Bring it on!

I stumbled upon this dedicated medical simulation software while checking out the open source dynamics engine Bullet. This is cool for a number of reasons… first, its a great example of the current tendency for animation technologies to target specific markets and second, its a wonderful example of the degree to which visualization must take temporal concerns into account. The leap from illustration to animation demands that we tackle an object’s movement as well as its static visual representation - and the quality of these two elements need to be synched with each other. All too often, the visuals are pushed to an extreme and the movements lag behind, resulting in a disconnect within the viewer. Click the heart to visit physigenics.

CEO Bruce Robet Dell says “Unlimited Detail is basically a 3 dimensional search algorithm.” And the search query is your render resolution. Makes sense. Its a good thing when something reminds you how young and potentially unripe our current processes are, and how important the use of metaphor is in conveying this. Dell compares the poly race with the colors race, where an initial 2 colors were replaced by 4, then 16,  256 then finally 16bit and 32bit color - with the exception that the human vision system can’t perceive many colors beyond 32bit whereas it is much more finely tuned to registering contour and surface details. So whether this technology will grow to be the solution or not, Dell makes a very convincing case for this alternative approach.
Edit: here’s another point cloud approach, apparently an optimized voxel developed by atomontage:

Thoughts?

Sachform - makers of hi-quality HDR libraries - has now released their HDR viewer for free. Its a great app for perusing your hdrs and now at an unbeatable price.

Here’s another sculpting application, following in the innovative footsteps of the game-changer zBrush, competitor mudbox and the indy 3Dcoat. (sculpt by onim) What is very impressive is the haptic feel of the interface - this feels much less technical than artistic. Of course - its an early test version, but already very impressive. Kudos to Tomas Pettersson, from Sweden. I suspect we owe a lot to the long, dark winters up north. Check out his other, equally impressive projects and let him know you appreciate his openness!

By the way, I praised the aritistic feel that this interfacce conveys, but there’s no lack of impressive technical implementation in there. Check out the real-time mesh tesselation going on here, and the brush’s topology awareness: