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The Matrix Is Unreal

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21–30 of 237 posts

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#21

I know there are companies using virtual models to showcase clothing. Is replacing actors and actresses next? In some ways I don’t mind it, and decentralizing away from celebrity culture may even be a societal good. But I feel like some experiences are better off organic. Is there any point to appreciating - as an example - ballet performed by a virtual dancer with unrealistic athleticism? Will sports matter? Should…

Whatever… It’s just you’ll never be even expected to trust your own eyes anymore, unless you peer right into the real world.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#22
post #2

At what level of reality does it become a warcrime to turn it off?

Irrelevant in terms of appearances, I think? It’s not a crime to delete a captured video of a person. That discussion is more about underlaying AI, which isn’t involved in this demo.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#23
post #5

Meh, these guys are still stuck in the uncanny valley. Objects are often absolutely beautiful and realistic, but interactions between objects are ridiculous. Some of this is probably just "not enough processing power", but it is also due to where the rendering bumps up against the primitive controls. For example, you have a very realistic human. But then the human walks against an object, and she does this standard v…

I'm a game dev and I spent a lot of time trying to merge the physics system with the player character (PC) control. You basically have the options of letting the player controls try to physically manipulate the PC by inserting forces, or skipping physics entirely for the PC and implement something separate ad hoc.

I spent a lot of time on both and read a lot about the issue, and most end up skipping physics on the PC, because it just feels worse controlling it realistically. This might be because we're used to that though. Anyway after all, you're making a game and games have to be fun to play.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#24
post #18
post #5

Meh, these guys are still stuck in the uncanny valley. Objects are often absolutely beautiful and realistic, but interactions between objects are ridiculous. Some of this is probably just "not enough processing power", but it is also due to where the rendering bumps up against the primitive controls. For example, you have a very realistic human. But then the human walks against an object, and she does this standard v…

The city feel is perfect though. It is just the interactions/movements of some of the characters. Also the acceleration of people and cars feels still too artificial. It is not the looks, but the physics that are still full on the uncanny valley. I think as graphics get more and more realistic looks wise, game designers need to slow down the game, and make it feel more real. One of my favorite car chases is from the…

Spot on about the physics. For me, the thing that really gives it away in the white room is Keanu's hair. The way it moves it just off.

Super impressive demo though.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#25
post #18
post #5

Meh, these guys are still stuck in the uncanny valley. Objects are often absolutely beautiful and realistic, but interactions between objects are ridiculous. Some of this is probably just "not enough processing power", but it is also due to where the rendering bumps up against the primitive controls. For example, you have a very realistic human. But then the human walks against an object, and she does this standard v…

The city feel is perfect though. It is just the interactions/movements of some of the characters. Also the acceleration of people and cars feels still too artificial. It is not the looks, but the physics that are still full on the uncanny valley. I think as graphics get more and more realistic looks wise, game designers need to slow down the game, and make it feel more real. One of my favorite car chases is from the…

To be fair, the Ronin car chases (and a lot of similar) exploit camera angles and FOVs to make a slow moving car feel fast. So they are not as realistic as you think either..

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#26
This writeup is unsubtle in being a puff piece. The demoed tech is very impressive! Individual stills taken from the video are pretty convincing.

The motion version definitely still exhibits uncanny valley, though—lights that are too hard on flesh, tightness and sharpness where there should be softness. That I have to resort to hand-wavey descriptors is cool; they’re getting close! But crossing uncanny valley is HARD.

What this demo convinces me of is not that we’re there; we are not. Claiming that we are is disingenuous, and makes me distrust the claimant. But it makes apparent that we will get there. And that’s impressive.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#27
post #5

Meh, these guys are still stuck in the uncanny valley. Objects are often absolutely beautiful and realistic, but interactions between objects are ridiculous. Some of this is probably just "not enough processing power", but it is also due to where the rendering bumps up against the primitive controls. For example, you have a very realistic human. But then the human walks against an object, and she does this standard v…

I think it's mostly about where the team puts their attention and how to make the best use of the finite production time and budget. Such demos (or games in general) are like fractals, an infinite amount of people can spend an infinite amount of time getting every little detail right and still not cover everything.

E.g. the goal was probably to show off the new Nanite and Lumen rendering features, and probably MetaHuman for the main character faces and facial animations. At some point you have to say "ok, we focus on this stuff, and accept compromises for other things". If the team's goal would have been to create the best crowd simulation or environment interaction ever, they would probably have achieved this, but at the cost of other things.

Re: The Matrix Is Unreal

#29

Ok, I was under the impression that the white room scenes were a mix of filmed and digital assets, not 100% renders. In this context it is very impressive. The later scenes are very good, but in as others put it still in that uncanny valley area. We are on the up-slope however!

That 3d Keanu in the white room had me fooled, the hair, the skin, the clothes are bang on. I read it did "4d scanning". So am I to assume the hair and clothes motion capture are part of the scan?
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