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Cinematic Game Graphics
CowboyRobot writes "LucasArts engineer Nick Porcino has an article detailing what to expect from graphics in the next generation of game systems including the "influence of cinematic realtime rendering, the promise of advanced lighting techniques and high-dynamic range images, the uses of the rendering pipeline, and the future of multiprocessor-based rendering and advanced geometry."
These will allow run-time rendering of high quality backgrounds and characters, ultimately resulting in games that are closer to full-blown Pixar animations, allowing better narratives and more immersive user experiences."
O'Brien, J.F., Cook, P.R., Essl, G., "Synthesizing Sound from Physically Based Motion," In Proc. SIGGRAPH 2001, Los Angeles, CA, August, 529-536, 2001
and other pubs by O'Brien.
word.
A story, when written well, relates the human experience. Ultimately, the goal of the game is to allow you to experience life in an entirely different world. Narrative is not necessary in gaming. Even RPGs have limited storylines. One of the most popular series of all time, Ultima, has a story as a backdrop, but most of the plot is open ended. Frankly, game design is mostly a technical discipline. The game designer doesn't need to work as hard at capturing the imagination of the player.
Cinematic graphics are but one key in the future of gaming. The technical infrastructure of MMORPGs, the AI of NPCs and enemy characters, the usability of the modern video game are all issues. Frankly, I can't wait until gaming finally gets its psuedo-ray-tracing (1 million polygons**) in real-time so we can get on with developing the other side of gaming.
**I admit I only have an elementary understanding of graphic engines.
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
I haven't played it myself (not real GPU), but more than one friend of mine says the AI in FarCry is really awesome. If someone doesn't know, FarCry is an FPS situated in huge landscapes with a lot of stuff to interact with. :)
When you hide for cover, the AI actually tells the enemies to change positions and then when you think you'll just pop out and hit where the enemies were, you'll be baffled to see they are actually hiding somewhere else!!!
More than that, the same friend was in front of some werehouse and the enemies were situated in the back of it (inside). So instead of just charging towards you and blowing their cover as in most games, some actually fire suppressive fire while another troop went thru the back door, all around the werehouse and flanked him
That's just awesome.
^_^
Sound synthesis is more than just raytracing.
Also, sound echos based on 3d geometry have been possible since the release of the Aureal Vortex 2 chipset several years ago. But that was not creating audio, just simulating its propagation through a 3d space by tracing the soundwave paths.
Pardon me, but I seem to recall the Mario games having a relatively in-depth storyline about Koopa kidnapping the princess and what not.
I was about to say the same thing actually.
Apart from the HL2 video, no 3D world has really made me think "that's a step forward" until I played Far Cry. I mean, I read about bump mapping, multiple textures, particle systems, and Far Cry has all that, and it rocks! The wave effect on the beaches is one of the best in game 3D effects I've ever seen.
But you're right, it's the AI that sets it apart. There's no telling what people might do. And that even includes jeep and helicopters - the drivers respond intelligently to your movements. In a jeep driver's case, if you go off track, he'll get out his jeep with his buddy and look for you. Make a move, he'll hear you and come to investigate. It's the first game where silenced weapons actually seem worthwhile.
Another nice touch; shoot a guy in a camp with a sniper rifle, and instead of looking at his body like muppets and doing nothing, the rest of the guys will shout a lot, and hit the camp alarm and come look for you.
Best single player FPS I've played since HL - recommended. Play it at night with the lights off and you'll know exactly what I mean!
In my RTS example there is AI there. I give orders at the highest level, then at the lowest level little indivdual characters screw them up and I am forced to micromanage due to bad path finding AI.
You can hear halo doing this a little bit when you fire machine guns etc. Though theres loads of other sounds that sound exactly the same, e.g. warthogs crashing into a building.
Why don't they put more effort in to this, I would have thought sound would be fairly important for a fps, given that it should allow you to place where you're being shot at from.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
IAAVGGP. (I am a video game graphics programmer.)
No offense intended, but you really have no idea at all what you are talking about. We're not holding on to old ideas; we're still waiting for hardware to catch up to the ideas we had 30 years ago. Almost all of the algorithms and processes used to do cutting edge rendering today are based on academic papers from the 1970s.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Whoa... Pretty...
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
I disagree--games like Planescape Torment or the Fallout series had plot, it was just a more general plot outline and let you make a lot of choices along the way. "Post-nuclear villager seeks GECK to save his village, along the way encountering organized crime, disorganized crime, mutants, aliens, and civilizations, and eventually taking down the remnants of the Unites States Government itself!" That sort of general plot outline leaves a player with loads of choice but still guides the plot in its eventualities.
Read jack phelps dot net
I _think_ that what most people have in mind by "dynamic plot", really means "AI". The dream isn't to get a game lacking a plot at all, but one which more or less can addapt it to what you're doing.
Same as if you're playing a PnP (Pen-and-Paper) game with some buddies, the GM (Game Master) will accomodate some deviations from what he had in mind. If noone wants to go talk to the dwarves next, the GM will come up with something else.
Of course, that as such is impossible. But it maybe _some_ freedom wouldn't be that impossible.E.g., in Fallout 2, while you did generally follow the same plot, there were plenty of ways to solve each particular situation.
To take my favourite example: the Navarro base. You could do the dumb warrior thing and do a frontal assault, guns blazing, and hope you take out the turrets before they take you out. Or you could be a diplomat and bullshit the guards that you're a recruit, bullshit the drill sergeant, bullshit the quartermaster into giving you armour and a weapon, bullshit the officer into just giving you what you came for, bullshit the mechanics into giving you the vertibird plans, etc. Or you could sneak in through the back door. Or whatever. Or a combination of the above.
The GM also usually doesn't want to see you all dead. He'll adapt the enemies you meet to your level and skills better than any computer games. (That is, assuming the game even tries. Most don't.)
I've yet to hear of any PnP game where you had to spend the month running around in circles, doing random battles for xp, because otherwise you're not ready for the monsters in the next area. Yet in computer RPGs it happens all the time.
Heck, you could even decide to play a pure diplomat, and then the GM would probably let you talk the arch-villain into giving up instead of fighting him. Or solve the case and call the authorities, instead of fighting the villain yourself. Or solve some puzzle to blow up the villain's doomsday machine and lair, instead of a fight. Whatever.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.