I like the fact they are making some effort in the lighting -- one of the 2 most neglected parts of next gen games that make them... next gen. They really aren't doing anything "new" but are tieing together quite a few techniques at high qualities. Ambient Occlusion maps have been used in a number of games (PGR3, soon Crysis), but it looks like they are putting them to good use. The multiple spotlights for various soft/self shadows sounds a lot like Variance Shadow Maps which is being used in Little Big Planet and Forza Motorsport 2 -- very cool technology, and one the 360 should handle well. The "bouncing" light is indirect lighting, aka "global illumination". They are probably using SH for it. The tech shots they show all look OUTSTANDING. With all 3 technologies together you get better control over ambient light as well as per-pixel occlusion -- one of the biggest issues in most games that make them look "flat" -- quality self shadowing and soft shadows, and a sense of the world being "solid" and interactive via the indirect lighting (only 'from' non-animating world geometry I wonder?) ATI has a really nice video on using current techniques to get "GI" on current GPUs and UBI Montreal has basically taken the core of their lectures -- AO, VSM, SH -- and adapted them. Nice job Ubi!

The other area next gen games look last gen is Animation... it looks like Ubi is leveraging all their research and development from AC. COOL is all I can say.

I can see now why MS tied this game up as an exclusive. Too bad it is coming this year :| This game is sounding good enough to get the "Gears of War" treatment and be MS's BIG 2008 title. It sounds aggressive, challenging the issues games face, yet building on a popular franchise, taking it out of its confining gameplay/themes and giving it a full Next Gen treatment, and are recreating a franchise into something worthy of being an exclusive must have. I must say I am impressed with their ambition and willingness to take a risk at the prospect of great reward.

Spherical Harmonics.

Hmmmm I guess that is "one" way to solve a derivative Lebato... but yes, these are derivatives (if you have had Calculus the form is familiar), albeit they are geometric focused and more difficult than you would see in Calculus A or B for the most part. I had Calculus in High School and College, but it kind of bored me. If I had known it was useful for games and could have landed me a job in the industry it may have held my attention more! :P At B3D one of the developers explained SH at an "artist" level and they are not overly complicated in the approach (precomputed wavelets) as it is really just the use of trig with geometry.

The interesting thing is that real ray tracing as well as radiosity are simpler equations deemed trivial. The problem of course is that while trivial from a mathmatical perspective they are computationally intense.

Btw kids, if you want to be in the game industry focus on your maths. Being able to interact with advanced Calc as well as Physics, in hand with strong C language(s) knowledge, will take you very far. If you can pair that with mad 3D art skills you are a very valuable asset if you have leadership skills and are a hard worker.