While exclusively gaming technology isn’t usually considered highly scientific or very relevant, advances in game engines have started to gather attention of non-gamers around them for purposes other than gaming. It’s been noted that, using the physics-centered Garry’s Mod for Half Life 2 and it’s Source engine, people can create a plethora of objects, systems, machines. I heard someone even figured out how to create logic gates using a small set of tools and nothing but physics.
In order to really appreciate how impressive some of these advances are, I advise you to check out the below movie. It showcases some of the things that CryTek (a game developer) has been working on for the past few years.
CryTek has been developing this game engine, CryEngine 2, for use in their upcoming video game, Crysis. However, seeing some of that demonstration really piques my curiosity. How many real-world uses for the sophisticated real-time modeling seen here are there?
Well, I did a bit of research, and there’s quite a few uses. Everything from medical imaging, computer animation, supercomputer simulations, and military mapping uses high-tech 3d rendering and modeling techniques, but, seeing as it’s not technically their job to provide aesthetically pleasing renders, their tools are lacking the graphical power of their gaming peers. Even so, a good amount of data can come from minute difference in the graphical representations we get from computers. That data may be lost or uninterpreted in a simulation that doesn’t know how or care to render the additional information.
That’s where something like CryEngine 2 comes in. It’s graphically top of the line; it does indeed start to blend distinctions between virtual and actual reality. It may even end up helping a doctor down the road to examine a patient or other examples. Yet, for now, I’m content to use these sophisticated tools for simply recreational use.
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Holy cow! I thought I was watching reality for a few seconds at the beginnning. It will be interesting to see how movies evolve. I’ve gotta think that casting studios are gonna start asking themselves why they need to pay millions for an actor when the can simply make one. I think we may see that in our lifetime.