Thanks to a convergence of schedules and geographies, I actually had the opportunity to have a hands-on with the engine myself on Friday night. CEO Bruce Dell, having just gotten off a plane from the UK, spent some time talking about his recent trip to Gamescom in Germany, the work he has on his plate and the level of interest the engine is receiving. Then it was onto some ‘play’ time. After 10 minutes or so of navigating the demo (the same one shown in the video), a few things struck me:
1. The absolute smoothness of the navigation experience
2. The fidelity of the graphical experience
3. It was all done on a bog standard PC laptop
4. If the same level of quality and smoothness continues after full animation capability is integrated, that this is going to be one groundbreaking piece of technology.
5. If good consumer content creation tools are integrated with the engine, current virtual environments such as OpenSim and Second Life should be very, very concerned. Or at least be looking at licensing the technology.
I for one am excited to see what comes out the other end of Euclideon’s self-imposed media blackout over the coming months. As I said to Bruce on the way out from our meeting: he should make the best of the time out of the spotlight, because if he pulls off what he’s aiming for, it will be the last time he’ll have that luxury.
Photo courtesy of Phil Testa.
Let me at it!
Why is that only simpletons get to meet the CEO of the Euclideon?? None of these simpletons ask the hard questions the Bruce Dell guy has always avoided (disk space, skeletal deformation, effects, shaders and etc)… they only get swayed by the visual aspect and this simpleton even makes outrageous statements about Opensim or Second life.
Lowell do us a favor and go hide in a cave for the rest of your life.
Gee Peter, having a bad day or just a bitter competitor? If you read the original story I wrote, I stated that there’s still some work to be proven but the positive signs are there so what have you got to gain with the negativity?
The other possibility you may not have considered Peter, is that those who have met Bruce Dell so far are not “simpletons” as you suggest, but are in fact intelligent and respectful people who share an optimism for the future of gaming graphics and are willing to cut some slack for a company that is in the early developmental stages of a new technology.
They already have a major government grant to fund their work, so how about we let them do their thing and with some patience we’ll all be able to see a more polished product and our questions will be answered.
Perhaps you didn’t read the comments on the HardOCP forums regarding these questions. John Gatt, the interviewer in the video of the technology in action, confirmed the entire contents of the demonstration program does indeed fit on a DVD disk, and contains hundreds of different object types at very high resolution.