapping," won the Best Paper award at the recent Conference on High Performance Graphics. In a statement, McGuire described their achievement:


The computer-generated 3D graphics in films like Avatar are visually indistinguishable from real objects. They are hard to compute, however: the Photon Mapping algorithm used in most film productions requires about one day to compute every second of film. Our new Image Space Photon Mapping transforms that algorithm to a space where it can be evaluated in a fraction of a second. This enables nearly cinema-quality lighting for interactive applications like videogames.

McGuire is no stranger to gaming: He worked on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Xbox 360. Because videogames have to compute images more quickly than movies, he said, Image Space Photon Mapping will be invaluable to game developers. The algorithm, and the advanced graphics it helps developers create, should begin appearing in games within the next two years.

[IronMexican]

Sounds like I might need an HDTV soon.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

cool article

[jacobdrj]

That's nice, really it is... But I'd rather the industry focus on innovative gameplay and story-lines than graphics... I hope it won't require too much video processing power to achieve these new standards of video rendering...

[phyzik]

That's nice, really it is... But I'd rather the industry focus on innovative gameplay and story-lines than graphics... I hope it won't require too much video processing power to achieve these new standards of video rendering...

I agree on the innovative gameplay stuff.... but I dont think you understand the breakthrough here.

From my understanding, this new algorithm, in the near future, will allow a $300 graphics card to render "Avatar" like graphics on the fly. Thats amazaing.

This will facilitate the innovative gameplay part of it, at least a little bit.

James Cameron had to wait 10+ years to make Avatar, and I think its a great movie.... imagine what game companies are sitting on waiting for a technology like this.

couple in the resurgance of 3D (outside of Polygons) and this could be a HUGE boost to games. I think it could be a step as large as when the old 3DFX Voodoo cards came out back in the 90's before Nvidia.

[eyeh8u]

I agree on the innovative gameplay stuff.... but I dont think you understand the breakthrough here.

From my understanding, this new algorithm, in the near future, will allow a $300 graphics card to render "Avatar" like graphics on the fly. Thats amazaing.

This will facilitate the innovative gameplay part of it, at least a little bit.

James Cameron had to wait 10+ years to make Avatar, and I think its a great movie.... imagine what game companies are sitting on waiting for a technology like this.

couple in the resurgance of 3D (outside of Polygons) and this could be a HUGE boost to games. I think it could be a step as large as when the old 3DFX Voodoo cards came out back in the 90's before Nvidia.

youll be waiting 10 plus years for the tech to be anywhere near economical. i remember seeing an ad for a plasma tv in a magazine in 1998 price was 40k, its been 12 years since then and still less that 25 percent of Americans have hdtv's . the tech is cool these things are far far away, hell Tesla was experimenting with wireless energy and its still about 100 years away.

[symple19]

interesting. can't wait to see the technology put to use

[jacobdrj]

Here is the problem: While Avatar certainly has better rendering than any current video game title, and being able to render it on an affordable consumer grade card would be a leap forward, you are talking to a guy who isn't all that impressed with Avatar's graphics as it relates to photo-realism... It still looked wrong having live action actors next to the CGI Avatars in the CGI world.

Jurassic Park is still the pinnacle of CGI rendering. Despite having archaic computers doing the rendering, because real artists were used with wonderful cinimatographic tricks (lighting, animatronics balanced with CGI, etc) it seemed far more real than the current offerings from almost any movie made since, sans perhaps the 1st Transformer movie (which appeared to use those same ticks JP1 used).

[EmptyMan]

That's nice, really it is... But I'd rather the industry focus on innovative gameplay and story-lines than graphics...

lol come back to reality sir



You are 100% correct, but gfx will always bring in the masses.

[jacobdrj]

lol come back to reality sir



You are 100% correct, but gfx will always bring in the masses.

I know. It is why I have stopped gaming.

[phyzik]

lol come back to reality sir



You are 100% correct, but gfx will always bring in the masses.

Graphics aren't everything. Yeah, it helps sell a game to people looking for eye candy, but I still go back and play the old ultima series just for the story.

I love good graphics though. Im of the opinion that graphics facilitate what type of game can be made.... Give enough graphics power and SOMEONE will make a damn fucking good game. Use the GPU more often and that frees up more processing power for AI and physics based geometry.

Games are limited to the technology being used. This will definately help develepers create more crazy and intense worlds, thus increasing the creativity in the market.

Just for an example.... as awesome of a game that Oblivion was... think of what it would be like with "Avatar" type graphics in real time? That would be insane!

[sabar]

Graphics are over-rated. Super Mario Bros is better than 98% of the trash that game devs put out. Everything nowadays is a $50-$60 6-hour playable movie with no replay or resell value.

This technology is so far away that it doesn't even matter. The demos of it in action are at crap resolutions and crap framerates using a polygon count 5 years old, and that's using a computer that 99% of people don't have access to.


Just for an example.... as awesome of a game that Oblivion was... think of what it would be like with "Avatar" type graphics in real time? That would be insane.

See, I'd rather see a leap in physics or AI or any other field. Give me something I can use. The gaming industry treats people like sheep that just sit at their monitor and drool at their pixels while mashing one button to victory. The thing is, the leaps in graphics and AI are possible right now. The gameplay can be enhanced right now. But no one will actually do it because it doesn't sell. Only when those things look terrible in comparison to the graphics do they get called out on it.

Anyways the original article is misleading. Advanced lighting techniques are meaningless when they can only be applied to simple models. You can do raytracing realtime on 10 year old technology, but that doesn't make it look good.