Here's what video games could look like as soon as next year

#1

Euclideon, the 3D rendering studio that gave us a glimpse of what it called “the largest ever breakthrough in 3D graphics” back in 2011, has said that it is now prepping its tech for use in games.

Called Euclideon SOLIDSCAN, the tech takes an ordinary laser scan of real-world areas, and enhances the resolution by up to 1000 times. It’s then fed into Euclideon’s Unlimited Detail engine, to provide scenes like those shown in the latest demo above.

The team says that these scenes can be loaded in less than a second, thanks to the way in which the data is compressed down and streamed.

Euclideon now says that the tech is finally ready, and that two games will release in 2015 that will utilize SOLIDSCAN and the Unlimited Detail engine.

The company is also looking for investors in the game industry to help boost its progress.

You can find more information on how the tech works over at Tech Report, where Euclideon CEO Bruce Dell has detailed his company’s progress.

#2

This coupled with Oculus Rift could have some serious implementations.

#3

There was a very noticeable plane-shifting effect in the video although that would fit well with a video game.

#4

Oh, they’re the point cloud data people.

I… don’t see the benefit it could have in videogames to be honest.

#5

It could be a cheap way to produce impressive realistic environments. There was another article in my RSS reader today on how to use photography to make better and cheaper art assets.

#6

Textures is one thing, but i don’t know if predictive three-dimensional models would be of any significant help, at least not to videogames. I imagine the industry would rather move towards accessible virtual asset generation than adapting real world content into virtual assets.

#7

As long as the laser scan is making actual, polygonal objects in stead of point-cloud objects, I can see this having a major impact on the industry. I mean, how many games just copy and paste real world environments? Almost none. But imagine how much time you could be saving by having a fully fleshed out base to start with, instead of starting from scratch.

Probably would have cut down development on Last of Us by a metric ton.

#8

It wouldn’t be convenient if you’re working in an environment where you are counting polygons to make sure you’re as close as possible to what the buffer allows, where every asset has to have maximized potential and utility.

It would be very cool for virtual reality museum and architecture sims, and also for virtual archival of physical places (dat start trek future).

#9

Yeah, it’s probably better suited to a more curated experience on-the-rails, than an free interactive one.

#10

I was more thinking along the line of of indie developers making adventure games. Even if you start out with reality, you could lower the polygon count and texture detail until you get the desired performance.