Jorge Jiminez, a PhD student at the Universidad de Zaragoza, is developing a way to enhance the appearance of skin in video games, rendering skin more realistic through the use of something called "separable subsurface scattering."
Separable subsurface scattering, a technique that has been used in animation for awhile but enhanced by Jiminez so that it requires less specs, refers to a light penetration process. It is based on how light acts a certain way when it moves through translucent surfaces such as skin, describes Wired UK.
Through his research, Jiminez has discovered that separable subsurface scattering is near to impossible without considering high-definition resolution and other factors including film grain, tone mapping, parametrization maps, high quality shadow maps and more. As Jiminez points out, "If you fail on any of them, the illusion of looking at a real human will be broken."
Jiminez's overall dream is to improve the way humans look in games. His notion is that more realistic characters will lead to better storytelling and enhanced emotions in video games.
What Makes This Trend Stand Out
- Seperable Subsurface Scattering
- Jorge Jiminez has enhanced the technique called 'separable subsurface scattering' to render skin more realistic in video games, creating opportunities for more lifelike human characters in gaming.
- Realistic Character Design
- Jiminez's research is focused on creating more realistic human characters in video games, thus offering opportunities for new, emotion-rich storytelling in gaming.
- High-definition Resolution
- Jiminez's research shows that high-definition resolution is critical to achieving more realistic characters, thus creating opportunities for game studios to invest in higher resolution technologies.
Sectors Adopting This
- Video Game Development
- Jiminez's research presents opportunities for video game developers to focus on creating more realistic and lifelike human characters in their games.
- Animation
- The technique of separable subsurface scattering used in Jiminez's research has been popular in animation and presents opportunities for animators to explore its potential for creating more realistic characters.
- Film
- Jiminez's insights into the importance of high-definition resolution, film grain, tone mapping, shadow maps and the like, could prove beneficial to film production and the development of more realistic and lifelike special effects.
