Polygons? How about ATOMS!

Started by Sabby, May 11, 2012, 08:31:50 AM

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Sabby

Unlimited Detail Real-Time Rendering Technology Preview 2011 [HD]

This blew the brains right out the back of my friggen skull. Thought the more technically minded of E would be interested.

Shjade

On the one hand: looks pretty dang awesome.

On the other hand: what the fuck kind of machine could run that?
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Strident

I have thought for some time that Computer graphics seem to have really stalled.

I mean, ok, there have been incremental improvements here and there, but honestly...is there THAT big a difference between an FPS game from 10 years ago, and one from now? Well..not really. Not huge.

Compare that to the enormous advances in computer graphics in, say, the 5 years between the 8bit Commodore 64 and the 16bit Amigia and Atari Generation...

And compare that in turn to the huge leap from the 16bit computers to the PCs of the late 90s and the difference is huge.

I think we are due something properly revolutionary.

Rinzler

If it isn't a hoax...then it's just amazing. My first thought was voxels - but even they have limits. I'm guessing that the 'atoms' are points which are only shown to correspond to the actual pixels available on a monitor - so that the further away the 3D object is from the observer, the fewer 'atoms' will be required.

Just had a look at this firm on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclideon Definitely seems to be based on voxels; I'm guessing they've found an algorithmn to generate what appears to be an enormous number on-screen. As to the memory requirements - I noticed that the overall layout of the scene was very blocky in structure (though the detail of the things close-up was truly exceptional), so it looks like a lot of 'tiling' using a relatively small number of objects was used - no doubt because of memory constraints.

In any case, it is bloody awesome! Never underestimate the power you can get from clever coding and algorithms. Reminds me a little of the game 'Elite' when I was a kid - where you could visit several thousand individual planetary systems even though you had about 32k of memory to play with. Braben and Bell used a Fibonacci sequence to generate the star systems on the fly. This is several leagues more awesome, though :-)

Exelion

Very impressive. Just three problems

1) I don't see a lighting engine tied to this. there's almost no shading, And you'll find processing light sources and tracking them real-time can impact performance MUCH more than smoothing out the trunks of a tree.

2) Nothing moves. Again, tracking things in real time with this, especially the dozens or even THOUSANDS of individual moving objects in a modern game will really impact processing power.

3) And that's the big one. processing power. I do not want to know what kinda hardware they needed to generate this. And it's missing about 90% of what makes a game a game. Also, I wonder if those objects are coded to behave with any real degree of physics.

Not saying it's not awesome, cause it is....but that's a far, far cry from creating a new level of game graphical quality.

Caitlin

Wow... That's just amazing.

I'm eager to see that engine implemented in games and what they can achieve in that case. This is a complete revolution in technology. ;D

Irolon

Interesting tech. I'm on the Gameplay side of the Graphics vs. Gameplay debate, however, so while it looks really good and would look awesome if further developed, it's not really making me go all "WOOOO!"

But yes, looks great.

OldSchoolGamer

It'll probably go something like this:

Second half of next year: Technology perfected, standards ironed out.
2014: appearing in some games, playable by Alienware systems
2016: Available in most medium to high-end machines
2018: Generally playable by any new system except low-end starters
2020: De riguer
2025: Hey, you remember that Atom stuff from the 2010s?

Chris Brady

I've seen the developer video.  It's for real.  And it's in preliminary stages, but the rig they were using wasn't that high end.  It's pretty amazing stuff, actually.  Too bad no one wants to take it seriously.
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