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NVIDIA Shakes Its Flowing Mane With Life-Like HairWorks 1.1 Demo

MojoKid writes: Previously, you might not have thought much about a wig on a manikin, but checking out NVIDIA's latest tech demo, as a gamer or 3D graphics artists, hair can be pretty interesting. The video is of NVIDIA HairWorks 1.1, a simulation and rendering tool for creating lifelike hair and fur in video games. In the clip, NVIDIA shows off a Fabio-style hairdo with about 500,000 hairs that bounce and sway as the camera circles and forces move the hair. If this was a real wig, it might unseat one of the most boring videos ever. However, as an example of what modern 3D graphics can do with hair physics, it's pretty darn cool. Previous demos of HairWorks showed up to 22,000 strands of hair, making the jump to half a million much much more significant. The video was recorded with ShadowPlay on a GeForce GTX 980, which has some serious muscle, though it's not the most powerful card in NVIDIA's lineup. What's cooler than making life-like human hair? Putting flowing manes on vicious monsters, of course. Apparently, NVIDIA HairWorks simulation technology also plays a role in bringing more than a dozen creatures to life in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

3 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. You Insensitive Clod! by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some of us would be happy just to have bald spots rendered properly.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Re:Shaking my big bald head by pr0fessor · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can look in a real mirror if I want to see myself with flowing locks... I am frequently called Fabio and women in bars that I don't know and sometimes are there with a jealous boyfriends or husbands want to play with my hair.

    Although it doesn't always work out that well. Once my brother and I went to the store to pick up some stuff to BBQ and his mother in-law saw us in the car. She called his wife and told her that she had seen her husband driving with a skinny blond bimbo.

  3. Not quite there yet... by Wescotte · · Score: 4, Funny

    I mean you have to expect some dandruff and loose hairs falling off during such extreme movement.