I congratulate you two's ability to avoid playing worse games. May I recommend playing Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlesness for some real not good.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Ninja Theory sets a new benchmark in video game animation
- Thread starter Oggmeiler
- Start date
DF breakdowns are always good but nothing like a new console (in this case more than 1!) for them to dive into
It seems we've forgotten the lessons of Watch Dogs and Witcher 3...
The final game may look even better than this at release... but I think I'll wait to see a bit more.
The final game may look even better than this at release... but I think I'll wait to see a bit more.
I'm having a good time bringing this up every few pages. Lol.
Given their work on the original, I can believe it.
We'll see, but Ninja Theory doesn't have a history of bullshotting their work like Ubisoft was notorious for. People have pointed out, in fact, that Hellblade ultimately ended up looking better than its reveal trailer.
It's why I believe we'll be seeing this. NT had a separate animations studio who showed some Unreal Engine 4 tech demos using an off the shelf video recorder and their own black magic tools. They are seriously talented. No reason to think they can't take what they're showing on tech like the Switch and move it up a notch...or 3.
Graphics and fidelity no question. New benchmark.
Animation, nah, TLOU 2 still looks more impressive animation wise.
People need to know that theres a difference.
Animation, nah, TLOU 2 still looks more impressive animation wise.
People need to know that theres a difference.
Maybe OP should post the tweet from dev and/or article from GameSpot where they confirm that it IS running in real time, not just in-engine (which is where the confusion is coming from).
Personally don't think it sets a new bar for animation, but the actual lighting / materials / effects are definitely on par or better than the next-gen stuff I've been allowed to see earlier this year.
Stunning trailer, aside from the weird mouth stuff. heh :)
Personally don't think it sets a new bar for animation, but the actual lighting / materials / effects are definitely on par or better than the next-gen stuff I've been allowed to see earlier this year.
Stunning trailer, aside from the weird mouth stuff. heh :)
OP
OP
As I'm watching some development videos for Hellblade, I am convinced that this is just NT expanding on the leaps that they've already made in facial animation
There are studies that show there is no difference in emotional response if people watch realistic or fake acts of violence.
For better or worst people have been subject to emotional distress for the last 20+ years.
OP
OP
Yep. Crazy, right? But they had some great tools to work with on the last game.
In fact, there are some VERY good developer diaries online of how they made the game and the technology they used. That's why I'm very confident this is going to be a stunning achievement.
People should watch the making-of the game...built right into main menu of Hellblade.Yep. Crazy, right? But they had some great tools to work with on the last game.
In fact, there are some VERY good developer diaries online of how they made the game and the technology they used. That's why I'm very confident this is going to be a stunning achievement.
The subtle animations in faces in DMC5 gave me that impression.
Nah, man. That Hellblade 2 is on another level from this.
I feel like this needs to be posted every new gen cycle...
CGI / FMV - Rendered in a computer farm, game will look nothing like it
In-Game/Game Engine - Using the games rendering pipeline but not real time, final game will suffer downgrades as they always without fail do, it can however sometimes look very close to it. Sometimes.
Real Time - Using the games rendering pipeline and running on actual hardware at the framerate you are seeing. Final game will look pretty much identical besides intentional design changes.
Gameplay - You can count on the game looking like that if not better.
CGI / FMV - Rendered in a computer farm, game will look nothing like it
In-Game/Game Engine - Using the games rendering pipeline but not real time, final game will suffer downgrades as they always without fail do, it can however sometimes look very close to it. Sometimes.
Real Time - Using the games rendering pipeline and running on actual hardware at the framerate you are seeing. Final game will look pretty much identical besides intentional design changes.
Gameplay - You can count on the game looking like that if not better.
I suspect people would have said the same about CDPR back then. I don't think any dev purposely creates bullshots. And I'm not doubting Ninja Theory, I just think its better to wait a little longer before making claims like the OP.
I loved Senua's Sacrifice, and it's so cool that they had an in-studio employee as the main character and actress. But it didn't look even close to what we're seeing here. The expressions, eyes, wrinkles, how the lips move over the teeth and gum, the heavy breathing and inhalation between the shouts and the neck and chest movements afterwards. If it's created and not live action and makeup then we're talking about Hollywood quality CGI effects here, supposedly realtime. I remain doubtful...Yep. Crazy, right? But they had some great tools to work with on the last game.
In fact, there are some VERY good developer diaries online of how they made the game and the technology they used. That's why I'm very confident this is going to be a stunning achievement.
for sure. cue uncharted 4 "in engine" beach scene. that being said for a hype teaser i give a 10/10
That's why im doubtful as well. The lighting too, reflections on the teeth and gums being different for the different textures but still having realistic reflections on each. When you look close at a lot of this, it's incredible stuff, but it's also why I have doubt. If it's for real though next gen is gonna be wild because this will just be the start.
With facial mo-cap, and obviously amazing work, it feels like we've already reached this level of facial animations already with Uncharted 4, or at least Death Stranding. At this point, they're pretty much faithful recreation of the actor's performance. While this is impressive, I don't get the 'next level'.
Those games aren't even close to this. There is so much more articulate detail in this. I don't often nitpick this sort of thing but having spent many hours in death stranding i can tell you the quality is not even close to this level of detail. You need to watch more closely or perhaps on a bigger screen.
That's a very deferring argument. I have a 32' 1440p monitor I'm rather close to, and I don't see that being particularly important to the issue. I see enunciated and exaggerated facial expressions, absolutely in line with the theme, but I don't see anything technical beyond literally seeing Mads Mikkelsen inserted into Death Stranding. They're not doing these kind of facial animations in Death Stranding, but again, I don't see anything "next level". This trailer is great, but I am confident the same could've been done in both Death Stranding and Uncharted 4.
Cool, good to see you can counter my opinion with cold hard non debatable facts. Good for you if you enjoyed it.
You are isolating this to purely facial expression when there is so much more going on throughout the entire thing. I've never even remotely mistaken uncharted or death stranding for real life which is what i thought this was initially. Their character clearly appear to belong in a video game as their faces both visually and animation wise do not look natural like this does.
Well, of course not. It's a game made a couple of years back on hardware that came out over six years ago. The visual fidelity was definitely there...
And the animation quality was way ahead of the curve...
...but there has been a LOT of technological advancements in game development since this game, and the hardware is clearly vastly more powerful. It's been confirmed the trailer was in-engine and real time, and given the quality of their prior work, I have no reason to doubt that.
Yeah, and I wasn't really impressed with Hellblade's in-game animations either. The game felt incredibly stiff and reused the same animations in a lot of scenarios, which got pretty lame. Jumping over a log for example had the same exact animation over and over again, they didn't think to mix it up like Naughty Dog would have.
For as much effort as NT put into their cutscenes, they're extremely lacking in actual gameplay animations. It's easy to make a pretty cutscene or cinematic, but not nearly as easy to translate that into gameplay. NT has always had great facial animations in their cinematics, so it's not like this is anything new.
How would you reasonably expect Hellblade to directly compare to DMC considering how incomparable their respective styles of combat are?
Hellblade was a team of about 20 people though. It took an army to make Uncharted 4.
I just played through the game last week and I recall jumping over maybe three or four objects in the game for the duration of the adventure. The combat animations were very fluid once you got the hang of it, and Senua's body language changed quite a bit throughout the chapters.
The very slight camera vibrations matching the drum beat is a great touch
Because DmC showed they knew how to make combat fun, it wasn't that I expected it to play like DmC. But you can make a more grounded style of combat fun, the Souls games excel at that. Hellblade just quickly got boring.
The only bit that would give me doubt is they have said running in real time, but not running in real time on xbox series x, or xbox series x devkits, or xbox series x specc'd pcs.
I don't really doubt ninja theory's talent, but stating any of the above would make me more confident that what we see in the trailer is what we can expect in the actual game.
it was a fantastic trailer. Bear in mind no actual gameplay was shown and lighting, cameras and many tricks can kind of bump the perceived visual fidelity,,, sections of death stranding look pretty close to this, however, with all that said I can see this game looking good in the end for a few reasons, (aside from obvious hardware reasons)
1- they are expanding upon their pre existing game (so much of the legwork on engine side is already done - more time for polish) They understand their art style and pipeline and can spend much more time efficiently making this look good.
2 It is an Unreal game, last time around they really partnered with Epic to show how much they could push the facial animation/capture side of things, I assume this time they will do the same, and then there is the fact Unreal just bought Quixel the photoscan library which is now free to all Unreal Engine users. , it could be that they will utilize their good relationship with epic to partner again to really sell this and show off this tech to its fullest. It is also in Epics interest to showcase how good this looks.
3 They are a Microsoft first party studio now and will have a higher budget and resources available to make this a system seller. (But have you seentitanfall Hellblade)
1- they are expanding upon their pre existing game (so much of the legwork on engine side is already done - more time for polish) They understand their art style and pipeline and can spend much more time efficiently making this look good.
2 It is an Unreal game, last time around they really partnered with Epic to show how much they could push the facial animation/capture side of things, I assume this time they will do the same, and then there is the fact Unreal just bought Quixel the photoscan library which is now free to all Unreal Engine users. , it could be that they will utilize their good relationship with epic to partner again to really sell this and show off this tech to its fullest. It is also in Epics interest to showcase how good this looks.
3 They are a Microsoft first party studio now and will have a higher budget and resources available to make this a system seller. (But have you seen
The souls games I wouldn't count as grounded so much as more weighty and less spectacle based compared to something like DMC. Hellblade felt like reactions were more detailed and actually grounded. And Hellblade also showed they knew how to make combat fun, because Hellblade combat was fun IMO.
Last edited:
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Ninja Theory already did impressive work with character modeling and animation 12 years ago. They have clearly continued to hone these skills throughout the years.
The expressions that Senua was pulling were so ridiculous I actually laughed a bit during that segment.
Quite comedic as it came out of nowhere.
Quite comedic as it came out of nowhere.
Was genuinely floored by that animation work, certainly sets a new level for me. Not many games have reached this standard save a few such as Last of Us 2.
Truly incredible. Some of you need to give credit where it's deserved, it's disheartening to take from the hard work of Ninja Theory here as if they're actively deceiving the audience. Remember this is early work operating on much more powerful target hardware than current gen.
Truly incredible. Some of you need to give credit where it's deserved, it's disheartening to take from the hard work of Ninja Theory here as if they're actively deceiving the audience. Remember this is early work operating on much more powerful target hardware than current gen.
