Sunday, August 14, 2011

PC Perspective's John Carmack Interview: GPU Race, Intel Graphics, Ray Tracing and Voxels and more!

I just got a chance to sit through PC Perspective's John Carmack Interview: GPU Race, Intel Graphics, Ray Tracing and Voxels and more!

For anyone interested in gaming and the future of gaming technology this is a must see!!

"Now to things of recent debate – infinite detail engines. He first clarifies that voxel engines and infinite detail topics are not the same thing and should not be treated as such. Carmack then states he believes “procedurally generated detail is usually not what you want.” A discussion that has been around for over a decade, truly useful procedurally generated content has never materialized though the ability to easily and efficiently manage the real data that you do create HAS. My favorite line? “Proceduralism is just a truly crappy form of data compression.” He continues to state that infinite detail isn’t really what’s important to future game development and instead we should be focusing on the “broad strokes” of artistic visions and build on them. “If you take uninspired content and go look at it at the molecular level, it’s still uninspired content.”

Also head on over to PC Perspective for a full transcript! 
   

2 comments:

  1. Quake 2 T-Shirt? Way to go Carmack your back on my good boy list.

    I am very surprised at the inefficiencies explained on the PC drivers someone wants their backsides kicked.

    Good interview.

    ReplyDelete
  2. P.S: I think Carkmack's interpretation of procedural content is somewhat short-sighted however.

    It may be true when applied to content generated 'entirely' from simple procedural algorithms however where it really shines is when its applied to augment artistic input, for example when a procedural algorithm modifies a walk cycle to adapt the posture of a character on different slopes or where procedural erosion is applied to landscapes with brush strokes.

    ReplyDelete