Part of a recent press-event held in New York, AMD showcased a new technology that makes rendering photo-realistic humans possible. It made game developers stand up and take note.

This technology called Cinema 2.0 makes producing photo-realistic human characters possible. It can be used in scenarios such as producing a full-on CGI movie or parts of it, where computers generate the actors' computer-animated replica that's the most photo-realistic in today's time. For example, the woman in the picture below is computer-animated. Believe it!It works on this principle:

A model is sent into a large spherical room, walls of which have hundreds of high-definition cameras that capture the model's facial 3D contour, the data is analysed, this is used to generate real-time video renders of the person's facial expressions by the system as the face and all its features are redrawn in several facial expressions. The false-colour image you see below maps reflection and the interaction of light with the surface. A true colour image captures the model's colour features at various parts of the face. The data will be used to draw computer-rendered characters.

The big names in the gaming industry, namely Splash Damage, Crytek, Rebellion, Remedy (makers of Alan Wake Forever) and even Blizzard were noted in the presentation as partners of AMD. This technology looks close to being the way of the future, tomorrow's games will be more cinematic than ever thanks to ongoing efforts by the major players in the hardware industry also working on technologies that will drive them.