ILM Now Capable of Realtime CGI

Sandman1971 writes "According to the Sydney Morning Herald, specialFX company ILM is now capable of doing realtime CGI, allowing actors and directors to see rough CGI immediately after a scene is filmed. Actors on the latest Star Wars film watch instant replays of their battles with CG characters. ILM CTO Cliff Plumer attributes this amazing leap to the increase in processing power and a migration from using Silicon Graphics RISC-Unix workstations to Intel-based Dell systems running Linux."

That's nothing...

[say]

...my webserver has been doing realtime CGI for years.

How long til...

[BeninOcala]

We have Real-time CGI Porn?

Realtime

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it IS realtime, but the actors just don't have the skill to watch themselves on a monitor WHILE acting, so they use the obvious 'i'll watch when i'm done method'

Yay!

[Plissken]

This will probably help on release dates for movies.

We'll get to see Episode III sooner!

Oh well

[stephenry]

Its a pitty they haven't got one of those to write the script!

Steve.

Hrmm

[acehole]

well, I guess they need to get that jar jar binks death scene juuuuust right.

Super news..

[grub]

I hope this brings even more realism and depth of character to Jar Jar.

Re:Yay!

[sporty]

Too bad you can't use that 3d technology in Duke Nuke'em forever.

Wait a minute...

[/joke]

The next innovation

[imadork]

would be to develop a program that re-writes Lucas's inane dialogue in real time...

Re:Hrmm

[docbrown42]

well, I guess they need to get that jar jar binks death scene juuuuust right.

Naw. The actors kept screwing up just so they could kill Jar Jar again...and again...and again. Given the chance, I think most fans would do the same thing.

Realtime Plot help

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if only that could help Lucas get realtime feedback that his plots suck.

Low tech solution

[dr.robotnik]

Simply prop a big mirror against the wall, and Hey Presto! you can watch a virtual representation of the actors performing the scene in real time!

oh yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

Post your server's url to slashdot, and we'll see just how realtime it is.

Had do be said... [Spaceballs ref]

[caveat]

Dark Helmet - "What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?"
Col Sandurz - "Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now."
Dark Helmet - "What happened to then?"
Col Sandurz - "We passed then?"
Dark Helmet - "When?"
Col Sandurz - "Just now. We're at now, now."
Dark Helmet - "Go back to then."
Col Sandurz - "When?"
Dark Helmet - "Now."
Col Sandurz - "Now?"
Dark Helmet - "Now."
Col Sandurz - "I can't."
Dark Helmet - "Why?"
Col Sandurz - "We missed it."
Dark Helmet - "When?"
Col Sandurz - "Just now."
Dark Helmet - "When will then be now?"
Col Sandurz - "Soon."

Internal monologue

[Jonboy X]

Intel-based Dell systems running Linux

So conflicted...Intel bad...Linux good...Dell ambivalent...

If they were using the preemtive kernel

[teamhasnoi]

they could watch the CGI *before* it happened.

Now that's Cost Savings!

Re:What's the point about this?

[deadfishhotmail.com]

This will be resloved with the new nVidia GeForce FMXP 41000x [nvidia.com] It's supposed to be 3rd quarter this year. It's supposed to totally smoke anything ATI has right now, with photographic quality and with at least 6 times the Q3 fps. And it has outputs to a film projector. And built in lasers. And 7.1 Audio onboard. And a soda/Pizza exhaust port.

....and it's supposed to be profitable.

Re:Right...

[Alan Partridge]

I actually work with the guy who did those! They were done by Touch Animation AFAIK - now defunct. Apart from the fact that The Day Today's gfx didn't have a huge budget, they were also done quite a long time ago now - still excellent and groundbreakingly satirical (can gfx be satirical? you bet).

On the Partridge point, you're forgetting my combat-based gameshow that runs on digital TV.

Re:further proof

[MrMickS]

mid 1980's - Mainframes are dying
mid 1990's - NT will replace Unix
late 1990's - Linux will replace Windows
2000's - Linux will replace proprietary Unix

None of these have happened yet. I doubt that the last will ever happen.

oops missed one:
late 1980's to current day - Apple is dying

Pls mod down parent as overrated - it's an opinion based on an emotional response rather than reason.

Too Late for Regrets

[Michael_Burton]

ILM CTO Cliff Plumer attributes this amazing leap to the increase in processing power and a migration from using Silicon Graphics RISC-Unix workstations to Intel-based Dell systems running Linux.

Well, I hope all you open-source advocates are happy now. You worked to develop Linux and other open source software because it was "cool," and I'm sure you all had a great time making it more and more powerful. I'll bet you never gave one minute of thought to the fact that the software you were producing might make it easier to make those awful, awful movies, did you?

Well, it's too late now. I just hope you're satisfied!