Unity’s new tech demo shows off hair and face improvements

With the 2022 Game Developers Conference (GDC) kicking off this week, the developers behind the Unity game engine have published a new tech demo called “Enemies.”

The video is relatively simple in its plot and setting — at least initially. The video begins with a woman sitting at a board of chess. Her table then shifts into the ground using a mechanical elevator. Camera pans up to see the hundreds of little mechanical pieces that move the walls surrounding the character.

The camera eventually shifts onto the model as she plays with the chess pieces. With the exception of the wrinkles and shirt cloth, her entire figure looks very real. Her hair, her eyes, and her hand gestures, all look almost like real. While demos like this are often years ahead of practical implementation, Unity revealed that its new hair system and “digital human toolset” will come to the program soon — a “month of two” according to the blog that went up with the demo.

The demo is its own showcase for the technology, but the aforementioned blog on Unity’s website explains how some of the new tech works, and what makes it so impressive, specifically talking about the focus on the character’s hair and face.