Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Slides reveal first Hollywood details?




These three slides were linked to by an anonymous poster in the comments to my previous post. I want to share them as quickly as possible, that is why I will keep my comments brief.

My first reaction to all of them was that they were fakes. However, I checked the name of the person given in the top one and a Vineet Goel really works for ATI research. They are really based in Orlando, Florida. And his area of expertise really is displaced subdivision surfaces. This strongly suggests that they are real.

The rest of the content could have been faked one way or the other. The backgrounds (the second image showing a streetsign reading ´Broadway´) may have been ripped from some site, the patents mentioned are the ones that have been circulating the community for weeks now. The content seems authentic to me, but even that may have been replicated from somewhere. Each aspect on its own could have been faked rather easily. All aspects combined, though, mean that faking these slides would have been quite a hard job.

Most importantly, though, it would have been almost impossible to simply copy the name of the ATI developer from the web. I had big trouble finding out the address and telephone number of ATI research. There are no such details on the ATI website.

I am now in contact with them and I believe that my request to them was worded cleverly enough to warrant a reply. Moreover one that will give away those slides as either real or fake. Please stick around. I will post the findings as soon as I get them.

What strikes me as odd is that one slide´s title suggests that they have something to do with Famitsu, the Japanese gaming magazine. However, a file name is no indication of anything. I am disregarding this aspect for the moment. Again, my preliminary verdict is that they are real.

EDIT Now, there was mention of the ATI semo ToyShop 1.1.. Thanks to Pekka for finding the link so fast. If you look at the video clip, you will notice that it is the same environment as the backgrounds to slide one and two and the inserts shown in slide three. Yet the camera never shows the screenshot that is the background to the second slide ( I haven´t checked the others). Unless there is another demo in the same environment showing that very still frame, the person who made those slides must have access to the 3D data underlying the demo. As shoddily as the slides are done, it seems very likely to me that these are real.

(I apologize for not being able to post a decent slide from the clip to compare it with the slide. I tried to capture from the clip with every player I got and all I had was the player´s frame and black inside. Sorry.)

EDIT Thanks to an anonymous poster in the comments, there is now this document, which is a Powerpoint presentation in PDF format for the Xenos processor (did I really call it Xenon in the past?). In it, you will find the dinosaur-like creature from slide 1 and almost the entire text verbatim. Also, there is a typo in one of the slides, something I looked out for but overlooked. Finally, the count on the texture array slide is wrong (counting from 0 to 128 equals 129 faces). All kudos to Anonym. I guess that proves this fake. I should be even more careful in the future. I rarely take a shot like this one. But I had such a hard time finding out whether ATI even has a research lab in Orlando (let alone finding an address and telephone numbers) that I couldn´t imagine some faker getting there before me.

However, there is still the issue of the demo screenshot, which makes me wonder. But I guess that will be found in time.

Sources: Slide 1, Slide 2, Slide 3
Thanks to: Anonymous

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have seen this those pictures months ago. They where ripped from an ATI tech demo movie for one of there GPU. I dont think these can be real if that is so.

Falafelkid said...

As I said in my comments before: i don´t understand how someone could have come up with the right name, the right field of study and the right place. That is hard to find stuff.

Anonymous said...

Look very interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if it was real. Looks stunning nontheless.

Anonymous said...

bigmigzero- I know what tech demo you are talking about. I think it is called Toybox or Toyland, but are you saying that you saw the actual slides before or that you only saw the pictures? And Falafelkid, what do you think the second slide means?

Anonymous said...

I've told people before I felt GameCube was equivalent to New Coke and Revolution could be Coca Cola Classic.

In case anyone doesn't know people have said for years that Coke released their "New Coke" with a remixed recipe to stir intrest in the original formula, and thus they came out with the old recipe again and it put Pepsi in their place. It made a good joke on Futurama.

What I'm saying is that GameCube was all filler while they worked on the true successor to the N64 for years putting all that energy we felt was absent in GC software towards Revolution. Evidence: the GameCube controller.

Anonymous said...

look at the "ATI" in the third pic. the top of the A is cut off because someone badly photoshopped the Nintendo logo over it.

also in the second pic, the hollywood logo on the bottom right is a mess. the hollywood part and the "G.P.U" part look like they were photoshopped next to eachother. in fact, the "G.P.U" is blurrier than the "hollywood."

im guessing it was some other ATI graphics presentation that someone photoshopped to make it look nintendo-ish

Anonymous said...

I agree that it was photoshoped to llok like its nintendo

Anonymous said...

They spelled development wrong (as "developement").

I think it's fake too. Someone just used some pre-existing slides, photoshopped them, and chose what we all want to see.

Anonymous said...

The tech demo video doesn't show the top part of the image shown in the slides. It looks to me as though that image wasn't simply taken from the downloadable tech demo video as a still. Not that it means anything, just struck me as odd.

Still think it's fake though!

Anonymous said...

It seems weird that the graphic for the texture arrays (slide 2) show 0, 1, ... 128. This would mean a total of 129 items in the array. Strange error.

Anonymous said...

See this
http://www.ati.com/developer/eg05-xenos-doggett-final.pdf
it prove this is fake :(

Anonymous said...

The third picture is a dead give away to these not being for the Revolution. The top of ATI is cut off by what looks like the Nintendo logo pasted onto the original picture.

Falafelkid said...

Hi everyone. Wow, I guess I need to be even more critical in the future. And respect to Anonymous for finding that Xbox360 document and all those little errors. I guess that proves this fake.

I rarely take a shot like this one. But I had such a hard time finding out whether ATI even has a research lab in Orlando (let alone finding an address and telephone numbers) that I couldn´t imagine some faker getting there before me.

However, there is still the issue of the screenshot, which makes me wonder. But I guess that will be found in time. Thanks everyone and goodnight. I´m off to bed now.

Anonymous said...

todos ustedes son una bola de pendejos y ese isslave le chupa la verga al falafelkid.

Anonymous said...

You guys can't see the forest for the trees. Folks here seem to think Nintendo has some secret advanced alien graphical techique that will put into their new hardware and then do what? Make their console as powerful as a 360? Absurd.

Graphical techniques are a dime a dozen.

Jason said...

I explanied those pictures in the post below. Look in the comments for my name.

From the X1800 Demo which you can download at ATI.com I'll get the link.

The images are photoshopped you can see it if you zoom in on the pictures.

Jason said...

link to my comments

Jason said...

Here is the video of the toyshop demo.

Demo ToyShop

And here are two more before somebody comes out with more BS info involving the videos.

By the way give Falafelkid a break.

Anonymous said...

good investigation falafelkid.

i think it is quite plausible that any company would have a slide show that wasnt "perfect" so people looking for flaws like that should take a different angle maybe

RGB said...

Arsenis, well you are being disrespectful by making jokes for one, and two I dont know why you are joking about it in the first place.

All Fal did was swallow before he chewed his food.

Anonymous said...

good investigation!
If these pics are fake, the guy who made this is just a poor graphic designer.

*first post but long time reader - thanks for your job!*

CK said...

Hmm, I'm doubtful too. If it were really someone from ATI, would he/she post with their real name?

Interesting post though :).

Anonymous said...

I read your interesting blog everyday so keep on the good work! Thanks for the good job!

Falafelkid said...

Hi Juliano5. It has. In fact, I discussed the patent at length. Find it here.

Falafelkid said...

Though I must add that I have changed my mind since posting. I now believe that this patent relates to either displacement or parallax mapping. In order to implement such techniques, it is vitally important to reduce models and textures to what the player can actually see. In fact, most explanations of these techniques show illustrations that look exactly like those in the patent. So the patent does not reveal anythign about possible 3D projection.

Blizz419 said...

lol um ok then lol

Anonymous said...

Fake, real, fake, real...there is a freaking sign in the background of the second picture that reads Broadway; why else would ATI put that there?

Does a sloppy paste job with the Nintendo name automatically mean they're all fake, maybe someone at ATI is responsible for the rushed photoshop; I mean it has to be edited at some point to get the logos on there even if it's real. Perhaps these were never meant to be seen by the public; maybe that is why there was not care taken with the photo editing.

Anonymous said...

FALAFELKID YOU MUST LOOK AT THIS RIGHT NOW!!! NO QUESTIONS JUST LOOK AT IT! http://www.soifall.net/zelda/

I have never heard of this magazine, but it looks like a real magazine and a real magazine would have to be very sure to publish something this amazing.

Anonymous said...

I can confirm that the NGC magazine is real and does exist. I've always seen it on newsstand but never picked it up because its too expensive for me to pick up and besides most of the info I will see on the magazine is already out. IIRC, every issue also includes a DVD and this magazine is from Europe which is why its so expensive compared to other gaming magazines.

Anonymous said...

I can also confirm, that the NGC magazine is real. It´s from UK / england.


And Nintendo would be foolish, if they aren`t going to make it this way. That`s what I wrote in forums months ago. :-P

Anonymous said...

This one is cool:

"Link also has a finishing move – a jumping, downward stab against any grounded enemies. Surely nothing could be more satisfying than knocking an opponent off its feet before stabbing your freehand controller hard towards the ground. Gritting your teeth and making growling noises while you do it is, of course, entirely optional." ;-)

Anonymous said...

"We know from the game´s opening level that Link can row a canoe with a paddle, but can you use the controller to make the same movements, propelling you along? Sure, it`ll make you look like a right idiot, but hey, in the privacy of our own bedrooms, we can get away with anything. Lock the door, folks. Lock the door." ;-)

Nicholas said...

On the NGC Zelda scans: I don't think anybody doubts that this issue of the magazine is real and on the stands, but its credibility is a whole other matter entirely. You'll notice that every shot of Twilight Princess is lifted straight from captures of the E3 demo sequences, and all the "exclusive" information - uses for the controller, the Revolution release date - are little different from the state of Internet speculation at press time.

I also highly, highly doubt the game will be pushed closer to November rather than seeing release in April. It's already not selling any Cubes, and a move like that wouldn't come unless Nintendo decided to take an extra half-year to bump the game to Revolution (itself not likely, because interface design comes so early in the development process).

NGC is an independent magazine - in their own words, "100% unofficial". The only way they'd beat an official publication to the punch would be if they scored a juicy exclusive interview, and they don't have a single quote to support that.

Not fake, but not true.

Anonymous said...

dojpclahttp://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=nintendo.ASNM.&OS=AN/nintendo&RS=AN/nintendo

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