Video games, and therefore real-time, is a technology that is booming. For years now, we have been seeing more and more news every day where large hardware and software companies are dedicating more time and resources to researching and advancing with this technology.

Every time video games have a more realistic visualization thanks to the progress of this research, but not only video games require this technology. Many industries such as ArchViz have been showing their renders in real time since years ago allowing them to interact with the project without relying on an off-line rendering engine and the time that it entails. We also see this in VR technology, the world of automotive visualisation, TV series, commercials and even movies.

Game engines are becoming more and more part of our lives and are an option that makes CGI life so much easier that it is now becoming impossible to do without it.

Among other CGI techniques, visual effects are very important in video games and movies and are, by far, the most computationally complex processes because they require high-level hardware to calculate extremely complex simulations such as, for example, millions of particles, pyro, liquids, fabrics, crowds, etc.

There are several techniques to "ease" real-time to compute these kinds of simulations and effects. These techniques, well applied, play a decisive role for the fluidity of a videogame or any CGI project, among other things.

In this talk, we will show you some of these essential FX techniques with practical examples that we have used in the Disney game Speedstorm and Asphalt9: Legends.