About that CGI thing..

[Zappykins]

To many times the trailer is the ‘whish the game could look this good’ pretty box art hook.  I would love it if the games actually looked as good as the trailers – See Warcraft trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYK_Gqyf48Y  

 It’s not a new thing, look at the box art vs the game of the old Atari – the games today are looking as good as those old boxes.  http://www.amid.com/werd/atari-2600-box-art/

 Games are getting better.  Look at the original Halo where green meant grass, and Halo: Reach you have little grasses, lettuce and such.  The level of detail in say God of War vs God of War III the graphics use the improved hardware to make the games closer to movie quality CGI.

 I would love to see next gen home consoles with quality like Cameron’s “Avatar” and using the same performance capture (as it looks like Rockstar is doing with “LA Noir.”) I think the resolution for Avatar consumes something around 17 gig per second for the film and each frame would take hours to render.  That a whooping amount of computer power.  So it might be the gen after the next one.  But I would challenge that the Wii has more processing power that the Space Shuttle.

 The consoles are limited by their graphic abilities.  The Xbox 360 is only Directx  9.1C.  DirectX has continued to evolve.  If you look at the performance demos of DirectX 11, as I understand it, has more information that the CGI “Titanic.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G9anRoYGko

 So what was cutting edge in a movie, is now, 10 years later, surpassed on a home PC in real time.  OpenGL is advancing too.  It will be exciting to see what the next standard is on a home console – (My vote would be 3840x2160P at 120 frames per second per eye.)

 And here is a demo where you can see advancements in real time rendering (advancements in textures, form, etc:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtNHmj7vznI&feature=related

 I don’t know what will show up in the next DirectX 12 or the next OpenGl standard, but it will be excieting.

 I’m looking forward to where the trailers and the game are exactly the same (and closer to looking completely real.) The 360/PS3 are somewhat old tech by today’s standards.  Trailers now are often made with the game, and it seems hardware will have to be improved for the next big leap.

Zappykins

PS What would you like to see in the next Consoles?