Next-Gen Graphics: Unlimited Polygons?

No way to know until they release a final demo. Having seen an interview with the creators, I don't want to call bs, but I don't want to put stock in it either.

 

They're not polygons.

Anyways, the video you linked is actually kind of controversial in the developer world. Some people are saying that they're very misleading in these videos and that it's scam. Even the creator of Minecraft got into it. He even made a blog about it here.

I absolutely love voxels though, they're awesome.

 

personally, i dont thing it makes sense.
atoms works in the real world because light is a wave, so you dont see things as the empty space they mostly are. to use in a digital medium makes me think that there will be visible gaps (close up) and weirdness due to light not being like real light.
polygons are the way to go!

 

its true that light does not work the same way, but i would imagine that they also know that and had planned for it. i dont know anything about the history of this company so i cant comment on whether or not it might be a scam, but if its a real thing, its definitely very impressive and exciting for the industry. polygons are cunts.

 

Yea, notch said something about repetition. Almost like their "new method" is a repeated design over and over again. If this is true, then that's pretty misleading on their part. If it isn't true and it really is the most boss thing evar, then kewl. I honestly wouldn't care about a $20+ charge per game just to see a grain of dirt, but maybe they can make something cool out of it. Imagine wielding a lightsaber in an environment like that Although, I hear the animation sucks pretty hard with voxels. End of rant.

 

That is a lot of stuff.

 

It's repeated many times because they are real objects that have been scanned in, and they are only placed to show the level of detail as well as how performance doesn't suffer despite the quantity on screen.

My concern is how data will be stored when they use a larger variety of items.
I also wonder how they will handle items that aren't scanned in. Obviously, games can't be created exclusively with real world material, so I'd like to know how creativity will be factored in.

 

they stated in the video that the reason for these things was that
"they are not artists," and that they feel that when the tech is in the hands
of a talented team of artists the results will be even more impressive

dont get me wrong, im also slightly skeptical, but at least watch the whole vid

 

This sounds pretty damn awesome.

 

Like I said, I've already seen this and a 40 minute interview, I'm just unsure of how unusual objects or environments will be incorporated. They suggested clay at one point, but I can't imagine this technology relying completely on scanning.

 

It isn't.

 

I know, I'd just like to know what they intend to do on the practical side of things. It's another year or two out, unfortunately.

 

didnt they also already explain that?
they said they developed a polygon converter.

so, objects that cannot be scanned with a 3D scanner will be modelled as normal with poly modelling and then converted.

 

I have trouble trusting their video, not that I didn't watch the whole thing (because i did). If notch is correct then this vid could be blown out of proportion. Had this been a review by another company that isn't so seemingly concerned about marketing then i'd have a little more faith in it

 

Sure, but that's not technical enough for me. Sounds like there has to be some sort of drawback or catch, you know? To say that normal models can just be converted into unlimited detail doesn't really tell me anything.

And Eric, it may be worth noting that a couple of the people on the small team they have going were members of a group that reviewed the technology for funding purposes; They called up afterward asking to join the team.

 

+reps for them. But seriously, nice to know.

 

It sounds sketchy because its all a bunch of crap. First of all, they can call building blocks whatever they want but these "atoms" are still polygons. As current technology can't actually recreate microscopic particles they just made a tech that can essentially convert an object to many billions of small polygon as opposed to thousands which must be modeled.

The second part is the memory and graphics card speed demands such tech would require. If that demo wasn't a mock up and was done using their proposed tech then they would have had to of used a bunch of computers to run it. The narrator was acting like this was some.grand discovery that other developers never tried before. It's nothing new, the reason it hasn't been brought up is because trillions of polygon are not cost effective and the technology currently doesn't exist to efficiently render them.

 

Well that's just it, it uses a search algorithm to find only the points that are being displayed on screen, meaning less demands. The problem is that it's not clear how data not being used at a given moment is stored.
They did a live demo on a mid-range laptop, and they have not even begun to use the graphics card beyond simply putting an image on-screen. There's still plenty of potential obstacles, but there appears to be enough wiggle room to avoid them going forward. We'll just have to see.

 

This, is fake. Now, I'm prepared for a ****-load of people screaming at me but countless upon countless well-enough known people have done the math. Here's the breakdown: Now, to have these high-detail objects in the game you would have to have hard drives upon hard drives in memory. Now, the technology isn't fake, though the people who market it are lying, to get it out there. What it actually does is you have multiple high detail objects like this, but the same objects must be used over and over again. You can't have too many unique objects in the game, because you would need ass-loads of memory. Don't forget physics commands and all the other stuff that makes a game. That is why the same objects are seen over and over again. But the people marketing it do what they do best. Lie. Now, it's pretty amazing tech, and the people who designed it must be geniuses. However, its clearly not going to be used by game developers. Sadly, I wish it were true. But... it's not.