[henning]

A big part of what video cards do is not focused on models. It's focused on lighting and shading. That's what gives games realism, something completely lacking in these demo scenes.

Make a tech demo that blows Crysis out of the water that runs in software on commodity hardware and we'll talk.

Hire some fucking artists if you need to. Saying "this is just programmer art" is a copout. It's like a slacker student who says "I could get straight As if I studied more and did my homework".

I'm not unwilling to entertain radical ideas but you need to show something more than flythroughs with lighting reminiscent of Quake II.

[dkersten]

I agree. When I want to make a game look pretty, the things I increase before model detail are (roughly in this order): texture quality, lighting/shading quality, shadow detail, THEN model detail and finally post processing and special effects.

I find using high resolution textures has a much greater impact on quality than high polygon models, especially when we're already making models seem like they have higher detail using such tricks as normal mapping.

I also agree with the programmer art comment. The visuals in the video are TERRIBLE. If they want to prove that this is superior, then they need to make something that actually looks better what they want to prove is inferior - in this case that means that the art must be on par with existing games.

[dirtbox]

I'm itching to find out what the modelling tools are like. At this point I doubt they would gel with many 3D artists. Programmer designed interfaces for creative tools are generally a pretty ropey affair.

However, I'm certainly willing to attempt to do battle with the uncanny valley if they let me.

[windsurfer]

I bet they would work great. If you could tell a 3D artist that he can use as much detail as he wants for this game... well, you'll get what they show on Zbrush central. All those models have hundreds of times more polygons than what would ever be accepted in a real game.

[dirtbox]

I use ZBrush to create displacement maps using HD geometry, which doesn't use actual polygons in the classic sense. A lot of the ultra high poly models you see on the turntables and such use the same technique. You can easily make a mesh well over a billion polys that doesn't impact the system. http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/HD_Geometry

I doubt they'd have anything anywhere near ZBrush's flexibility and depth.

[windsurfer]

You could totally take a displacement map and tessellate a model with it. In fact, that's what OpenGL4 and DirectX does in hardware.

[houseabsolute]

And while you're at it get someone who can give a presentation.