Asking for help

Google can't do everything, so I've been asking around for thoughts and opinions on point based rendering.



An alumni of the DIGM masters/ industry FX artist /old friend of mine mentioned that points (or voxels) are used all the time in the FX world, especially in Houdini. He reminded me for the thousandth time that I should study up on Houdini, not only is it industry standard for FX (and slowly becoming a good tool in games/animation) but it is also a better software to understand fundamentals of computer graphics.

He also sent me this:
Photogrammetry Content in Modular Level Design’ | Unreal Fest Europe 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=558Z37p7Bi4

I liked this talk a lot because the speaker brings up some interesting points in the beginning about the usage of scanned assets. I have been studying this field for less than a year and I am already tired of the conversation that photogrammetry will replace artists-- not because I believe it is unimportant. It is a VERY important discussion considering the impact it may have. I say I am tired because we have seen this happen before; did the camera replace the painter? Did film replace books? New media artists shouldn't fear new media.

The project behind the talk is called Chernobyl VR, and is a very interesting application of a scanned real world location that has been turned into an interactive game experience.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/virtual-reality-tour-chernobyl-vr


--

When I signed up Nurulize's private beta tool last week, a rep actually reached out to me and we've had a bit of a back and forth about rendering points (or atoms) in Unreal. I will be installing / checking this out soon.

Look at this thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxRI_3gKP8g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncP3oMdSSR8

Is it too good? Why hasn't there been any news since 2017? In researching point based rendering I'm finding myself on all sorts of strange paper trails that seem to eventually, sometimes abruptly, cut off. My new theory is this-- each of these companies realize we are living in a simulation, and had to be immediately shut down. #simulationtheory

(...I'm sure there is a less interesting reason behind all this emergent tech gossip, but I'm choosing this fiction.)