In 2001, Pixar's Monsters, Inc was not solely an enthralling youngsters movie, however a technological marvel: the Pixar animators' tremendous computer systems had created a world filled with fuzzy creatures with hair so natural-looking, you needed to succeed in into the display and provides them a hug.
However this was in a closed setting, every strand hand-picked. Quick-forward to 2019 and EA is displaying off an equally, if no more, spectacular demo.
Take a look at the video under. It exhibits off EA's Frostbite engine, developed by in-house studio DICE, demoing hair-rendering know-how utilizing what's considered corresponding to next-generation gaming hardware:
Unbelievable, proper? Positive, the model is rather a lot much less huggable than Monsters, Inc's Sully, however the hair is simply as lifelike. The important thing distinction? This is not a canned, choreographed efficiency – that is hair shifting in real-time, utilizing EA's in-game engine.
Future-gazing
Now, earlier than tongues begin wagging, we will not say for sure if that is consultant of what to anticipate visually from any next-gen PS5 or Xbox Two hardware. Their full specs stay a tightly guarded secret.
However you possibly can guess your final greenback that EA, being one of many largest recreation publishers within the recognized universe, could have entry to them at this level, and that demos like this are in anticipation of what they know is coming.
Be mindful although that that is hair rendering finished in just about isolation – there is no open world rendering within the background right here as an example, so who is aware of how a lot system useful resource that is requiring. However as a sign of the place issues might go, that is mouth watering.
It is also a little bit of a PR booster for EA, too. The Frostbite engine has come beneath hearth lately, given because it was reportedly a key think about why current hotly-anticipated titles Anthem and Mass Impact Andromeda have been lukewarm on launch.
Developer Bioware merely struggled to get it to work with their concepts, and with EA studios mandated to make use of it, could not work round its deficiencies.
That is to not say it isn't produced nice work elsewhere, with the Battlefield collection and EA's sports activities titles constructed on it to nice impact (even when Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can be skipping it).
FIFA 20, for example, will proceed to make use of the engine, and the demo exhibits EA's continued dedication to the device - so future footballers might (and, hopefully, will) have much more luscious locks.
- Do not forget Project Atlas too, EA's grand imaginative and prescient for cloud gaming
