Anonagrog

This is actually standard practice in the industry, and has been so for years.

High-poly models give us ability to display high-frequency surface variation where low-poly models would be incapable of representing such detail.

The article states, "... NORMAL MAP extraction of human models for next-gen games", as well as, "... making million poly models GAME READY, and support highest-res characters for renderings"

We can us...

Real-time 'direct illumination' has been the norm for many, many years now. It's standard stuff.

Real-time 'indirect illumination' (aka. global illumination), on the other hand, certainly isn't common, and is one of the most challenging problems to solve in real-time rendering.

The article title doesn't quite pass this on.

@TRD4L1fe,

"So I bet you can make a better engine?"

A good engine is an 'enabler' - it affords designers and content creators a better chance of bringing about their vision of game where a different engine may be too much of a hindrance. Now, whether those "creators" or that "vision" of a game will make the most out of the engine tech is something else entirely.

Someone slating a game's visuals doesn&...

I would say Wildstar looks like a better fit for a "dedicated MMORPG player" than ESO does, but that's just my opinion going off of the comparative depth of each one's gameplay. I'd be happy to be proven wrong come launch though - I'm rooting for both games.

When looking at this I can't help being reminded of all those school breaks I sunk into 'Helicopter Game'. Must be nearly a decade since I last loaded this thing up. Memories!

http://www.helicoptergame.n...

You clearly have no idea how beneficial tax breaks and/or incentives can be to both our games industry and the British economy. In future, please do attempt some research first prior to drawing conclusions. It's called 'critical thinking' - a pretty useful trait if you ask me.

Carmack has cemented his place in gaming history for doing exactly these kind of moves. Who are you to judge?

I take it you've not worked in software development before then, let alone game development?

I could give some long spiel on coding practices and game engine architecture, but you can find that stuff out easily enough, whether it be through Google or through my comments history.

The short of it is this; code is code, and data is data.

A game engine is built up of so many disparate systems, the renderer being just one of them. Most develop...

You're assuming none of the other systems have changed besides the rendering?

edit:- moved

I love getting to this time of the year with the US GDC - so many tech presentations to read through, dissect, and learn from.

It's probably going to be the use of Phong/Blinn-Phong and the restrictive specular you get with it.

Most developers have been making the move to physically-based rendering in recent years. It involves using more accurate, energy-conserving shading models to better represent light scattering, along with better representations for varying materials and light sources themselves.

In other words, higher quality rendering, meaning better (potentially) looking games.

It also makes life easier for the artists on the team, which is generally a good thing for the res...

Why would you think ND using a modified version of their existing engine means it won't be as powerful?

Not if you have access to the code, though, and modify it how you choose fit.

I don't know why you'd be surprised when they have complete access to the code-base to change whatever parts they have to.

Frostbite can't be licensed by external developers - it's for EA internal studios only.

Look up the 'Order 1866' presentation/notes from last year's 'Physically Based Shading' SIGGRAPH course - I think you'll find some impressive examples of what they're going for with regards to materials quality. Not at all shabby.