Skip to main content
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Activision shows off next-gen rendering tech at GDC

Don't kid yourself; it will be a hell of a long time before we see this kind of thing in a Call of Duty or WarCraft game. Nevertheless, this rendering tech demo from the research and development team at Activision Blizzard is amazing stuff.

The tech demo below was shown off at GDC. This version is apparently running on a GeForce GTX 680, in DirectX 11, and works at up to 180FPS, while the real-time GDC demo was running off a two-year old laptop.

This is not supercomputer territory; this is feasible now, although like Nvidia's recent Face Works demo, there's no hair, and nothing else in the scene - there's no way you could do this in a typical game.

Activision Blizzard technical director Jorge Jimenez wrote a blog post for those of us at home, saying the demo 'represents the culmination of many years of work in photorealistic characters'.

"We will show how each detail is the secret for achieving reality. For us, the challenge goes beyond entertaining; it’s more about creating a medium for better expressing emotions, and reaching the feelings of the players," he said.

Watch on YouTube

Thanks, Shack.

Read this next