AMD Releases GPU based Hair Simulation TressFx 4.1- UE4, Vulkan and DX12 Support in Tow
AMD’s TressFX library used for realistic hair simulation in games has a new release. It was last seen in Deus-Ex: Mankind Divided and is unable to hold a candle against Nvidia’s Gameworks integrated hair and fur library. However, AMD now has integrated its TressFX library in Unreal Engine and thus hope for wider adoption.
The best part is that this implementation can be used free of cost, has source code available under GPUopen and can be implemented on any GPU. Thus you don’t need AMD GPU to run TressFX. Unlike Nvidia where their GameWorks library can only run on Nvidia GPU.
Here is an excerpt from the release announcement:
We are delighted to announce our TressFX 4.1/Unreal Engine integration and our TressFX 4.1/Radeon Cauldron framework implementation. The TressFX library is AMD’s hair/fur rendering and simulation technology. TressFX is designed to use the GPU to simulate and render high quality realistic hair and fur.
This latest version – TressFX 4.1 – is designed to be a performance and feature enhancement of TressFX 4.0. Highlights include further optimization of the physics simulation shaders, new rendering features, documentation and tutorials, and an updated TressFX Exporter for Autodesk Maya.
This release also demonstrates TressFX integration with Unreal Engine (4.22). This is a minimal integration to improve ease-of-use with multiple TressFX components, features, and rendering and simulation materials. Developers wishing to further the integration or customize it for their own requirements may find this basic level of integration a helpful first step in that process.
TressFX/Radeon Cauldron demonstrates how TressFX can be cleanly dropped into an existing codebase.
New in TressFX 4.1
- TressFX/Unreal engine integration (patch under Epic Games Unreal GitHub repository) with multiple components, rendering and simulation material support
- TressFX/Cauldron implementation with source code (DirectX 12 and Vulkan)
- Optimized physics simulation shaders can allow more hair to be simulated in real-time
- New rendering features (StrandUV and Hair Parameter Blending)
- New Level of Detail (LOD) system
- Documentation and tutorials
- Updated Maya Exporter with new UI and new features/error checking
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