It was interesting to have our first full day of showing CAVE at Siggraph, and then on the same day to attend Jensen Huang’s talk on the launching of the first Nvidia graphics card that does true real-time ray tracing. The two visions are so interestingly different.
Nvidia is focusing on the ability to create computer graphics that is visually indistinguishable from reality. And they are doing quite an impressive job of it. As usual, Jensen’s talk was inspirational and fun, and the demos were spectacular.
We are going in a very different direction. We are not striving for visual realism, but for emotional connection. You can read my blog post today on our Future Reality Lab website to read more about our journey.
I don’t think it would make sense to say that one vision is “right” and the other “wrong”. That would be as pointless as those arguments comparing grand opera to Westerns.
The goals are so fundamentally different. Yet one day they may very well converge. After all, grand opera and Westerns managed to do it. 🙂