Interactive's cutting edge: SIGGRAPH previews technology for tomorrow's must-have games

Discount Store News, Sept 5, 1994 by Pete Hisey

ORLANDO, FLA. -- The new Renault Racoon zips through the French countryside, splashing through puddles, bouncing over rough back roads, and, as the two-minute promotional film clip ends, sails off across a small lake.

But when the film ends, so does the amphibious Racoon. It exists only in virtual reality, a graphical construct that Renault engineers are using to sidestep the expense of prototyping future products. The Racoon might or might not ever go into production, but to the millions who will see the film clip, it will have its own kind of existence.

SIGGRAPH '94, held in Orlando in late July, is a showplace for hundreds of advanced computer-based technologies, many of which will form the next generation of interactive entertainment from video games to virtual reality immersion rooms. Other areas benefiting include training, filmmaking, theme park attractions, advanced scientific and military applications, and television shows.

The technology will translate to the home in record time. Nintendo's Ultra 64, due in fall '95 at $250 with software priced at about the same as 16-bit games, will provide graphics unlike anything available today, and Sony's upcoming Play Station may be even better, if quite a bit more expensive,

Disney's Imagineering booth showed an Aladdin virtual reality adventure in which the player assumes the role of Aladdin, meets the major characters and presumably re-enacts parts of the movie. It will become an attraction at Disney theme parks in the future. An early version is already on display at EPCOT.

The company also gave early peeks at upcoming movie projects, including "Pocohontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Legend of Fa Mulan" and "Toy Story." "Pocohontas" and "Fa Mulan" are notable for their strong female lead characters.

Disney also showed a nearly complete version of its Lion King video game, developed by Virgin from original movie artwork, that will be a major 16-bit release during the fourth quarter.

Microsoft demonstrated its Softimage line of graphics tools, which were used to create Sega's side-by-side virtual racing game, Daytona USA, in which two drivers race the same course, and can even run each other off the road.

Similarly, Angel Studios showed an interactive, four-player real time ostrich race. Dr. Megow's Mad Cap Ornithon uses a proprietary simulation technique that may be licensed to various advanced game systems.

Perhaps the most exciting portion of the show was VROOM (short for virtual reality rooms), an exhibition of cutting-edge virtual reality applications, nearly all from the academic world. Driven by two Silicon Graphics Challenge computers (two-gigabyte RAM, 30-gigabyte hard drives) and an almost equally powerful IBM SP-2, the VROOM exhibit introduced thousands of attendees to true virtual reality, requiring only a special pair of sunglasses to get the total effect.

SIGGRAPH (the special interest group on computer graphics and interactive techniques of the Association of Computing Machinery) occupies a unique position in the interactive world, drawing game developers, show business types, scientists, government technology experts, game players and even the military.

It is a creative stew spewing out the products and tools to make other products that will dominate the home entertainment market in years to come. According to most exhibitors, the time when these goods will invade the home is not far away.

For retailers, the changes will be profound. New 3-D modeling effects and virtual reality elements could make existing game playing platforms obsolete overnight. Nintendo obviously believes that; it has rolled the dice on its cartridge-based Ultra 64 system. Even so, Nintendo is running two years behind Sega in the post 16-bit market, and Nintendo saw its sales decline by nearly $1.5 billion last year as a result. Nintendo is betting on games so compelling that consumers will abandon not only 16-bit systems, but CD-ROM-based systems as well. If Ultra 64 can deliver the effects it promises, Nintendo may have a winner.