Activision shows off 'next-generation character rendering'

Activision R&D showcased "next-generation character rendering" at a panel at GDC 2013 and the results are really quite extraordinary.

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The great thing about next-generation consoles is that it raises the bar across the entire industry. Activision R&D showcased "next-generation character rendering" at a panel at GDC 2013 and the results are really quite extraordinary.

"It's more about creating a medium for better expressing emotions, and reaching the feelings of the players," Jorge Jimenez, technical director at Activision Blizzard said on his blog (via CVG).

According to Activision, these renders are from a GeForce GTX 680 in a DirectX 11 environment, which is one year tech. However, Jiminez says that the real-time demo used at GDC was on a "two year old laptop." See the results for yourself:

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    March 27, 2013 6:30 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Activision shows off 'next-generation character rendering'.

    Activision R&D showcased "next-generation character rendering" at a panel at GDC 2013 and the results are really quite extraordinary.

    • reply
      March 27, 2013 6:33 PM

      [deleted]

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        March 27, 2013 9:13 PM

        Yeah, teeth and lips around the teeth. And I assume he has no hair because that was a bit of a problem too. Still impressive, regardless!

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        March 28, 2013 12:53 PM

        they need shadow from the lips. Plenty of teeth in games look crap because of this.

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      March 27, 2013 6:47 PM

      And those graphics will be used in very few games

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        March 27, 2013 7:00 PM

        give it a few years and if there are still single player story driven games I think a lot of them will use something that looks like this.

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        March 27, 2013 7:03 PM

        LA Noire 2

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        March 28, 2013 2:07 AM

        I know; your average Call of Duty game won't have the dev time budget to fit this in beyond a cutscene or two, and this current console generation doesn't have the processing headroom, so you won't see it in a game releasing in 2013 (which is probably going to be the "in between generations" phase, much like we had with games like Black). And I can't think of any other franchises in the current Activision IP portfolio where this would be useful. Unless Bobby Kotick somehow greenlit a game with lots of narrative, I don't know why they're doing this, except perhaps to license it out, and get money that way.

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          March 28, 2013 10:43 AM

          My guess is you probably won't see it much next year either but 2015 is going to look great.

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      March 27, 2013 8:25 PM

      Perty

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      March 27, 2013 8:46 PM

      So like, what if this technology has already existed for thousands of years and all of human existence has been a simulation on an alien super-computers?

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      March 27, 2013 11:03 PM

      Looks like Nvidia and Activision shared the same light stage performance for their demos. While I think Nvidia's demo was a bit better, they both did a poor job with the teeth. I noticed that during the smile sequences Activision avoided showing the whole face. All I can say is...DAT SMILE... : [

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      March 28, 2013 12:17 AM

      [deleted]

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      March 28, 2013 3:52 AM

      That's probably an 8k texture on that face. So awesome though.

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      March 28, 2013 9:19 AM

      Where are the dilating pupils? Can't believe they left that out :\ They should change shape with light and emotion.

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      March 28, 2013 10:41 AM

      So funny how the freaken fidelity is that of damn near reality, but the animation is still so so lacking. They still can't put the front teeth over the bottom lip when a character says the letter "F". Only people who could do that so far was la noire.

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      March 28, 2013 11:09 AM

      Looks like Activision is trying to take credit for Nvidia's Face Works to me: http://youtu.be/5d1ZOYU4gpo?t=8m40s

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        March 28, 2013 11:35 AM

        Looks like it's probably a partnership between Nvidia, Activision and USC given that USC is a credit in the Activision video and the Nvidia video.

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      March 28, 2013 12:09 PM

      damn, looking better than pre-rendered stuff from 10 yrs ago...even cg movies like that final fantasy spirits within.

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      March 28, 2013 12:38 PM

      Needs more battlefield 4 OMAR

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