Meanwhile on PC: AMD unveils next-gen hair simulation technology
Are you listening, Elder Scrolls?
Blocky clumps of hair begone! Individual strands of hair welcome! AMD has unveiled TressFX hair.
"Since the dawn of the 3D era, characters in your favourite games have largely featured totally unrealistic hair: blocky and jagged, often without animation that matches your character's movements. Many games have attempted to disguise the problem with short haircuts, updos, or even unremovable helmets. But why?" asked AMD.
"Simply: realistic hair is one of the most complex and challenging materials to accurately reproduce in real-time."
But that's what AMD has gone and done. And Tomb Raider is the first game to feature "the world's first real-time hair rendering technology".
TressFX Hair treats strands of hair as physical chains that can be affected by gravity, wind and character movement. There's even collision detection so strands of hair don't pass through each other or through other physical objects like heads, helmets, hats, bodies and clothing.
It's not clear how much stress TressFX Hair puts on AMD graphics cards, but AMD mentioned that the Radeon 7000 range is well equipped to handle it.
