Power of Cloud Can Enable Computationally Intensive Features Like Tree Destruction & Physics Effects

Of the many technologies that will have application in gaming for years to come, SpeedTree is perhaps one of the top-most. As a real-time foliage creation software, SpeedTree has found use in games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Batman: Arkham Knight and many other high-profile games. How will it benefit from the power of cloud computing in the coming years though?

GamingBolt spoke to SpeedTree director of business development Kevin Meredith about the same. After the reveal of Crackdown 3, is there an application for streaming large amounts of foliage through the cloud? “Yes, the cloud should enable computationally-intensive features like tree destruction and other physics effects, which can impact both aesthetics and gameplay. We’d like to think SpeedTree offers a lot of options for customers who cloud-stream their games.”

Meredith also commented on resolution vs. frame rate, especially with many games taking alternative routes to increasing visual fidelity even at a lower frame rate (like Star Wars Battlefront, which focuses more on alpha effects and post-processing). How does SpeedTree fit into such an alternative scenario?

“We’ve always tried to develop SpeedTree so it works great in any game, whether it’s a twitchy first person shooter or the latest Sims game. Artists can design trees in the SpeedTree Modeler for the particular look-and-feel they’re after, and tweaking the rendering code in the SDK is something we encourage.”

Thoughts on all this, especially with the potential that SpeedTree will unlock with cloud computing? Let us know in the comments.