GDC 13: Activision chases photorealism in startling demo

Activision has revealed a startling new video powered by Nvidia technology displaying near life-like facial expressions in real-time.

Rendered on current video card hardware, specifically the Geforce GTX 680 and running at 180 fps, the demo uses standard bone animation to achieve stunning visuals and yet another step toward photorealism in games.

A description of the demo states that the original high resolution data was acquired from light stage facial scanning and performance capture by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.

The data was then converted to a 70 bones rig, while preserving the high frequency detail in diffuse, normal and displacement composite maps.

The video was rendered in a DirectX11 environment.

Developers working on the Activision R&D technology include Javier Von Der Pahlen (Director of R&D), Etienne Danvoye (Technical Director), Bernardo Antoniazzi (Techical Art Director), Zbyněk Kysela (Modeler and Texture Artist), Mike Eheler (Programming & Support) and Jorge Jimenez (Real-Time Graphics R&D).

The demo is similar to Nvidia’s FaceWorks demo also shown last week, but this demo harnesses different technology in an effort to create photorealistic animations.

You can watch the Activision demo below.

<iframe width="430" height="242" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l6R6N4Vy0nE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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