Editor's Blog
There aren’t very many games today that, graphically, give one goose bumps. While movies like James Cameron’s Avatar or Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings have graphical effects that appear absolutely real, many wonder if games will ever achieve that level of detail.
Now get ready for Project Offset. This little-known development team, owned by Intel, is building a game engine that may make you believe that the richness of reality in the virtual world is not so far away.
Videos posted on their website (see Resources) show a variety of graphics engine experiments. You will find video footage that ranges from the detailed facial expressions of an ogre to a meteor shower blasting through ancient stone pillars. Compared to contemporary movie CG, Offset’s footage doesn’t look all that impressive at first. But considering that these animated graphics were rendered in real time by a dynamic game engine, unlike animated frames that undergo lengthy rendering processes in a motion picture, the short clips are jaw-dropping.
The Offset engine isn’t the only one in the race to develop a visually rich real-time game graphics engine, but they’re the newest on the scene. Companies like CryTek, Epic, and ID Software have all been doing this for years, working steadily toward the photorealistic holy grail. Offset sets itself apart by accomplishing the most difficult lighting, shading, and graphics effects in very simple fashion. Their video clips show artists pulling together 3D elements like a jigsaw puzzle, making movie-level CG look as easy as following a recipe.
Offset has yet to officially announce a game title, but we are excited by the implications they bring to the virtual world.
34 Comments
I can also not see anything that special in this what has not already been use in other games. Instead of claiming how great their technology is (which it isn’t, although the quality is good enough) they should release the game, that was already announced for release in 2009.
Offset has been developing this for years… they were on G4 TV with a tech demo and many of these features have been integrated for a LONG time… so people bashing them, this article or the video about not keeping up with the times, clearly haven’t been doing so themselves!Übersetzung Italienisch Deutsch
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Admittedly, what has been done well. I wonder how many years the schedule will be on a level that people can not distinguish the game world from reality. Martin from mahjong club.
Yes, well … as others told before: it is not about the graphics, the underlying technology is impressive. Read before posting
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One of my first games was Civilization I, played that for hours and hours, but funny is that the graphics was awful, but the experience was better than for example the latest Civilization, which is graphically very good. Also in FPS excellent graphics can make the game good, but it also needs to have the story and other elements to make it good. An example that I played many years ago was Deus Ex: a terrific story and I still regard it as the best game of all time. Afterwards Far Cry had an excellent engine and great playing, also Fallout 3.
Yours sincerely. Übersetzungen
I still remember when I first saw the presentation of that oger on an turntable.
To be honest. It was kind of ofen froghtening.
When I heard that only one guy did the engine I was truly amazed.
I just hope that the game will come out sone.
Awesome and I mean really awesome – can’t wait for this to be out. Great informative post – thanks for sharing.
Well, there were many milestones in the last 10 years when one could really marvel at the impressive graphics leaps, e.g. Far Cry from Crytek or Bioshock. But the leaps are getting smaller and smaller. If one compares e.g. the latest graphics engines with Half Life, not to speak the Doom it is obvious that the steps will only be smaller from now on. Far Cry also showed that one can handle large outdoor areas with ease, similar was also achieved by Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3 (I was quite disappointed with how bad Half Life 2 was in this regard). So, as I said before, the leaps will be incremental from now on, though for one who appreciates the work behind small improvements are also to be admired. Regards, Traduzioni
Anybody with intelligence knows that statistics can be and are frequently manipulated.
The main trouble in games right now is not polygon count, it’s not texturing, it’s not normal mapping, it’s not realistic motion or expression – those problems have been tackled very convincingly for half a decade now.kina
My opinion – journals, that cater to a specific niche will still be around, because the information they provide is not easily duplicated on the internet in a free form.
Offset has been developing this for years… they were on G4 TV with a tech demo and many of these features have been integrated for a LONG time… so people bashing them, this article or the video about not keeping up with the times, clearly haven’t been doing so themselves!
CryEngine2 and Unreal3. If it’s for a nice underlying engine for the sake of it, then I guess it’s succeeded.
well, graphics have improved tremendously over the last years and u can. gaming is still a huge industrie although its not at its peak right now.
This graphics look astounding. One day computer games will look pretty similar to reality and to be honest: I cant await this day!!
Geomerics stuff looks nice for a techdemo, but it doesn’t look like a GAME-engine.
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I am happy to find this very useful for me, as it contains lot of information. I always prefer to read the quality content
ag.
Love it. I equate this to the same thing as cookie based advertising.
ag.
This creature looks a lot like the one in Residen Evil 5 that’s for sure !!!
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And sure, they might do some global illumination in a nice testscene, but now I’d like to see it in a real game where there’s more to see than one little room / building and more to do than just rendering a building – let’s say AI, particles, gamelogic, streaming in of leveldata etc.
Videogames pretty much look like that now. Gears of War 2, Bioshock 2 and Mirror’s Edge already look like that. This is an article for people who do not keep up on the lastest on videogames. This article is misleading.
Err no dave – nothing does what they claim yet. Particles that all cast soft shadows? Universal motion blur? Nothing does it – yet. Sure, your listed games look pretty – but its the technical aspects of Project Offset that are impressive. And this article is more for those interested in the progression of game engines – not for know-it-all gamers.
Oh and “pretty much” is not “do” – especially when your a developer/artist.
Obviously Dave didn’t understand the point of this article. It’s not really about the graphics they are talking about here. It’s about the underlying technology.
Read this and you’ll understand what’s so amazing about it:
http://www.projectoffset.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=5
If the point is to create superior graphics, then Project Offset is simply on par with engines such as CryEngine2 and Unreal3. If it’s for a nice underlying engine for the sake of it, then I guess it’s succeeded.
This is lame. I work for a game developer as a senior engine programmer and have been doing just as impressive technology in my basement at home (let alone at work), albeit with out the multimillion dollar support of Intel and a huge art team.
The videos really don’t even look that good.
Dave makes a good point, so stop bashing him. The rest of you who think this is awesome, are idiots.
Offset has been developing this for years… they were on G4 TV with a tech demo and many of these features have been integrated for a LONG time… so people bashing them, this article or the video about not keeping up with the times, clearly haven’t been doing so themselves!
Just to also clear something up – they also developed most of the tech BEFORE being acquired by Intel, so engine development sans-$millions. Oh, and it’s the core team that developed Savage, in case anyone was wondering
Any references? Videos? Anything at all that proves your claims are valid? Talk is cheap.
ed fries???
There are some technologies around the corner that will bring about a whole new level of realism, but this isn’t one of them as far as I can tell. The main trouble in games right now is not polygon count, it’s not texturing, it’s not normal mapping, it’s not realistic motion or expression – those problems have been tackled very convincingly for half a decade now. The problem is that cheap tricks are being used to emulate lifelike lighting (“HDR”, bloom effects, shaders in general) because simulating real-world lighting in real time is completely outside the capability of any GPU. Not to worry though, groups like Geomerics and their Enlighten engine are on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPQiCliKmg
Get the lighting right and you no longer have that dull, over-reflective plastic look. Everything else is just iteration.
Uhm, every video on the Geomerics site *shows* overuse of bloom-filters and hacks.
And sure, they might do some global illumination in a nice testscene, but now I’d like to see it in a real game where there’s more to see than one little room / building and more to do than just rendering a building – let’s say AI, particles, gamelogic, streaming in of leveldata etc.
Geomerics stuff looks nice for a techdemo, but it doesn’t look like a GAME-engine.
I’m somewhat fascinated as to what the heck is under that loincloth…