SIGGRAPH 2013 technology trailer showcases experimental graphics, drool-worthy physics

An incredible new trailer has been released for SIGGRAPH 2013, a long-running technical papers program focused on computer graphics and interactive technology. While most of the voiceover narration went completely over my head, I did enjoy looking at the pretty pictures.

There's some great verbiage like “femto-second pulse of light” and “spherical harmonic illumination conditions,” but the real joy is watching the hi-res animations undulate and change in response to lighting or environmental conditions. It's easy to see how the physics of the exploding brick wall—I mean, excuse me, the “new subspace integration method” for “existing high-resolution fluid simulations”—could be used in destructible environments. That said, all of the new technologies could change the look and feel of games in the future, from the hair rendering for character models to the dynamic lighting shining across a pair of sunglasses.

The 40th SIGGRAPH conference will be held in Anaheim in late July, and I'm sure we'll get a lot more great examples of physics simulations and advances in graphics then. The hard part will be waiting for these experimental graphics to make their way into released games for us to play on our new gaming rigs... in many, many years.