Tuesday, February 26th 2013

AMD TressFX Technology Detailed

by
btarunr
 Discuss (99 Comments)
AMD unveiled the new TressFX technology it teased us with, earlier this week. The technology, as predicted, works to create realistic hair rendering and physics; but we imagine it could be applied to foliage and hopefully, furry donuts as well. It will be first implemented in the 2013 reboot title of the Tomb Raider franchise, in which Lara Croft finally parted with her braid. TressFX helps accurately render Croft's hair, drawing finer locks of hair than pre-rendered hair textures plastered on bigger hair polygons that look unnatural. The free and fluid nature of these locks can then be used to accurately draw the effects of wind and water onto the hair. Below are a few before-after instances of TressFX.

Technically, TressFX is a toolset co-developed by AMD and Crystal Dynamics, which taps into DirectCompute to unlock the number-crunching prowess of the GPU (specifically Graphics CoreNext ones), to render individual strands of hair. It is built on the foundation laid by AMD's work on Order Independent Transparency (OIT), and uses Per-Pixel Linked-List (PPLL) data structures to manage rendering complexity and memory usage. DirectCompute is additionally used to process the physics of these strands of hair, which are affected by the character's motion, and elements such as wind and water/rain. TressFX will be implemented at least on the PC version of the upcoming Tomb Raider.

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99 Comments on AMD TressFX Technology Detailed

#26
Solidstate89
RejZoRI hate fun.
It's a joke image, calm the hell down. :cool:
Posted on Reply
#27
Scrizz
RejZoRSo they sticked some hair on a baldy ...... making Lara hairy ....
F**k that.

.....looks like those eggs...freakin CPU Havok... fuckin....
wow dude, chillax xD :laugh: :nutkick:
Posted on Reply
#28
badtaylorx
RejZoRSo they sticked some hair on a baldy who was designed to be bald to begin with. Whats next, making Lara hairy where she wasn't intended to be? Pathetic, like they are competing with NVIDIA who will make more retarded post processing physics effects and lock them down to one platform.
F**k that.

It looks patehtic as well. This guy looks like those eggs where you stuff them with cotton and plant some wheat seeds in them so they grow hair. An egg with wheat come over. Nice...
The guy looks better with a bald head. Period.

If anyone bothered to work with some art ANYONE could make some rather realistic har using CPU alone. You wouldn't have 3 billions of hair strands but if anyone would even bother to make clusters of hair taht move based on head movement, freakin CPU Havok could do that. But instead, no one even bothered to do that. Instead pretty much all games used 100% static hair.
So why 100% static or 100% super duper HW accelerated. Like no one knows how to fuckin make something in the middle. They always have to do it on one or another extreme...
is your trolling addiction getting out of controll??

call 1-800-ST0P-DA-H8 to reach our trollers anonymous hotline

we're all here for ya' bro
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#29
MilkyWay
Is it just me or does her hair TressFX look better than most of the textures in those pics?
Me: "that's nice" and moves along.
Posted on Reply
#30
TheoneandonlyMrK
I do appreciate Amds efforts and like the sound of this but I hope there next pr blumph is mmore wide reaching then this presently is , people are getting all uptight about one hot bots hair in a single game...madness.
Posted on Reply
#31
Shihab
Best hair motion I've seen usually are in Japanese games' CGI cutscenes.
Now this TresFX thingy looks great, but not something to celebrate about independently. If it was an addition to a better physics engine/fluid simulator one would have :toast:ed along, but this is simply an overkill for something so mundane. Still, love it.

I'd rather be seeing advancement in the textures department though. Heck, throw in some uber high res textures and use that DirectCompute to decompress/manipulate them like Civ-V does, and use that memory bandwidth you're so proud of to carry them around. Make those games look real! "Come on man. Lie to me, Jerry! LIE TO ME"
RejZoRWhats next, making Lara hairy where she wasn't intended to be?
They wanted to, Platinum game's beat them to the concept though

Sidenote: Don't be hatin' on baldies mate, we didn't choose to be so...
Posted on Reply
#32
Prima.Vera
I hope this will work on older generation cards, not only on 7xxxx
Posted on Reply
#34
Solidstate89
Prima.VeraI hope this will work on older generation cards, not only on 7xxxx
Anything that supports DirectX11 will support the necessary DirectCompute APIs.
Posted on Reply
#35
Steevo
RejZoRSo hair is more important than a fully destructible world with physical environmental weather effects. I am amazed how can they waste so much potential on something as unimportant as hair.
Sure it's nice if it's realistic but c'mon!? Lara had physics affected hair in Tomb Raider, back in 1998 ?
It was basic and all but they did it on shit CPU's from that time and it sort of looked pretty good, Lara's hair tail swinging around...
www.nvidia.com/object/physx_knowledge_base.html


"Cooking"


Cooking by the book means the load times between levels, or the size of games is due to the pre-cooking of many "real time Physx" effects that everyone is so crazy about in.....all.....40 titles of hardware accelerated effects,most of which only use partial library implementation.
Posted on Reply
#36
Crap Daddy
So, it's a full war going on, some direct compute there, some hairy stuff here, all to make sure AMD cards look better than Nvidia. Same old story as with TWIMTBP some time ago and physX, who gives a shit about people who just want to play games let's screw the competition and you suckers if you want to play OUR game then buy OUR card. Well my next card will probably be a console. I'm done with this.
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#37
Calin Banc
I don't see a problem as long as it runs on nVIDIA cards and so it does. ;)
Posted on Reply
#38
SIGSEGV
if only it was exclusive feature only for AMD cards, i believe they'd go more ranting and moaning. Sanitarium gonna full with these people.

the good thing is this tech can be ran into all gpus which capable dx 11 :rockout:
well done AMD :respect:
Posted on Reply
#39
LAN_deRf_HA
Glad actually to finally see a multi-platform gpu physics option. This is what DX11 was supposed to bring from the get go. Maybe having AMD in next gen consoles will help make that more standard and physx can finally die.
Posted on Reply
#40
Crap Daddy
Calin BancI don't see a problem as long as it runs on nVIDIA cards and so it does. ;)
Of course it will. But NV cards will take a performance hit. There are a few games out there which use the direct compute ability of GCN not because it's the only way to make the game look good but because they are Gaming Evolved titles.
Posted on Reply
#41
Fluffmeister
SIGSEGVif only it was exclusive feature only for AMD cards, i believe they'd go more ranting and moaning. Sanitarium gonna full with these people.

the good thing is this tech can be ran into all gpus which capable dx 11 :rockout:
well done AMD :respect:
It doesn't really matter either way, if it runs decently enough on all cards without a major performance hit then great. If on the other hand it tanks performance 20-30% plus only on GeForce cards it will just get turned off. It's not like it effects the gameplay after all.
Posted on Reply
#42
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
whether people care about her improved hair or not, this tech CAN be used for other things - anything with lots of strands (think animal fur, carpet, or cloth in general)


this is a new graphical tech that can be used for far more than lara crofts armpit hair, so people need to stop hating on it just because its not a new kind of antialiasing or whatever the hell floats their boats
Posted on Reply
#43
Xzibit
Crap DaddyOf course it will. But NV cards will take a performance hit. There are a few games out there which use the direct compute ability of GCN not because it's the only way to make the game look good but because they are Gaming Evolved titles.
You could say the same for "TWIMTBP" titles from 2003-2012. The differance is its not proprietery. Nvidia went Cuda PhysX stagnating the industry. Look what happen even at ORNL Cray Titan presentation it was pointed out that OpenMAA was just as fast as CUDA so you didnt need to buy into Nvidias propriety scheme to make full use of Cray Titan.

If Nvidia/ATI at the time would have used DC API it would have been maturing over the years and widely use by now. Nvidia was in the first X-Box and decided to go PhysX to get a upper hand on competition and I bet it didnt make Microsoft all too happy.

AMD consolidating all 3 consoles might be the best thing to happen for PC gaming and gaming if it keeps on this track of willing to support these features in a non-proprietary way.
Posted on Reply
#44
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
XzibitAMD consolidating all 3 consoles might be the best thing to happen for PC gaming and gaming if it keeps on this track of willing to support these features in a non-proprietary way.
ooooh i didnt realise, the modern consoles being all AMD will make this a standard console/game feature now.
Posted on Reply
#45
Widjaja
Appears to be just a small impression of what can be done.

I will be interested on how taxing this will be on the cards in comparison to enabling standard hair.
Posted on Reply
#46
SaltyFish
LAN_deRf_HAGlad actually to finally see a multi-platform gpu physics option. This is what DX11 was supposed to bring from the get go. Maybe having AMD in next gen consoles will help make that more standard and physx can finally die.
There is OpenGL for multi-platform... but devs are too lazy to use it.
Posted on Reply
#47
Fluffmeister
Musselsooooh i didnt realise, the modern consoles being all AMD will make this a standard console/game feature now.
Not really, multiple middleware's will be available to game devs, take this list for the PS4 for example:

www.scei.co.jp/ps4_tm/index.html

Assuming this tech will take off because the hardware is AMD exclusive is nonsense.
Posted on Reply
#48
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
FluffmeisterNot really, multiple middleware's will be available to game devs, take this list for the PS4 for example:

www.scei.co.jp/ps4_tm/index.html

Assuming this tech will take off because the hardware is AMD exclusive is nonsense.
if this is the fastest one, and fully supported by the company they bought the hardware from, its going to have a pretty big advantage.
Posted on Reply
#49
Fluffmeister
Musselsif this is the fastest one, and fully supported by the company they bought the hardware from, its going to have a pretty big advantage.
The first of many "if's", it's purely up to the devs what licensed tech they use, again just because AMD is supply the underlying technology it doesn't mean their own technology will benefit.
Posted on Reply
#50
Xzibit
FluffmeisterThe first of many "if's", it's purely up to the devs what licensed tech they use, again just because AMD is supply the underlying technology it doesn't mean their own technology will benefit.
Its part of DirectX. There is this company called Microsoft. Makes OS for PCs, Phones, Tablets and has a gaming console. It not just helps AMD but Microsoft. It can cross promote games with features that are further enhanced on Games for Windows. Even if its not embrased by PS4 or Wii/U.
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