In 2002 NVIDIA released âDawnâ, a high-end DirectX 9 tech demo featuring a beautiful forest fairy that captured the hearts and minds of PC gamers all over the world. That mystical creature looks even more gorgeous ten years later.
The original âDawnâ tech demo was a revolution in PC graphics, the first time a character as lifelike as the titular fairy had been rendered in real time. To this day no video game has featured a character quite as detailed.
I have to admit, I was more than a little smitten by the virtual creation. Not only for her looks, but also for what she represented: the massive leaps video game graphics were making every year. I purchased a video card just to run that original demo. I had her as my desktop wallpaper. I constantly watched the video of her and her sister Dusk performing Evanescenceâs âBring Me to Lifeâ, just to watch them render slowly.
And now we have âA New Dawnâ.
Whatâs changed? For starters, the original tech demo didnât have a background to speak of, just a six-sided box with Dawn trapped inside. The original environment utilized a mere 7,000 triangles to render the box and the tree limb Dawn cavorted upon; the lush forest in âA New Dawnâ clocks in at four million at its peak.
Then thereâs Dawnâs hair. In the original, which still impresses to this day, her head was home to 1,700 strands of hair. Now she boasts 40,000 tessellated strands of physically animated hair. Thatâs more hair than I have on my head (technically so is 1,700).
Anyone can download âA New Dawnâ right now, manipulate the scene, change the time of day, or simply marvel at Dawnâs skin oil reflectance maps. Just make sure youâve got the real ultimate power under your hood.
Requirements:
GPU: GTX 670 or 680 (GTX 670 SLI, GTX 680 SLI, or GTX 690 recommended for Ultra mode)
CPU: 2.5GHz Dual-Core or higher
System Memory: 4GB
Disk Space: 2GB
Operating System: Windows 7 or Windows Vista
Falling in love all over again. Stupid fairies.
