Advancements in real-time rendering headed to Siggraph

The 90-minute show “Real-Time Live!” is part of the annual Computer Animation Festival. Demonstrations include real-time rendering of fire and cartoon character faces from human actor input.

Advancements in real-time rendering for games and animation will be presented at Siggraph 2014 during the annual Real-Time Live! session. The 90-minute show is part of the annual Siggraph Computer Animation Festival, the world’s premier showcase for the latest trends and techniques in CG.

“For one night only, Siggraph attendees will enjoy a unique and fast-paced display of the most innovative real-time techniques for interactive systems and computer graphics,” said Nicolas Gonzalez, Siggraph 2014 Real-Time Live! Chair from Deloitte Consulting. “Our international jury truly outdid itself as this year’s show is mind-boggling with fascinating advancements that we cannot wait to show off.”

The 2014 Real-Time Live! program will take place on Tuesday, 12 August at 5:30 p.m. PST in the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Each live presentation lasts less than 10 minutes and is presented by the original artists and engineers. As an added bonus, the 2014 Real-Time Live! program includes presentations from the Augmented/Virtual Reality Contest finalists, a new Siggraph event.

Siggraph 2014 Real-Time Live! Highlights:

Destruction Sequences in Call of Duty: Ghosts
Presenters: David Johnson, Alessandro Nardini, Infinity Ward

“Instant Pop” was the goal for improving destruction sequences in Call of Duty: Ghosts (Source: Siggraph)

In an effort to raise the bar for destruction sequences in a real-time game engine, non-localized particles, “instant pop,” low density, generic fracturing, and more were identified and addressed through several artistic techniques and technical advancements for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Nvidia FlameWorks: Real-Time Fire Simulation
Presenters: Simon Green, Nuttapong Chentanez, Aron Zoellner, Johnny Costello, Kevin Newkirk, Dane Johnston, NVIDIA Corporation

Nvidia FlameWorks renders more than 32 million voxels per frame to create volumetric fire effects. (Source: Siggraph)

FlameWorks is the first system to bring cinema-quality volumetric fire, smoke, and explosion effects to real-time graphics. The demo simulates and renders more than 32 million voxels per frame, at around 30 frames per second.

Real-Time Animation of Cartoon Character Faces
Presenters: Emiliano Gambaretto, Charles Piña, Mixamo, Inc.

Mixamo Face Plus technology renders actor facial movents in real time. (Source: Siggraph)

This live demo allows a viewer to stand in front of a webcam and animate a 3D character in real time. The video stream is processed by Mixamo Face Plus proprietary technology, the facial expression of the user is extracted, and the emotional facial information is transferred to the 3D character.