Nvidia's GTC 2021 keynote was largely CGI and nobody noticed [Updated]

[Shawn Knight]

Mind-blowing: Nvidia has revealed that its GTC 2021 keynote that aired back in April took place entirely in the metaverse (corrected: no, it didn't) meaning to say the whole thing was CGI. It was a bold move, but one that allowed Nvidia to demonstrate (if only in hindsight) just how impressive its Omniverse platform truly is.

Update (Aug. 13): After this article was published, Nvidia updated its blog post with the following information: "To be sure, you can’t have a keynote without a flesh and blood person at the center. Through all but 14 seconds of the hour and 48 minute presentation — from 1:02:41 to 1:02:55 — Huang himself spoke in the keynote."

Taken word for word, the virtual Jensen was only seen on screen for 14 seconds -- and that's a portion that honestly looks less than impressive -- the rest of the time, it was himself in the flesh.

We apologize for the confusion this has caused, although in fairness, when Nvidia says things like "digital Jensen was then brought into a replica of his kitchen that was deconstructed to reveal the holodeck within Omniverse, surprising the audience and making them question how much of the keynote was real, or rendered," it's easy to see how this was misconstrued.

The original story follows below.

Nvidia as part of its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) keynote earlier this year hosted a secret treasure hunt in which it invited onlookers to see if they could spot “anything out of the ordinary” during the presentation.

To participate, users were asked to tweet any Easter eggs they found to the company for a chance to win coveted prizes like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090. It’s unclear how many people participated in the contest, but that’s irrelevant because all you need to know at this point is that the entire presentation was one giant Easter egg.

That’s right, the whole presentation – from each individual slide and every icon in them to the “keynote” from CEO Jensen Huang – was created digitally using Nvidia Onmiverse, the company’s platform for virtual collaboration and real-time simulation. And seemingly, nobody noticed.

Nvidia has published a documentary on the whole thing, which shows how the entire presentation was created virtually.

It’s the sort of thing that really makes you reconsider Elon Musk’s argument that we are living in a simulation.

Musk has stated on multiple occasions that if you assume any rate of improvement at all, that video games will one day be indistinguishable from reality and that could mean our entire reality is a simulation. Others in the scientific community, including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, put the odds at 50-50 that we are living in a simulation.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90776-nvidia-gtc-2021-keynote-entirely-cgi-nobody-noticed.html

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

So, much like the elusive 3090, his presentation was just a figment of my imagination.

 

[punctualturn]

One, whats with this post?

Two, I noticed right away.

Third, another fluff pro nvidia article...

 

[Adhmuz]

One, whats with this post?

Two, I noticed right away.

Third, another fluff pro nvidia article...

One, why do you even bother to post.

Two, easy to make that claim after the fact.

Third, you try too hard and nobody cares...

 

[Puiu]

One, whats with this post?

Two, I noticed right away.

Third, another fluff pro nvidia article...

I'm clearly biased against Nvidia, but even I fail to understand how this is a "pro Nvidia" article.

 

[punctualturn]

I'm clearly biased against Nvidia, but even I fail to understand how this is a "pro Nvidia" article.

Do you want to see the hypocrisy of this?

I replied to you in a proper way, yet the mods here deleted it because it simply not good for them.

And before this one is deleted, check your PM.

 

[Farkinell]

One, whats with this post?

Two, I noticed right away.

Third, another fluff pro nvidia article...

You expect a website devoted to tech to entirely ignore the largest graphics card, professional rendering hardware and AI platform supplier in the world disclosing their recent keynote was entirely CGI as a demonstration of advancements in all of the above technologies, and that no one noticed, because you don’t like them? Got ya.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

Do you want to see the hypocrisy of this?

I replied to you in a proper way, yet the mods here deleted it because it simply not good for them.

And before this one is deleted, check your PM.

So reporting about something NVidia does is Bias?
If you can't seem to appreciate when something with tech is done just because it's not your favorite company, then you probably don't deserve being called an enthusiast.
When a company does something great with technology it's worth reporting regardless of what company it is.
Now I will say it's always good to be sceptical of claims, but that doesn't mean you behave and rant like a child.

Tbh the only time I have seen company loyalists in media it usually is always contained as an Apple article where they do no wrong, consumers are stupid, and yes people should overpay for our/their products, when in fact they haven't done anything since the Lisa and Apple 2 without ripping it from other companies with nothing sadly original from them with deplorable design engineering, just like the M1 chip..not so impressive as people have made it out to be but yet people will hump their legs for a debatable $40 chip.
Outside of that the only bias I have seen is in comment sections.

 

[SirDugglesworth]

My main interest in this article is in how wrong the title and reporting are. Nvidia straight up said in their blog post about this event that only 14 seconds of it was CG... not the entire keynote. *sigh* Fact check before publishing.

 

[sorten]

Did anyone actually watch it?

Not sure what a scripted digital presentation has to do with the metaverse.

 

[bandit8623]

I love how science is coming around to religion. this world is a simulation stage 1.

 

[p51d007]

Maybe CGI/AI will end up replacing hollyweirdo "actors" One day. Then maybe movies
won't cost 100+ million dollars to make, and we won't have to put up with the actors
"drama".

 

[Stoly]

One, whats with this post?

Two, I noticed right away.

Third, another fluff pro nvidia article...

You noticed Jensen himself was digital? how come you didn't win on the easter egg hunt?

 

[Puiu]

Do you want to see the hypocrisy of this?

I replied to you in a proper way, yet the mods here deleted it because it simply not good for them.

And before this one is deleted, check your PM.

There was no hypocrisy.

I'm not proud about it, but I also had many of my comments deleted when I went too far. Attacking the author and other people is not a good way of keeping your comment up.

 

[Wasteak]

"that video games will one day be indistinguishable from reality and that could mean our entire reality is a simulation"

There is barely no link between those 2 things.
It's like saying "we can clone sheeps which means all sheeps might be clones rn"..

 

[YouShallNotPass]

You noticed Jensen himself was digital? how come you didn't win on the easter egg hunt?

I also noticed the whole thing is a render when watching the live stream. I assume everybody also notice this so its not even worth mentioning...

 

[BSim500]

Do you want to see the hypocrisy of this?

I think many regulars here can tell the difference between a genuinely biased article vs the same few resident raging AMD fanboys getting triggered simply hearing the word nVidia on an almost daily basis. It reminds me of the trolls who tried to call out the "bias" of the Jan 25th "Top 10 Most Significant Nvidia GPUs of All Time" article 'because there were no AMD cards in it' despite the fact the other article "Top 10 Most Significant AMD GPUs of All Time" was posted a week earlier (Jan 18th)...

 

[jarql]

An award for outstanding achievements in deceiving customers, saying it is a feature...

 

[Vulcanproject]

I have seen the parts in question, extremely short length of shot of the fake kitchen as the transition to a full length CGI Jensen is made. The CGI Jensen is tiny and miles away from the 'camera.' This obviously hides so much. Even so I did notice the audio lip sync goes completely awry and the arm movements are super stiff. If you watched it at the time you would put that down to the media quality. Streams can just breakup like that.

Nobody is surprised. The quality of the CGI which isn't all that when you watch it, nor surprised by the fact people didn't mention it after. Because one: people weren't looking for a reason to say it looked fake when it obviously was trickery to make that transition. We're accustomed to that type of transition. I watch the news and they pull transitions similar to this with a basic graphics package all the time.

Two, the actual scrutiny you can put the shot under is super limited by such a short time and massive distance from the camera. This isn't a close up shot of Leia or Luke in harsh lighting as they deliver a critical scene. It's an interesting stunt but I feel the impact they thought it would have after revealing it isn't as impressive as they think it was lol.

 

[Avro Arrow]

"Nvidia's GTC 2021 keynote was entirely CGI and nobody noticed"

Now we've been told and nobody cares.

This isn't exactly new tech. Real-life renderings like this have been done in movies since Jurassic Park.

 

[SakuraWulf]

I feel like you just wanted to use the word entirely... it was 14 seconds people.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I guess I have two questions....

Who would want to watch?

and

Who cares?

 

[punctualturn]

I think many regulars here can tell the difference between a genuinely biased article vs the same few resident raging AMD fanboys getting triggered simply hearing the word nVidia on an almost daily basis. It reminds me of the trolls who tried to call out the "bias" of the Jan 25th "Top 10 Most Significant Nvidia GPUs of All Time" article 'because there were no AMD cards in it' despite the fact the other article "Top 10 Most Significant AMD GPUs of All Time" was posted a week earlier (Jan 18th)...

What some perceive as normal, the others do notice the bias.

The timing on those articles was very interesting and both camps came out and expressed their opinions.

Now, a little advice, dont confuse rabid fanbois with educated consumers that are capable of seeing beyond the illusions created by the marketing teams.

 

[punctualturn]

There was no hypocrisy.

I'm not proud about it, but I also had many of my comments deleted when I went too far. Attacking the author and other people is not a good way of keeping your comment up.

If an author is abusing his position to push his/her agenda, then it needs to accept the fact that will be criticized by those that do not drink the same koolaid.

If thats the case, simply post your article and turn off the comments section.

But the comment in particular was not even directed to the author.

I get calling people names or others actions, but that level of childish censorship will easily drive readers away.

 

[Puiu]

If an author is abusing his position to push his/her agenda, then it needs to accept the fact that will be criticized by those that do not drink the same koolaid.

If thats the case, simply post your article and turn off the comments section.

But the comment in particular was not even directed to the author.

I get calling people names or others actions, but that level of childish censorship will easily drive readers away.

Again, I see no agenda here and from your first comment you are clearly having some beef with the author. You are being really unreasonable dude, very childish.

You should be glad that such troll posts are not all deleted from this comment thread.

"Third, another fluff pro nvidia article..." - this line makes zero sense and is just insulting to everyone here.