Electronic Arts Working to Make Video Game Clothing More Realistic

gamerant.com:

In the 1990s, video games made the leap from primarily 2D pixel art to 3D polygons, and since this time games have strived for the most realistic graphics, physics, and movements in their virtual worlds. Progress was quickly made on solid 3D objects, through advancements in textures, shading, and bump mapping. This progress has now slowed since AAA games have reached a very high standard of graphical fidelity, but publisher Electronic Arts is still searching for new advancements in graphical technology. A major game publisher like EA has a vested interest in making sure its games are the first to see these major advancements as it can also claim the patents for them.

This would also mean EA could market its games as the most graphically rich games available, and in an incredibly competitive market of near photorealistic AAA games, this is what will attract more potential players. For this reason, EA is constantly pursuing new technologies to make its games look better.

EA Patent Could Lead to More Reliable Video Game Servers

The latest video game graphical software patent to be filed by EA looks to tackle an easily overlooked aspect of 3D game design, that is, deformable objects like clothing. Typically, a character’s clothing is designed as part of a ridged character model and can't be manipulated or moved like real clothing unless specifically animated to do so. Characters that wear long coats or robes will also often have this element act separately to the main character model, but this free-flowing section usually contrasts jarringly with the rest of the model as the only part of the character's outfit that is being affected by the game’s physics engine.

EA’s new patent, however, uses machine-learning in order to predict