News - Nvidia releases video showing HairWorks in The Witcher 3

[HEXUS]

A wolf in the PC game uses approximately 200,000 simulated strands of hair.

Read more.

[scaryjim]

A DirectX 11 capable GPU will be required for HairWorks effects.

An nvidia DX11 capable GPU, or any GPU? And if it is any GPU, how much opportunity will AMD have to optimise - or potentially remove nvidia sub-optimisation, if rumours are to be believed - for performance on their graphics cards?

Still, I guess it is about time NV caught up with AMD's TressFX in that regard...

Be every intersting to see benchmarks of these effects, and whether (if they're available at all) they do hammer AMD's performance when enabled...

[sirtrouserpress]

Might be asking a pretty stupid question, but how exactly does this differ from TressFX?

[Sihastru]

An nvidia DX11 capable GPU, or any GPU? And if it is any GPU, how much opportunity will AMD have to optimise - or potentially remove nvidia sub-optimisation, if rumours are to be believed - for performance on their graphics cards?

Still, I guess it is about time NV caught up with AMD's TressFX in that regard...

Be every intersting to see benchmarks of these effects, and whether (if they're available at all) they do hammer AMD's performance when enabled...

TressFX was very glitchy with nVIDIA GPUs in all the games it was implemented in (one game...). AMD also specifies on their site that "it’s all made possible by the unique processing capabilities of AMD Radeon™ HD graphics". And then they go on and recommend a GCN GPU. They don't say it works with nVIDIA or Intel GPUs.

And that's understandable. One cannot expect AMD to use their own funds and own time to test hardware from the competition. And nVIDIA should be held to the same standards. Even if they would test hardware from outside the company, they couldn't possibly specify that it works with *any*/*AMD*/*Intel* GPU, that would make them liable. And while they can control what their software/hardware development teams do, they cannot in any way control what AMD's or Intel's development teams do. So it would be impossible to ensure compatibility with 3rd party GPUs. And this is true for any GPU maker, be it nVIDIA, AMD or Intel.

[YazX]

A DirectX 11 capable GPU will be required for HairWorks effects.

An nvidia DX11 capable GPU, or any GPU? And if it is any GPU, how much opportunity will AMD have to optimise - or potentially remove nvidia sub-optimisation, if rumours are to be believed - for performance on their graphics cards?

Still, I guess it is about time NV caught up with AMD's TressFX in that regard...

Be every intersting to see benchmarks of these effects, and whether (if they're available at all) they do hammer AMD's performance when enabled...

when you ppl are going to learn, TressFX is not AMD exclusive, its DirectCompute and works on any GPU, while HairWorks is part of GameWorks Nvidia Exclusive Library, it doesnt work unless if you have nvidia hardware, not because other GPUs cannot handle it, but because its locked as it has been specifically developed and implemented by Nvidia.

[shaithis]

Might be asking a pretty stupid question, but how exactly does this differ from TressFX?

My guess is that it won't bring a Titan to it's knees.

All this news lately is making me more and more nervous about vendor lock-in....

[Sihastru]

when you ppl are going to learn, TressFX is not AMD exclusive, its DirectCompute and works on any GPU, while HairWorks is part of GameWorks Nvidia Exclusive Library, it doesnt work unless if you have nvidia hardware, not because other GPUs cannot handle it, but because its locked as it has been specifically developed and implemented by Nvidia.

It's NOT locked to nVIDIA hardware. Stop misinforming people! It requires a DX11 compliant GPU. They test it with nVIDIA hardware and there will be optimizations in their drivers and the library itself, which is normal (industry standard). Optimizing is not the same as locking.

[Otherhand]

An nvidia DX11 capable GPU, or any GPU?

If, as they say, it's only activated via Ultra settings (and really we're talking about games that are yet to be released) before it adds its additional performance hit, then I suppose we must be talking about pretty beefy GPUs among today's selection: presumably nothing less than a 780 with expanded VRAM?

[AlexKitch]

I just don't really understand the yearly obsession with hair, in emerging game tech. Cool hair tech has been around for years but I can't actually say I've seen it implemented in any recent titles.

I'd have thought there are more impressive things to be tackling than hair.

[shaithis]

When done right, hair can add a very realistic look to a model. Also, in many games you will see the hair a lot more and/or a lot easier than the face (which would be the other thing to model right for realism).

But, I think we may be a way away from where we want to be for this as my 7970 was brought to it's knees when enabling TressFX in Tomb Raider....and while the hair was cool, it didn't really add a huge amount and got turned off pretty quickly.

[Lonegunman]

Check out the video below to see why nvidia's GameWorks (and subset HairWorks) are bad for the industry. Jump to 30 mins in if you don't want to watch the full interview.

maximumpc.com/no_bs_podcast_226_-depth_interview_amd_graphics_guru_richard_huddy

[Lonegunman]

Won't allow my to include a link so just search for it or stick www in front of the link.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

When done right, hair can add a very realistic look to a model. Also, in many games you will see the hair a lot more and/or a lot easier than the face (which would be the other thing to model right for realism).

But, I think we may be a way away from where we want to be for this as my 7970 was brought to it's knees when enabling TressFX in Tomb Raider....and while the hair was cool, it didn't really add a huge amount and got turned off pretty quickly.

TressFX 2.0 is meant to improve performance significantly:

http://www.arabhardware.net/images/s...eon-GCN-47.jpg
http://diit.cz/sites/default/files/t...zentace_38.jpg

It can be used for both grass and fur too.

[Otherhand]

I just don't really understand the yearly obsession with hair, in emerging game tech. Cool hair tech has been around for years but I can't actually say I've seen it implemented in any recent titles.

I'd have thought there are more impressive things to be tackling than hair.

I think the point is that tackling hair is such a tough job that it will unlock many other possibilities on the way. Although the name of TressFX suggested it was only for hair, the intention was to break down problems in other things as well, especially cloth physics and landscape vegetation.

It's highly likely that solving representational problems will lead to new gameplay. We take unscripted physics for granted now, but they were a big deal when Half Life 2 introduced them; now, we have physics-based puzzles and nobody bats an eyelid. Assassin's Creed's naval warfare wouldn't have been anywhere near as exciting without believable rolling waves, and once the simulation of liquid physics is truly achievable across mainstream graphics card hardware you can bet that people will come up with new ways to employ water as a gameplay element.

Even if it is only aesthetic, I still think it's important to get this stuff right. We could fake the movement of fire around an object in the ways we always have, but the fake fire in Nvidia's recent demo was something I desperately want to see in action in a game. If we do it for no other reason, we should do it because every other aspect of graphics is improving in leaps and bounds. A standstill in these seemingly mundane details will make the behaviours of hair, cloth, wind, water and fire stand out like a sore thumb.

[deejayburnout]

i remember when Monster Inc came out and they were showing how good Sullys hair looked on that.

I thought it was advanced back then??

looks nice but is it really all that important.

[semitope]

its kind of hard to notice this tech. Even with the dog they tried to showcase it was hard to see. Maybe the witcher will make it more visible. With AMDs tressFX being used on the main character's hair it was obviously an improvement but I haven't seen the witcher's hair using any kind of tech like this to make people take note.