Could this new technology be the next step in the evolution of graphics rendering?
32-year-old Bruce Dell of Australia is claiming that his new software will render unlimited, hyper-realistic graphics without the use of polygons. If his claims are true, this new technology could spark the next evolution in gaming, repeating the changeover last seen in the 1990's when polygons replaced pixels.
Called Unlimited Detail, the software doesn't require special hardware, suggesting that the entire process can run off a single-core CPU. In fact, Dell said that the software will render graphics on anything from a PC to a mobile phone without the need for a GPU.
The software works by acting like a search engine, digging through trillions of voxels--the 3D counterpart to pixels--in a cloud to quickly render a scene. "We can build enormous worlds with huge numbers of points, then compress them down to be very small," he explains on the software's website. "The Unlimited Detail engine works out which direction the camera is facing, and then searches the data to find only the points it needs to put on the screen."
Dell added that the software doesn't access unneeded voxels, and that if the screen is set to 1024 x 768, then the software only grabs that exact number of points--one for each pixel on the screen.
Currently Dell is working on forming an actual company as well as putting together an SDK. However Nvidia has already tossed in its opinion of the new technology, saying that voxels have issues with shading and coloring images properly. The GPU company even points to the images provided by Dell, stating that none of the objects look all that realistic.
Wired reports that Nvidia is also skeptical about the Unlimited Detail claims of rendering graphics in real-time using only a single-core processor, and no GPU. This would mean that a machine would need huge amounts of RAM, and at the moment, Dell is remaining tight-lipped about how the software deals with the rendering.
Could this be a farce, or could Unlimited Detail be a legitimate evolution in graphics rendering? If it is, there will need to be more parties involved than just Dell. “There have to be SDKs, tools and drivers, and these are things that teams of people from many different companies come together to create," Nvidia said.
Software developers such as Adobe, Autodesk, and Maya would also have to jump the polygon ship as well, a big change that could actually stall the industry's overall acceptance of Unlimited Detail... if its legitimate.
Pretty much. Wasn't there just an article a few months ago about Epic rendering an character through voxels, but admitting they couldn't get shading and animation properly done?
As said, Voxels aren't new, just doesn't afford the customisation and abilities that current rendering tech does. The future will mostly likely be a hybrid bastard child of Rasterization, Voxels, and Raytracing. Or something.
all i can say is ^
Pretty much. Wasn't there just an article a few months ago about Epic rendering an character through voxels, but admitting they couldn't get shading and animation properly done?
As said, Voxels aren't new, just doesn't afford the customisation and abilities that current rendering tech does. The future will mostly likely be a hybrid bastard child of Rasterization, Voxels, and Raytracing. Or something.
Me2, i would love to buy stock in a company that AMD or Nvidia would pay Billions for if it shows just the slightest amount of progress.
lol
I remember the conclusion more or less being that there is just no good and easy way to dynamically modify all the render tree thingys yet so its really only useful for static ground stuff.
Also, the unlimited thing is sort of misleading, I think. The video says "you obviously cant have an unlimited number of polygons" or something similar. True, thats why you only render the important triangles.
They only render 1 voxel per pixel and the rest are ignored. It's kind of like the hardware tessellation feature which makes more triangles when you get closer. I have a feeling this tessellation could eliminate the model swap problem the video makes a big deal out of on those old games.
I will be really impressed when some of the obvious shortcommings are fixed, like a video showing off crazy dynamic lighting, and dynamic destructible stuff.
After typing this, I see Kelavarus already mentioned what I was talking about
also, its not that big a deal switching from polygons to voxels, as you say, voxels are just 3D pixels, all you'd have to do is "render" the poly mesh to voxels...
another thing. ok, so yeah, it wouldn't be unlimited, you could only have as many points as you could fit into memory, and you would need alot of memory, but keep in mind, its not the AMOUNT of memory at the moment that's the bottle neck. its memory BANDWIDTH, so even if you have to have 32GB of memory, if his search algorithm is really good, he would only really need enough memory bandwidth to pull one screen worth of pixels out every frame! and say you were doing it as cloud based gaming (like that thing where it renders on a server somewhere and then streams the result to any really underpowered device) if you were doing that, you could just have one level loaded into ram that could serve EVERY PLAYER IN THAT LEVEL. they could all search the same level in ram! limited use of memory bandwidth is more important that use of memory capacity at the moment.
The ideal solution would be what Kevalarus suggested. A mix of all best things technology has to offer for an optimum result of image quality and speed.
remember when creative bought that little company that was working on true 3D audio simulation for games? (consider it raytracing for games)
they bought it just so they could destroy it so that their crummy by comparison EAX tech would remain supreme. still, good for the share holders I'm sure. just bad for progress and the rest of us
Yes, indeed it would. But this story has the typical signs of a pile of BS. The companies who get exposed as frauds or disappear after making big statements are also the same ones who are "tight lipped" about providing even the most basic information on how their stuff works.