Square Enix’s Latest Tech Demo Displays an Emotional Performance in DirectX 12

Few tech demos end in tears, but this one did. 

Square Enix, the studio behind the Final Fantasy series, has today announced "WITCH CHAPTER 0 [CRY]," a real-time tech demo that uses Microsoft's new-generation API for Windows 10, DirectX 12. They made the announcement at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference.

As part of a research project studying next-gen technologies, square Enix conducted extensive research on real-time CG technology utilizing DirectX 12 in collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA Corporation.  

Revealed today as a technology demonstration titled, WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry], the results of this research will be incorporated into Square Enix’s LUMINOUS STUDIO engine, and is intended for use in future game development.

The studio claims that the tech demo achieved some of the "world's highest-level quality of real-time CG." 

The demo portrays the human emotion of crying, which is arguably one of the most difficult representations for existing real-time CG technology. 

Square Enix says that the emotion is displayed in "a level of quality which has never been seen before with a real-time CG animated character teemed with life."

“Our team has always pursued cutting-edge pre-rendered and real-time CG,” commented Hajime Tabata, head of the next-generation technology research project and Division Executive of Business Division II of Square Enix Co., Ltd. “As a part of the technical development, we created this demo using world-class, real-time CG technology with generous support from leading-edge software and hardware providers – Microsoft’s Windows10/DirectX 12 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX. The efforts from this project will power future game development as well as FINAL FANTASY XV, currently a work in progress.”

The tech demo was made possible using an Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X-4-way SLI PC.