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  • Wolfman Developer Interview

    Find out the process behind what goes into developing a product demo straight from two guys from NVIDIA that create them.

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  • Technical Brief: nfiniteFX II Engine Tech Brief

    Did you know that dual Vertex Shaders, advanced Pixel Shaders, 3D textures and shadow buffers are all part of the revolutionary nfiniteFX II Engine? Read about the history behind these technologies and how they culminate into bleeding-edge effects (243KB PDF).

nfiniteFX II Engine

 
 
The NVIDIA nfiniteFX(TM) II Engine is a groundbreaking technology enabling unprecedented levels of real-time character animation, and delivering up to twice the performance of the GeForce3(TM). Its dual Vertex Shaders inject personality into characters and environments like never before, and its advanced Pixel Shaders with Z-correct bump mapping enable surface detail previously unimaginable on a desktop PC.

NVIDIA's Wolfman Demo
Trying to render hair and fur in real time has historically resulted in characters that look plastic, stiff and constrained. Computer-generated hair and fur should give the appearance of texture and movement, and it should show off the subtle reflections and light absorption like real hair or fur. The nfiniteFX II Engine represents the first time that realistic fur with per-pixel lighting can be applied to a highly complex animated character and run at high frame rates. In addition, its dual Vertex Shaders are able to drive more than 100 million vertices per second.

 


The NVIDIA Wolfman contains over 100,000 polygons and eight concentric fur "shells." These shells are layered one on top of the other, with textures of hair applied to each shell-giving the appearance of depth. The color and density of the fur is controlled using a separate texture map that covers the entire body, which gives the fur its distinct mussed look, rather than a uniform pattern. The nfiniteFX II Engine's advanced Pixel Shaders' support for three and four textures accelerates this type of rendering.

 

The Wolfman is not a mere static model. Rather, it is a completely skinned animation, and contains a 61-bone skeleton. The complexity of the model is on par with that used in television and film special effects production. Each and every vertex of the skin, fur layers and fin geometry are deformed in real time to match the movement of the underlying skeleton. The complexity of the task is amazing, because the nfiniteFX II Engine needs to handle these vertex deformations for each of the eight layers. The result is unbelievably realistic muscular movement as the Wolfman stalks the streets of London.

With the nfiniteFX II Engine, NVIDIA has once again raised the bar for high-quality visuals, while simultaneously delivering ferocious graphics power. Its dual Vertex Shaders are capable of driving the complex type of geometries required for a character like Wolfman, and its advanced Pixel Shaders deliver blistering performance-up to 50% faster performance than the GeForce3. The nfiniteFX II Engine has truly delivered on its promise of bringing movie quality graphics running at high speed, real-time frame rates to the PC.