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by sshumaker 5813 days ago
Definitely cool tech, but while some of the underlying techniques might translate into simulating videogame physics, it's highly unlikely anything from this package will.

It's a different problem domain. An effects system for movies will have tons of configurable knobs and parameters, allowing the artist to tweak it so it's exactly right for that shot. Some of these settings will produce interesting and gorgeous effects, but they're designed to allow maximum customizability. If the system has some artifacts in particular situations, they can easily be worked around by tuning some knobs, adjusting the camera angle, etc. Hell, you can even paint in 2d over the final output frame.

In a game, the effects have to look good from all angles and in all situations - many of which you don't know in advance. When I wrote a cloth simulation for a game, most of my time wasn't spend developing the core sim (which took all of an hour or two), but actually spent making sure the cloth behaved appropriately under all circumstances - even when the player would make sudden, exaggerated movements and animations (some of which weren't even physically possible).