Optimized Next-Gen Titles on the Horizon?

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If you have seen one of those beautiful demos designed to test your GPUs full potential chances are you have watched 3D Mark by Futuremark. Here is an example of their demo designed to stretch the limits of your video card and provide a score of its performance.

This product has been the leading benchmarking tool for graphic card performance for years. 3D Mark scores are often used to compare and pick the industry's leading GPUs.

Futuremark has been known to utilize the latest technologies in their demos making them not only beautiful to look at but impressive from the technical perspective. It came as no surprise when in today's press release Futuremark announced formation of a group named the Futuremark Games Studio

The CEO of Futuremark Corporation, Tero Sarkkinen, was quoted as saying "For years, our fans have been asking us when will we start making games. Very soon they are going to get it - and then some!"

As a game developer working on a nex-gen title I understand the challenges involved in graphic optimization. A beautiful looking game is doomed to failure if an average gamer is unable to run it. Doom3 and Crysis quickly come to mind. Both of these games are absolutely beautiful. Doom with its impressive lighting and atmosphere. Crysis with its lush vegetation, realistic water, and dense jungle. Yet nether of these games are particularly fun to play because for most players, even with relatively up to date systems, the frames per second are noticeably low.

It will be interesting to see if the many lessons learned from testing thousands of graphic cards will help this new development house to produce games that are not only impressive to look at but also run smooth without having to submerge your CPU in liquid nitrogen.