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Digital Hair is... Hairy

The technology that ensures that ladies and professional wrestlers look bad in games is coming along, but right now it's still only good for Bjork videos.

By Jeff Gerstmann  |  Dec. 2, 2008

NewScientist has a brief piece on digital hair. Polygonal hair technology is, weirdly enough, one of those things I look at whenever a new console comes out. When Yuke's can finally make Triple H's long, stringy, ugly-looking hair look as realistically awful in the SmackDown! games as it does in real life, then we'll know that technology has finally reached its zenith.

And then we'll have nothing left to look forward to but death's sweet embrace, friends. Strap in and watch this video, complete with creepy shots of fake hair and how that fake hair technology was used to power a Bjork video.

  

Filed under: Hair Attack
41 Comments
Death_Burnouton Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:44 p.m.
Jeff...what the hell you got against Triple H's hair!? its awesome!! ok it was better years ago but still!

The new technology here is pretty amazing, but that swaying ghost hair was hella creepy!

Edit: Triple H vs Mega Man...vs Hair! think about it
ZmillAon Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:49 p.m.
Man was not meant to dabble with such hairy technology.
Phished0neon Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:50 p.m.
HHH's hair dosent look as bad as Hulk Hogans does/did back in the day
TrulyAliveon Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:52 p.m.
A) The fake hair thing? Totally creeps me out.
B) The Uncanny Valley thing is still gonna fuck this shit up.
C) That guy had a huge snout.
jonnypon Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:55 p.m.
i can't wait to see the awesome polygonal JRPG hair they can create with this tool.  Wait...
Mattalorianon Dec. 2, 2008 at 5:55 p.m.
Despite featuring disturbing shots of fake hair, the video proved to be both interesting and impressive.
TaintedSunon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:03 p.m.
Next... pubes!
Icilon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:15 p.m.
That is fuckin awesome. Can we finally get rid of the corners of hair and cloaks clipping through shit!?
LiquidPrinceon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:19 p.m.
That was actually cool. Those renders were pretty damn high resolution.
TwoOneFiveon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:25 p.m.
damn, if only MGS4 had this tech! lol
Hey jeff, you ought to check out this new tech behind the upcoming James Cameron movie AVATAR, i think its called CINEMA 2.0 . its got some mind blowing special effects tech (they've got a lot a dudes who invented all the Matrix stuff back in '99) and they say that it can all be utilized for video games. its almost impossible to tell its not real. 
should i post this in a thread of its own?!?

Bucketdeth is online on Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:33 p.m.
Wow that looks amazing.
zoozillaon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:38 p.m.
I look forward to the day when hair can be rendered almost perfectly.

On the other hand, that would be really creepy.
ferrarimanf355on Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:45 p.m.
I think digital hair is something I really don't notice, but that's just me...
Akiraon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:46 p.m.
Can it simulate bleached-blond Gerstmann hair though? That radness needs to return.
TheWojon Dec. 2, 2008 at 6:55 p.m.
Well simulated hair, check!
Next stop, superb beard simulations!
Fallout 3 came close, but I still felt like my thick Survivalist beard was just a big chunk of polygons on my dude's face.
Claudeon Dec. 2, 2008 at 7 p.m.
I'm all for realistic hair. I've seen some bad hair in video games.
ImperiousRixon Dec. 2, 2008 at 7:28 p.m.
In my day, hair on characters didn't move!
It just stayed glued to the character's head and that's the way WEEEE liked it!
Alphazeroon Dec. 2, 2008 at 8:12 p.m.
Folks can do pretty good hair these days, but in real time? Ouch. Realistic hair rendered on the fly at 30 frames per second, that's some Orac or WOPR action right there.
MackGyveron Dec. 2, 2008 at 8:15 p.m.
They need to bring back Ryan's blue hair crazyness back in the day. I first saw that in the MyStreet party game review when he was still at Gamespot. That was RAD!
papercuton Dec. 2, 2008 at 8:21 p.m.
you wana talk about bad wrestler hair? look a shawn michaels. nuff said

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