We took a look at the basics behind LA Noire's advanced facial animation system in a fairly in-depth tech report, sighting a combination of motion capturing and 3D scanning as the process behind the incredibly accurate facial reproduction seen in the game. However, we now bring you a video demonstrating the baseline process of how the initial character facial animation model is created.
The video doesn’t cover the additional work required in preparing these highly detailed and impressively animated models for rendering on the current-gen consoles now massively outdated GPU’s, but instead shows the work done before things like downgrading the art assets and creating the normal maps take place.
As you can see the combination of traditional motion capture and advanced 360 degree 3D motion scanning yields incredible results. The technology on display here could easily be used in digitally re-creating actors for completely CGI-based movies, with obviously far more grunt being available to produce even more detailed and accurate character modelling, especially since all rendering is done off-line rather than in real-time.
To see such tech being used effectively, and indeed highly impressively in a videogame – even with the obvious compromises made in getting the tech to work to a high standard – represents not only some serious investment from Rockstar, but also their commitment in attempting to creating a thoroughly believable, and entirely engrossing experience.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
Donkey Kong Country Returns marks the first proper instalment in Rare’s much-loved and critically applauded series of platform games in eleven years, fourteen if you go right back to DKC3 on the Super NES. The game is a modern day homage to a tried and tested gaming classic, blending in brand new 3D visuals on a 2.5D plane with plenty of barrel blasting, vine-swinging, and baddie bashing action. It’s been a long time coming, but Retro Studios have crafted a rather excellent, if not ever so slightly flawed entry to a series that has been absent for far too long. Like before, DKCR begins with the great ape having his prized banana horde stolen from right under his tree house. Only this time it’s not those pesky Kremlings and King K Rool that is to blame, but a race of floating masks going by the name of the Tiki Tak tribe. The Tiki’s have hypnotised all of the DK Island’s animal inhabitance and turned then into vicious banana stealing, Kong killing adversaries. And naturally it’s your job as the Island’s head-honcho DK, along with your simian pal Diddy to stop them.
Donkey Kong Country Returns shares much of its blueprint with those three Super NES originals, along with borrowing elements from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and adding plenty of fresh new material. You’ve got the return of the series main hub and individual world maps, with some six or so levels, plus one boss in each, a lively jazzed up version of the original DKC soundtrack, along with sound and gameplay elements from the later games as well. Both DK and Diddy return for the first time together since the original DKC, aiding each other with their own individual trademark moves.
Unlike in past DKC games however, only Donkey Kong is directly playable in the single-player mode, with Diddy simply riding on DK’s back giving the titular ape two more extra hits before dying, and a very usefull jetpack ability used to extend jumps and clear longer distances. The change in design gets rid of the need to have one particular character to reach certain areas, instead opting for Diddy’s jetpack ability to help lead you to secret areas and unreachable items. It’s a compromise that works well, and the use of additions to your life is welcome given the game’s often harsh difficulty level.
Yep, Donkey Kong Country Returns is hard… very, very hard. It’s by far the toughest of the four DKC games created, getting players sweating very early on – sometimes boardering on being a little too difficult for its own good, with stages getting notoriously annoying to complete just before the halfway point. However, for me much of the earlier challenge didn’t come in having to avoid the game’s various pitfalls, enemies, or deviously placed traps. These I can deal with, mostly, considering they aren’t always all that much harder than the worst DKC2 or even 3 had to offer – almost on par in fact - quickly going to back to those games to check.
Instead, the main culprit behind DKCR’s sometimes absurd difficulty (early on, but certainly not later) – and yes, I did have to use that Super Guide at times – is the unnecessary use of waggle with the Wii Remote in order to perform specific moves. It just makes this harder by not being as responsive as a button press on the controller.
You can use both the Wii remote on its own, or a Wii Remote + Nunchuck combo in DKCR, but it is the former that I find works the best. Jumping and running is handled with the 1 and 2 buttons when the game is played this way, with the D-Pad being used for movement. Shaking the Wii Remote while stationary performs a ground pound, while shaking when running delivers a barrel roll.
Now this set-up largely isn’t a problem, though waggling the remote has a noticeable delay in between performing the motion and having DK executes his moves. This means that last minute barrel rolls off the edges of platforms in order to gain higher, further jumps is no longer anywhere near as intuitive as on the Super NES games, often leading to either: late attacks which fail to have the desired effect, or simply nothing at all in a worse case. Classic Controller support then is sorely missed, as it would have eased up the difficulty level somewhat along with giving you a more comfortable method of control.
While Donkey Kong Jungle Beat showed off how much imagination and excitement the series still had after years of being left untouched in the canopy for the best part of half a decade, DKCR goes even further having some of the most intoxicatingly inspired platform level design I’ve seen in any game in years, let alone DKC. Sure enough, the game sees you barrel blasting through the jungle, riding mine carts through uncharted territory, and bopping off a string of enemies before swinging off to that next platform.
However, the scenery this time is far more interactive. Platforms raise and lower as you ground pound on certain areas, structures collapse in the background as you try to perilously shoot yourself across bottomless pits of jungle, and barrels can be ridden as an unwieldy rockets providing yet more excitement. The old-school perfect path elements of the previous three Super NES games return: bopping off a few enemies, jumping off a vine and into a barrel in order to progress in a clean and fluid manner not always apparent on your first playthrough of any of the game’s levels, is something that is as polished as it was all those years ago.
There’s also lots of hidden areas to find in each stage, KONG letters to collect, and a variety of other such bonuses, all of which deliver added depth familiar to all those who’ve spent their times playing the original DKC’s all those years ago.
Other than the perfect path aspect of the game, this is by far the biggest draw. I’ve always loved going through the first three DKC games one-hundred percenting them numerous times before, unlocking the lost world in the last two games and sending K Rool packing for the second time. And while the challenge in DKCR may well be too great to do quite the same, I really like the amount of effort that has been put in to giving completists exactly what they want.
The game’s remixed soundtrack also verges on being thoroughly excellent at times to a little bland in general. The music doesn't quite generate the same level of atmosphere as the tunes found in Rare's first two DKC games, although to its credit always fits the mood of the stages and their surroundings.
Another qualm comes with regards to the game's general sound design, especially concerning the sound affects. Again they aren’t quite as good as expected. Both DK and Diddy’s voice work (if you can call it that) is cheesier than ever, sometimes sounding more comic than needed, and the contact hits and smacks when jumping on enemies and blasting out of barrels isn’t anywhere near as distinctive. Thankfully, collecting the KONG pieces and Puzzle token yield some lovely old-school jingles.
Moving on, and Retro’s attention to detail in other areas is simply outstanding. Visually the stages in DKCR literally come alive. Trees move and sway in the wind, tides rise and then receed as you play, and whole parts of the environments radically change before your every eyes.
Nothing like this remotely happened in the old 16bit titles, and this is precisely why, even though on first impressions I didn’t like the move to polygonal 3D, the change in visual style was exactly the right choice. DK’s world coming alive, feeling organic as well as graphically accomplished gives the game a personality that would otherwise fail to shine through in quite the way it does.
The same can be said of the animation on both the Kong’s and the enemies, which is both smooth and incredibly fluid. It looks very organic. The enemies themselves, although generic in design feel like they belong in a DK title, making up for the lack of Gwanty’s, Neeks, and Necky’s. The Tiki’s on the other hand, are pretty poor in general, lacking the distinctive impact of the Kremlings and their ruthlessly scaly nature.
But on the whole both the characters and worlds of DKCR are full of personality, even if they aren’t always that interesting. Retro have also (thankfully to some extent) cut out the fat by removing most of the supporting cast of Kong’s. Cranky makes a return – you can’t really not include the ‘original’ DK now can you – as does our Rhinoceros animal friend Rambi, but without some of the more pointless additions (Wrinkly Kong, Swanky Kong, and that stupid elephant from DKC3 I can’t remember the name of). It’s the right choice, and allows the developers to expand the level design ideas around almost solely playing as Donkey Kong, to much success.
While its quite easy to dislike DKCR for things it does wrong, it would also be at an utmost disservice to avoid the title considering the things it get so very right. Fans of the Super NES originals may indeed dislike some of the direction this latest homage title has taken – myself included - although that doesn’t take away from the blindingly awesome level designs, the hidden secrets dotted around everywhere, and the fact that even Rare themselves have failed to match their own genius since the last DKC (damn you DK64). I didn’t always enjoy my time with DKCR, but I did appreciate just what Retro have achieved, which is always something worth considering.
Donkey Kong Country Returns, dare I say it, is a mostly triumphant return to the series glory days, although isn’t quite a perfectly formed comeback. The incredibly high difficulty level, the lack of any truly iconic enemies to face throughout (certain bosses aside), and the removal of Donkey and Diddy as fully fledged, separate playable characters in single-player mode definitely hurts the experience. As does the lack of Classic Controller support, which would have gone along way in making the gameplay seem a little more fluid; being able to jump around, blasting your way through stages almost like second nature, instead of fighting the slightly laggy waggle mechanics.
However, against all odds Retro Studios have crafted some of the most imaginative and inspired level designs ever seen in any platform game to date, not only outclassing those in the original DKC, but also all of the ones in Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros re-envisioning.
Certainly, much care and attention has been lavished on the experience as a whole even if it doesn’t quite, in my opinion, match the sheer brilliance and beauty – in terms of having a complete mix of graphics, sound, and gameplay design interwoven together – as the first two DKC games. Though it does both hold its own and often exceed Rare’s less impressive, but still solidly excellent, third instalment in the series.
For those looking for some old-school, really hardcore platforming action, then Donkey Kong Country Returns is well worth picking up. But be warned though; it’s tough, often frustrating, and unbelievably unforgiving. That said, it’s also incredibly good at the same time, balancing a fine line between sequel and self-indulgent homage, and exemplarily hard but always fair ride into the Kingdom of Kong.
VERDICT: 8/10
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Gets 3D iPhone Remake
The announcement of a proper PS3 and Xbox 360 Mortal Kombat reboot of sorts – inspired by the first three arcade games in the series – was enough to get fans salivating. However, the retro-themed goodness doesn’t end there. Today on the Mortal Kombat Facebook page, it was finally confirmed that a complete reworking of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was on its way to the iPhone, featuring brand new 3D graphics no less.
UMK3 on the iPhone will feature a total of 13 playable characters, each with their own fatalities, plus supports customisable controls, as well as a head-to-head kombat mode via Bluetooth or WiFi on both the iPhone and iPod touch. The game will also stay true to the arcade original by excluding any fancy 3D-based gameplay features. So that means plenty of bloody uppercuts and roundhouse kicks to the head, sweeps, and crazily over-the-top, jump in dial-a-combos.
The biggest draw however, isn’t so much the return of classic MK gameplay, but is with the game’s visuals, which have been completely redone using textured geometry rather than flat 2D sprites – although it looks like the texture work is partially based on the old digitised pixel art. Graphically UMK3 looks great, almost on-par with what you’d expect any of the first three titles in the series to look like if they were re-created to fit in with MK4’s three-dimensional leap, and certainly – in my opinion anyway – ripe for a porting to PSN and XBLA to coincide with the brand new, rebooted Mortal Kombat game.
As an iPhone title, UMK3 might indeed attract some serious attention, playing upon it’s reputation as being one of the best games in the series. Although, with the use of touch screen controls more than likely to put a dampner on things than please the franchise faithful, one can’t help but feel that an inclusion with the upcoming PS3 and 360 game, or a download console release would be a far better bet. Either way, we definitely look forward to checking UMK3 out upon its release, sampling what could turn out to be a nice reinvisioning of a classic.
UMK3 on the iPhone will feature a total of 13 playable characters, each with their own fatalities, plus supports customisable controls, as well as a head-to-head kombat mode via Bluetooth or WiFi on both the iPhone and iPod touch. The game will also stay true to the arcade original by excluding any fancy 3D-based gameplay features. So that means plenty of bloody uppercuts and roundhouse kicks to the head, sweeps, and crazily over-the-top, jump in dial-a-combos.
The biggest draw however, isn’t so much the return of classic MK gameplay, but is with the game’s visuals, which have been completely redone using textured geometry rather than flat 2D sprites – although it looks like the texture work is partially based on the old digitised pixel art. Graphically UMK3 looks great, almost on-par with what you’d expect any of the first three titles in the series to look like if they were re-created to fit in with MK4’s three-dimensional leap, and certainly – in my opinion anyway – ripe for a porting to PSN and XBLA to coincide with the brand new, rebooted Mortal Kombat game.
As an iPhone title, UMK3 might indeed attract some serious attention, playing upon it’s reputation as being one of the best games in the series. Although, with the use of touch screen controls more than likely to put a dampner on things than please the franchise faithful, one can’t help but feel that an inclusion with the upcoming PS3 and 360 game, or a download console release would be a far better bet. Either way, we definitely look forward to checking UMK3 out upon its release, sampling what could turn out to be a nice reinvisioning of a classic.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Infinity Blade Leads iPhone Graphics Tech
When the iPhone 3GS was first released it’s graphical capabilities generally impressed for a potable device, with various visual effects normally home to regular gaming consoles showcasing the system’s potential for high-end like graphical prowess. However, outside of Doom Resurrection and a cut down, shortened version of Resident Evil 4, there were very few titles that demonstrated this fact, with many looking like enhanced PSP games with better visuals.
Moving on, and Epic Games with their Project Sword demo changed everything. Epic Citadel – as the demo finally became known – showcased the raw grunt contained inside Apple’s portable powerhouse, featuring various traditional GPU based effects such as normal mapping, specular highlighting, and real-time dynamic lighting. The game also used a baked global illumination system to give the impression of having a basic global lighting system, even if was admittedly non real-time.
As impressive as the technical demo was, it was indeed just that. With no enemies, characters, or even missions, it was simply designed to show how when used correctly, the kind of graphical potential the iPhone had within silicon confines. Recently, id software’s Rage expanded on this concept by delivering a similarly advanced looking game-come-demo in the form of a short on-rails shooter. It was pretty good for the most part. But now Epic Games has returned with their Epic Citadel/Project Sword demo in a finished game called Infinity Blade, once again raising the bar for iPhone related visuals.
As you can see in the trailer above (powered by the iPhone 4), Infinity Blade looks quite simply stunning. Running at around 30fps with what looks like a similarly almost on-rails design as seen in many iPhone titles, the game displays command of a small range of beautifully implemented advanced graphical effects along with current-gen console standard characters, which make it stand out more than any other iPhone game or demo seen so far. It’s looks incredible for something running on a handheld device.
By the looks of things, we’re talking about visuals and image quality that on an artistic level, and on some technical levels, stand above the best titles displayed on the 3DS thus far – approaching first gen, and even some second gen 360 and PS3 titles. Here we have detailed characters with decent amounts of geometry and a high level of normal mapping, crisp and clear use of texture mapping, plus good use of what looks like a mainly pre-baked lighting and shadowing system with some real-time elements.
While we won’t go into any further details into the technical side of the production just yet – if we have time, look out for a future tech analysis – the game as a whole looks to be significantly more impressive than any other handheld title on the market. And from initial reports, also looks like providing more replay value than the likes of id software’s Rage, in terms of being a proper game for the iPhone.
The actual game itself appears to be a weapon-based fighting game with limited movement – ala Punch Out – with the ability for you to dodge incoming attacks, and repel with your own strikes by moving your finger across the touch screen. Movement around the environment is largely automated, with you pointing and clicking where you want to go. And there is no real storyline in game either, other than what is uttered to you by the God King.
Infinity Blade looks rather interesting, not just down to its own technical merits – of we have no doubt are as solidly implemented as they are visually alluring – but because of how it supposedly manages to keep you immersed in its world without needing to give you any real depth to do so - word has it you simply replay the game over and over levelling up and upgrading weaponry until the God King can be killed. And that could make it a surprising success, as well as being more than just a hybrid game/fancy tech demo.
Infinity Blade is already available for download, with versions on both iPhone 4 and the older iPhone 3GS. The 3GS version has seen some graphical downgrades compared to tne title running on the iPhone 4, something we shall investigate at a later date.
Moving on, and Epic Games with their Project Sword demo changed everything. Epic Citadel – as the demo finally became known – showcased the raw grunt contained inside Apple’s portable powerhouse, featuring various traditional GPU based effects such as normal mapping, specular highlighting, and real-time dynamic lighting. The game also used a baked global illumination system to give the impression of having a basic global lighting system, even if was admittedly non real-time.
As impressive as the technical demo was, it was indeed just that. With no enemies, characters, or even missions, it was simply designed to show how when used correctly, the kind of graphical potential the iPhone had within silicon confines. Recently, id software’s Rage expanded on this concept by delivering a similarly advanced looking game-come-demo in the form of a short on-rails shooter. It was pretty good for the most part. But now Epic Games has returned with their Epic Citadel/Project Sword demo in a finished game called Infinity Blade, once again raising the bar for iPhone related visuals.
As you can see in the trailer above (powered by the iPhone 4), Infinity Blade looks quite simply stunning. Running at around 30fps with what looks like a similarly almost on-rails design as seen in many iPhone titles, the game displays command of a small range of beautifully implemented advanced graphical effects along with current-gen console standard characters, which make it stand out more than any other iPhone game or demo seen so far. It’s looks incredible for something running on a handheld device.
By the looks of things, we’re talking about visuals and image quality that on an artistic level, and on some technical levels, stand above the best titles displayed on the 3DS thus far – approaching first gen, and even some second gen 360 and PS3 titles. Here we have detailed characters with decent amounts of geometry and a high level of normal mapping, crisp and clear use of texture mapping, plus good use of what looks like a mainly pre-baked lighting and shadowing system with some real-time elements.
While we won’t go into any further details into the technical side of the production just yet – if we have time, look out for a future tech analysis – the game as a whole looks to be significantly more impressive than any other handheld title on the market. And from initial reports, also looks like providing more replay value than the likes of id software’s Rage, in terms of being a proper game for the iPhone.
The actual game itself appears to be a weapon-based fighting game with limited movement – ala Punch Out – with the ability for you to dodge incoming attacks, and repel with your own strikes by moving your finger across the touch screen. Movement around the environment is largely automated, with you pointing and clicking where you want to go. And there is no real storyline in game either, other than what is uttered to you by the God King.
Infinity Blade looks rather interesting, not just down to its own technical merits – of we have no doubt are as solidly implemented as they are visually alluring – but because of how it supposedly manages to keep you immersed in its world without needing to give you any real depth to do so - word has it you simply replay the game over and over levelling up and upgrading weaponry until the God King can be killed. And that could make it a surprising success, as well as being more than just a hybrid game/fancy tech demo.
Infinity Blade is already available for download, with versions on both iPhone 4 and the older iPhone 3GS. The 3GS version has seen some graphical downgrades compared to tne title running on the iPhone 4, something we shall investigate at a later date.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Tech Report: LA Noire's Facial Animation System Detailed
We came away rather impressed with LA Noire after taking an early look at the trailer, which showcased what looked like some of the most advanced motion capturing we’ve seen used in any game thus far. However, motion capture was only half of the story. As what we’ve learned since our initial tech analysis, is that the game actually uses a far more complicated hybrid method of motion capture and video capturing in order to sample and realistically animate the in-game characters.
Much of what we’ve talked about was indeed correct – the bend of normal mapping and texture layers, complete with only basic shader effects and minimal surface skin shaders in general – although the core process behind creating the character models, and indeed the capturing of motion data from the actors themselves, is a far more closely aligned affair.
But how does it work?
Well, on the base of it, the technique that LA Noire uses actually begins with using a detailed level of motion capturing. Dozens of points across the actor are tracked as per usual before being mapped onto geometry as a starting point, before the actor's face is digitally scanned in 3D in order to create the character model. Both the audio and visuals are recorded at the same time in order to allow for precise lip-syncing with very few obvious errors, whilst preserving most facial expressions naturally.
Afterwards, this highly detailed model is converted for use in-game. Normal and colour maps are created for a wide range of facial expressions used in animation blending. These are created from both the marker data recorded during motion capture (for the geometry animations) and from the footage and lighting of the actors faces themselves. Combined together they create a series of mappings that display elements such as wrinkles, skin details, facial features etc, which are then used to build up a complex, finished character model. They form the normal maps used in the final in-game rendering.
Basically, everything from the actor’s facial features to their actual motion captured performance is recorded to gain the most detailed animation for use in-game. Once this is done you can’t change the make up of a character’s features as this has all been recorded and set up during the capturing phase. You have to record capture for every character in the game individually. The assets created cannot be shared between different character models, or even when a character under goes certain changes to their face as the game progresses – it all has to be recorded.
Also the lighting in the capturing process - to form the imagery used in creating colour and normal maps - is fundamental to the look of the end result of the modelling and animation capture. For this process best to work, you need to set up the lighting on-stage in a similar way to how it will look in the game.
Of course it is still possible to adjust and change the lighting composition in game, affecting the shading of the character models, although the results may not be quite as accurate. Instead an image-based lighting solution – such as the one found in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, whereby the characters are lit by their surrounding environments – in combination with recording data of the light reflections on the actors on set would provide a solid solution to this problem.
Moving on, and we can see that both Normal and colour maps are then blended together to form more detailed facial animation on top of the motion-captured geometry. There are different normal and colour map blends for different expressions and animations, and these are combined together to form the final, fully animated facial model. Some of the normal and colour maps also have specific pre-sets, modifications if you will, for varying facial expressions and detail changes, such as adding or expanding wrinkles, muscle details etc, all based off the original capturing session.
For the system to work accurately in providing an unflinchingly realistic representation of natural facial animation, and indeed smooth lip-syncing in line with the audio – so they both look correct when combined – lots of normal maps are required along with animated geometry, which takes up a huge amount of memory.
Here you have multiple textures with varying blends of normal and colour maps in order to represent some finite details, and these have a distinctly high memory cost associated with them. Additional costs are also incurred, as blending everything together, along with animating loads of small triangles takes a fair amount of processing, which means that some compromises have to take place in order to use such a system in-game.
As a result, we can see that normal and colour map resolution are relatively low compared to the rest of the frame – roughly about 1/4 of the framebuffer resolution – in order to save on memory bandwidth and processing costs. This is perhaps why none of the characters display any kind of advanced surface shaders, although there is some evidence of phong specular highlighting present, which is barely apparent in some of these shots and indeed the trailer.
The game’s use of lighting is also fairly simply in this regard too, from what we can see from the trailer. However, this is boosted by the use of SSAO, which has been implemented to expand the use of shadowing in the game, whilst adding depth to the highly stylised, slightly washed out look that has been artistically chosen.
The use of such an advanced, high-end capturing technology for use in LA Noire is also incredibly costly from a financial point of view. Seeing as every actor has to not only be marker tracked, but also their acted lines delivered for every scene found in the game. The result is you get some of the most realistic and downright refined examples of facial animation in any videogame to date, with characters that are uncannily lifelike in this regard. What the development team in LA noire is dabbling here looks to be the future for creating cut-scenes in the majority of next-generation games.
Naturally, Rockstar’s choice in using such expensive and high-end tech is maybe just a little surprising. But when you consider what they are aiming for – to create an environment filled with natural looking characters in which to drive forward a very strong narrative– then the choice completely makes sense. You can definitely see such things being used again, possibly in the next GTA, and in other similar games which focus on strong story and characterisation.
Even this early on – with just a few screenshots and brief teaser trailers – the tech powering LA Noire is remarkable impressive. The actual game engine itself, from what we can see, may not be all that spectacular, but the delivery of the characters, their own delivery of emotion, actions, whatever else you want to call it, definitely stands high above the rest, backed up a competent rendering engine with snippets of advanced, forward thinking rendering technology.
You can check out our original tech report on the LA Noire trailer here, which provides a nice companion piece to today’s motion capture-based article.
Much of what we’ve talked about was indeed correct – the bend of normal mapping and texture layers, complete with only basic shader effects and minimal surface skin shaders in general – although the core process behind creating the character models, and indeed the capturing of motion data from the actors themselves, is a far more closely aligned affair.
But how does it work?
Well, on the base of it, the technique that LA Noire uses actually begins with using a detailed level of motion capturing. Dozens of points across the actor are tracked as per usual before being mapped onto geometry as a starting point, before the actor's face is digitally scanned in 3D in order to create the character model. Both the audio and visuals are recorded at the same time in order to allow for precise lip-syncing with very few obvious errors, whilst preserving most facial expressions naturally.
Afterwards, this highly detailed model is converted for use in-game. Normal and colour maps are created for a wide range of facial expressions used in animation blending. These are created from both the marker data recorded during motion capture (for the geometry animations) and from the footage and lighting of the actors faces themselves. Combined together they create a series of mappings that display elements such as wrinkles, skin details, facial features etc, which are then used to build up a complex, finished character model. They form the normal maps used in the final in-game rendering.
Basically, everything from the actor’s facial features to their actual motion captured performance is recorded to gain the most detailed animation for use in-game. Once this is done you can’t change the make up of a character’s features as this has all been recorded and set up during the capturing phase. You have to record capture for every character in the game individually. The assets created cannot be shared between different character models, or even when a character under goes certain changes to their face as the game progresses – it all has to be recorded.
Also the lighting in the capturing process - to form the imagery used in creating colour and normal maps - is fundamental to the look of the end result of the modelling and animation capture. For this process best to work, you need to set up the lighting on-stage in a similar way to how it will look in the game.
Of course it is still possible to adjust and change the lighting composition in game, affecting the shading of the character models, although the results may not be quite as accurate. Instead an image-based lighting solution – such as the one found in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, whereby the characters are lit by their surrounding environments – in combination with recording data of the light reflections on the actors on set would provide a solid solution to this problem.
Moving on, and we can see that both Normal and colour maps are then blended together to form more detailed facial animation on top of the motion-captured geometry. There are different normal and colour map blends for different expressions and animations, and these are combined together to form the final, fully animated facial model. Some of the normal and colour maps also have specific pre-sets, modifications if you will, for varying facial expressions and detail changes, such as adding or expanding wrinkles, muscle details etc, all based off the original capturing session.
For the system to work accurately in providing an unflinchingly realistic representation of natural facial animation, and indeed smooth lip-syncing in line with the audio – so they both look correct when combined – lots of normal maps are required along with animated geometry, which takes up a huge amount of memory.
Here you have multiple textures with varying blends of normal and colour maps in order to represent some finite details, and these have a distinctly high memory cost associated with them. Additional costs are also incurred, as blending everything together, along with animating loads of small triangles takes a fair amount of processing, which means that some compromises have to take place in order to use such a system in-game.
As a result, we can see that normal and colour map resolution are relatively low compared to the rest of the frame – roughly about 1/4 of the framebuffer resolution – in order to save on memory bandwidth and processing costs. This is perhaps why none of the characters display any kind of advanced surface shaders, although there is some evidence of phong specular highlighting present, which is barely apparent in some of these shots and indeed the trailer.
The game’s use of lighting is also fairly simply in this regard too, from what we can see from the trailer. However, this is boosted by the use of SSAO, which has been implemented to expand the use of shadowing in the game, whilst adding depth to the highly stylised, slightly washed out look that has been artistically chosen.
The use of such an advanced, high-end capturing technology for use in LA Noire is also incredibly costly from a financial point of view. Seeing as every actor has to not only be marker tracked, but also their acted lines delivered for every scene found in the game. The result is you get some of the most realistic and downright refined examples of facial animation in any videogame to date, with characters that are uncannily lifelike in this regard. What the development team in LA noire is dabbling here looks to be the future for creating cut-scenes in the majority of next-generation games.
Naturally, Rockstar’s choice in using such expensive and high-end tech is maybe just a little surprising. But when you consider what they are aiming for – to create an environment filled with natural looking characters in which to drive forward a very strong narrative– then the choice completely makes sense. You can definitely see such things being used again, possibly in the next GTA, and in other similar games which focus on strong story and characterisation.
Even this early on – with just a few screenshots and brief teaser trailers – the tech powering LA Noire is remarkable impressive. The actual game engine itself, from what we can see, may not be all that spectacular, but the delivery of the characters, their own delivery of emotion, actions, whatever else you want to call it, definitely stands high above the rest, backed up a competent rendering engine with snippets of advanced, forward thinking rendering technology.
You can check out our original tech report on the LA Noire trailer here, which provides a nice companion piece to today’s motion capture-based article.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Review: Rage HD (iPhone)
There must have been much excitement amongst fans when ID announced RAGE for the iPhone, even more when it was first demoed as an example of the versatility of the company’s Megatexture technology. The thought of having a lavishly grim and detailed mutant populated world in which to roam around in must have been as alluring as it was too good to be true. And indeed it is, because anyone at least half expecting an open world, or even a closed off, linear FPS experience on Apple’s portable powerhouse will be disappointed. Because RAGE in this guise, is absolutely nothing like that at all.
In many ways RAGE plays upon the strength of the iPhone in delivering a short but entertaining excursion into the low down and dirty wasteland contained within, using the device’s trademark touch screen for simple control and a journey that barely kicks off, to keep things from getting too repetitive before the end is reached. It is you could say, the antithesis of what to expect iPhone gaming to be all about, having more in common with Sega’s HotD series of lightgun games than the title’s own console bigger brother.
Even compared to basic, twenty year old shooters like Doom or Wolfenstein, RAGE is pretty simple. It’s meant to be. It’s something you can pop into and play for a few minutes, before trying again to beat it a few hours later. So, the game follows the tried and tested blueprint found in on-rails shooters pretty closely, with a dashing of FPS targeting for your pleasure. You are automatically moved around the environment via the game’s camera, while control of a cursor allows you to aim and shoot enemies as you are tightly directed to the next location.
There are only a handful of levels to work through, along with the same number of mutated enemies in which to kill, and three weapons to use (pistol, AK-47, and a shotgun). The difference comes into play with the ability to doge incoming attacks, and being able to control the outcome of your reloads with a reload bar of sorts, which allows you to rack up extra damage if you manage to get the icon in the sweet spot indicated on screen. It’s like Gears in this regard.
The sheer simplicity of it all however, is given a noticeable amount of depth with the reload system at hand. You’ve only got a limited number of shots before having to reload again, and timing in this regard, to score the best combo, thus dealing the maximum amount of damage per shot, is essential. Since there is no way of making a last ditch melee attack from the late bumrush of foes you can encounter (dodging isn’t always an option this late in the game) knowing when to shoot, where to shoot, and how to reload with efficiency, all plays a significant part in expanding the overly simple experience as a whole.
Another, is the game’s cleansweep style bonus system, whereby if you manage to get through an entire stage without getting hit, your points score dramatically grows in size. The more kills you make without getting hit, the bigger the bonus paid out at the end. And this scoring system is backed up by the ability to gain even more extra points by shooting down the many flip-up target boards that appear throughout each stage.
While at first all these layered elements to gameplay may in fact be beneficial, the game’s controls simply don’t do them justice. Perhaps if RAGE was simply a HotD clone, where all you do is tap on the enemies to kill them, then maybe things would feel a touch smoother, making you feel like you had more control over your actions.
Alas this isn’t the case. Doing everything the game asks of you whilst the camera is moving, while you are attempting to balance out dodging and reloading before making that last ditch precision shot, can often be quite difficult. Use of the touch screen controls often means that your thumbs can obscure vital parts of the screen. And during times where the camera is quickly moving to the next location - while you are still aiming at things - response times can feel sluggish, and the method of input, inadequate for the task at hand.
But of course, this isn’t so much a flaw with the game itself - more the iPhone, which clearly wasn’t made for these kinds of faster-paced action titles. But then again, maybe id’s decision to toe the line between basic on-rails shooter and HotD clone wasn’t the best choice given the medium it occupies.
Instead, I found it far easier to use the iPhone’s tilt functionality in order to aim around the screen, rather than rubbing my finger all over it in order to target my foes. Playing RAGE this way allows it to feel far more like a responsive on-rails FPS, with headshots being more down to skill rather than a spot of clumsily controlled luck. The downside, of course, is the fact that moving the iPhone around means that your view of the screen is constantly changing. And this isn’t such a good thing. However, controlling the game via the tilt mechanism is a far better option than using the touch screen.
Control quirks aside, RAGE was made to impress with its potential graphical prowess. And in this regard the game excels beautifully, looking very much like it belongs on Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS than it does on you fancy mobile communications device.
Here, Carmack and co showcase some nicely detailed environments, with bump-mapped enemies and impressively baked shadow routines. Compared to Epic Citadel, RAGE may not throw around quite as many basic shader effects (it is in fact fixed function). But then again, it has multiple characters on screen. And however simple it appears to be, feels more like an actual game than just a fancy tech demonstration.
It is a shame then, that the experience doesn’t last quite as long as it should have done. RAGE is only a paltry three levels long, with little else to do once the game has been completed. There is literally nothing to hold your attention outside of replaying the same stuff over and over again, even if it does look mightily impressive for a handheld game.
However, this stubbornness to exceed anything other than the size of a beautifully created, but obviously short tech demo, is exactly the philosophy that several games on Apple’s life conquering device follow to the letter. And with great success I might add. Where RAGE begins to fail though, is with the lack of any online support at all. While many other iPhone games rely on similarly short and constantly replayable bitesize chunks of fun, they make up for it with online leaderboards and other such features, which often pitch players off against each other in getting the highest score and the best ranking.
With the iPhone version of RAGE, id software seems to have come up with a great idea, but without having the real drive to do anything other than the basic, barebones treatment with it. RAGE works as a series of short, subtly deep experiences, with lovely graphics to boot. But doesn’t manage to free itself from being anything but a testing ground for something bigger in the future.
That said, at only 59p for the SD version, and £1.19 for the superior HD edition – which works on the older 3GS model, but with inferior performance – it doesn’t need anything else to offer considerably value for money.
And that’s the point many seem to be missing. Not only is RAGE cheaper than a cup of coffee – it’s like half the price – it’s also cheaper than most things you can buy. So in that sense, for a game, it is well worth the asking price, even if what we have here really is just an interesting, entertaining, albeit expanded technological demonstration of what the iPhone can do.
VERDICT: 7/10
In many ways RAGE plays upon the strength of the iPhone in delivering a short but entertaining excursion into the low down and dirty wasteland contained within, using the device’s trademark touch screen for simple control and a journey that barely kicks off, to keep things from getting too repetitive before the end is reached. It is you could say, the antithesis of what to expect iPhone gaming to be all about, having more in common with Sega’s HotD series of lightgun games than the title’s own console bigger brother.
Even compared to basic, twenty year old shooters like Doom or Wolfenstein, RAGE is pretty simple. It’s meant to be. It’s something you can pop into and play for a few minutes, before trying again to beat it a few hours later. So, the game follows the tried and tested blueprint found in on-rails shooters pretty closely, with a dashing of FPS targeting for your pleasure. You are automatically moved around the environment via the game’s camera, while control of a cursor allows you to aim and shoot enemies as you are tightly directed to the next location.
There are only a handful of levels to work through, along with the same number of mutated enemies in which to kill, and three weapons to use (pistol, AK-47, and a shotgun). The difference comes into play with the ability to doge incoming attacks, and being able to control the outcome of your reloads with a reload bar of sorts, which allows you to rack up extra damage if you manage to get the icon in the sweet spot indicated on screen. It’s like Gears in this regard.
The sheer simplicity of it all however, is given a noticeable amount of depth with the reload system at hand. You’ve only got a limited number of shots before having to reload again, and timing in this regard, to score the best combo, thus dealing the maximum amount of damage per shot, is essential. Since there is no way of making a last ditch melee attack from the late bumrush of foes you can encounter (dodging isn’t always an option this late in the game) knowing when to shoot, where to shoot, and how to reload with efficiency, all plays a significant part in expanding the overly simple experience as a whole.
Another, is the game’s cleansweep style bonus system, whereby if you manage to get through an entire stage without getting hit, your points score dramatically grows in size. The more kills you make without getting hit, the bigger the bonus paid out at the end. And this scoring system is backed up by the ability to gain even more extra points by shooting down the many flip-up target boards that appear throughout each stage.
While at first all these layered elements to gameplay may in fact be beneficial, the game’s controls simply don’t do them justice. Perhaps if RAGE was simply a HotD clone, where all you do is tap on the enemies to kill them, then maybe things would feel a touch smoother, making you feel like you had more control over your actions.
Alas this isn’t the case. Doing everything the game asks of you whilst the camera is moving, while you are attempting to balance out dodging and reloading before making that last ditch precision shot, can often be quite difficult. Use of the touch screen controls often means that your thumbs can obscure vital parts of the screen. And during times where the camera is quickly moving to the next location - while you are still aiming at things - response times can feel sluggish, and the method of input, inadequate for the task at hand.
But of course, this isn’t so much a flaw with the game itself - more the iPhone, which clearly wasn’t made for these kinds of faster-paced action titles. But then again, maybe id’s decision to toe the line between basic on-rails shooter and HotD clone wasn’t the best choice given the medium it occupies.
Instead, I found it far easier to use the iPhone’s tilt functionality in order to aim around the screen, rather than rubbing my finger all over it in order to target my foes. Playing RAGE this way allows it to feel far more like a responsive on-rails FPS, with headshots being more down to skill rather than a spot of clumsily controlled luck. The downside, of course, is the fact that moving the iPhone around means that your view of the screen is constantly changing. And this isn’t such a good thing. However, controlling the game via the tilt mechanism is a far better option than using the touch screen.
Control quirks aside, RAGE was made to impress with its potential graphical prowess. And in this regard the game excels beautifully, looking very much like it belongs on Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS than it does on you fancy mobile communications device.
Here, Carmack and co showcase some nicely detailed environments, with bump-mapped enemies and impressively baked shadow routines. Compared to Epic Citadel, RAGE may not throw around quite as many basic shader effects (it is in fact fixed function). But then again, it has multiple characters on screen. And however simple it appears to be, feels more like an actual game than just a fancy tech demonstration.
It is a shame then, that the experience doesn’t last quite as long as it should have done. RAGE is only a paltry three levels long, with little else to do once the game has been completed. There is literally nothing to hold your attention outside of replaying the same stuff over and over again, even if it does look mightily impressive for a handheld game.
However, this stubbornness to exceed anything other than the size of a beautifully created, but obviously short tech demo, is exactly the philosophy that several games on Apple’s life conquering device follow to the letter. And with great success I might add. Where RAGE begins to fail though, is with the lack of any online support at all. While many other iPhone games rely on similarly short and constantly replayable bitesize chunks of fun, they make up for it with online leaderboards and other such features, which often pitch players off against each other in getting the highest score and the best ranking.
With the iPhone version of RAGE, id software seems to have come up with a great idea, but without having the real drive to do anything other than the basic, barebones treatment with it. RAGE works as a series of short, subtly deep experiences, with lovely graphics to boot. But doesn’t manage to free itself from being anything but a testing ground for something bigger in the future.
That said, at only 59p for the SD version, and £1.19 for the superior HD edition – which works on the older 3GS model, but with inferior performance – it doesn’t need anything else to offer considerably value for money.
And that’s the point many seem to be missing. Not only is RAGE cheaper than a cup of coffee – it’s like half the price – it’s also cheaper than most things you can buy. So in that sense, for a game, it is well worth the asking price, even if what we have here really is just an interesting, entertaining, albeit expanded technological demonstration of what the iPhone can do.
VERDICT: 7/10
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