Unlimited detail graphics

[Pulsar_t]

Tried running that on a Geforce 5200 back in the day Scene.org hosts plenty of small demos that look absolutely gorgeous.

http://awards.scene.org/awards.php

[elvis]

If this comes to fruition, I don't think we'll need a next generation of gaming consoles.

Voxels have been used in video games and visualisation tools (including both entertainment visualisation and practical/industry/medical visualisation) for over 20 years. Here's a trick: hit up Wikipedia and look up "Voxel", and see how many games have been using it. There's even a Sega Saturn game listed there.

Do you really think they said "we won't need new consoles" back then?

I find it amusing when mainstream gamers discover a 20 year old technology for the first time and claim we've reached some sort of technological pinnacle. This reminds me a little of when gamers discovered pixel and vertex shaders for the first time, and thought it was all brand new (despite being around since the birth of 3D visualisation several decades earlier).

Computing power will continue to grow as always. And games consoles (or anything else that uses computing power to display 3D information) will continue to change along with it.

Yes, voxels are cool. No, they're not new. Yes, CPUs will get faster/more complex, and new consoles in the future will adopt them, just like they have been doing since home consoles first arrived.

[jp1]

I don't think anyone was under the impression that voxels were new. It is the way of accessing them and rendering them that supports them in a much faster and supposedly more useful way. Someone trying to find a new and creative way to bring more powerful software on less powerful hardware is a good thing even if it doesn't come to fruition this time.

I'm not saying that I'm not skeptical about the real life usage of this but there isn't any reason to be turning your nose up to it.

[elvis]

I'm not saying that I'm not skeptical about the real life usage of this but there isn't any reason to be turning your nose up to it.

I'm not turning my nose up at voxels. I think the technology is perfectly valid, and have done so for 20 years now. I hope more game and other realtime 3D engines continue to experiment with it as the years go by, and as available processing power increases. The possible applications are very cool, and will enhance certain types of games greatly.

I am, however, turning my nose up at people who make silly statements about the world reaching a pinnacle of gaming hardware because they saw a cool YouTube video. I saw the same thing happen with shaders, volumetric shadows, bloom effects and now voxels. I'm so looking forward to the next 20 years where gamers continue to discover things that visual effects professionals have been using for decades and we do the whole song and dance all over again.

Wait until ray tracing and global illumination finally go truly realtime, and I bet we see every gamer forum on the planet explode with joy like it's all brand new.

Bah, I'm getting too old for this. "Get off my lawn", and all that.

[GSZX1337]

Wait until ray tracing and global illumination finally go truly realtime, and I bet we see every gamer forum on the planet explode with joy like it's all brand new.

I was thinking about this, myself.

[jp1]

I'm not saying that I'm not skeptical about the real life usage of this but there isn't any reason to be turning your nose up to it.

I'm not turning my nose up at voxels. I think the technology is perfectly valid, and have done so for 20 years now. I hope more game and other realtime 3D engines continue to experiment with it as the years go by, and as available processing power increases. The possible applications are very cool, and will enhance certain types of games greatly.

I am, however, turning my nose up at people who make silly statements about the world reaching a pinnacle of gaming hardware because they saw a cool YouTube video. I saw the same thing happen with shaders, volumetric shadows, bloom effects and now voxels. I'm so looking forward to the next 20 years where gamers continue to discover things that visual effects professionals have been using for decades and we do the whole song and dance all over again.

Wait until ray tracing and global illumination finally go truly realtime, and I bet we see every gamer forum on the planet explode with joy like it's all brand new.

Bah, I'm getting too old for this. "Get off my lawn", and all that.

Based on your superior attitude I am guessing you think you "know" something more than anyone else. Please read this....

THE GUY ISN'T INTRODUCING VOXELS. IT IS A NEW METHOD OF USING THE SAME VOXELS THAT HAVE BEEN IN USE FOR YEARS AS HE CLEARLY STATES IN THE VIDEO.

I know that you are smarter than everyone else and have prior knowledge of everything but please try to grasp the concept of someone using an old object for a new purpose and creating something different. I'm not trying to pick a fight but your know it all attitude is really annoying.

Nice Clint Eastwood quote though. I've known about him for many years...

EDIT:

Occupation: Senior Linux/UNIX Systems Administrator

Nevermind, I get it now. We can move along.

[jp1]

Hmm, thinking about it maybe I was trying to pick a fight. I stand by my position but maybe the reaction is a little bit of overkill. Sorry, I'm in a bad mood.

[elvis]

THE GUY ISN'T INTRODUCING VOXELS. IT IS A NEW METHOD OF USING THE SAME VOXELS THAT HAVE BEEN IN USE FOR YEARS AS HE CLEARLY STATES IN THE VIDEO.

Yup, got that bit (with the exception that the video is not showing a new method of using voxels either - realtime voxel engines have been around for ages, and all do much the same thing in their "what should we display" algorithms). In case you missed it, for the third time here's the bit I was getting cranky about:

If this comes to fruition, I don't think we'll need a next generation of gaming consoles.

The "we'll never need new consoles ever again" comment. Heard it all before, and yet it never stopped new consoles appearing before either.

What it *does* have the possibility of doing is change the way dedicated 3D video cards are marketed and sold. And no, Nvidia and ATI aren't asleep. They're well aware of what's coming, which is why they're pushing the GPGPU technologies like CUDA, Stream, OpenCL, etc.

It's worth looking too at Apple's "Grand Central Dispatch" (ported to BSD as libdispatch), which can be used to send general instructions to a central library, and let it choose the best hardware for the job and send it on. Mix and match your favourite arithmetic, float and vector processors (in today's terms, CPUs, GPUs, SPEs and other things), and let the software decide who can do what the best.

In tomorrow's terms it means that ATI, Nvidia and co will evolve to meet the demand of the market. Just like they did when people wanted hardware vertex and pixel shaders, just like they did when people wanted GPGPU, just like they did when people wanted hardware motion compensation in H.264, etc, etc.

Will ATI and Nvidia die? Will will never again need new consoles? No. All that is is marketing inspired, knee-jerking hyperbole. Much like 90% of the content of the video linked back in the first post being sold to you by an obnoxious sales guy with an agenda.

I know that you are smarter than everyone else and have prior knowledge of everything
*snip*
Occupation: Senior Linux/UNIX Systems Administrator

Nevermind, I get it know. We can move along.

This is what "smarter" people call an ad hominem argument.

By all means, feel free to pick my statements apart logically. In fact, I encourage it. But don't stoop so low as to include name calling and character attacking. The latter is pointless and doesn't aid the debate in the slightest.

Sorry, I'm in a bad mood.

Fair enough.

[jp1]

This is what "smarter" people call an ad hominem argument.

Actually, I wasn't referring to you being wrong in your opinion based on your profession instead I was referring to your attitude which I feel is arrogant. Still the way in which I did it was kind of a low blow and that is why I apologized.

I would like to see an example of the "much the same thing" that you are talking about. I have never seen any real time rendering of this type before.

The funny thing is I have no dog in this fight. I simply ran across your statements and they rubbed me the wrong way.

oh well, off to grab my midol.

[jeffro11]

Stop it, your both right.

Anyways, Crysis uses voxels for caves and overhangs which I think is pretty damn cool. You all should check it out.