3D Artists/Experts help me spot the diferences :p (Uncharted render)

[ShootMyMonkey]

they are both using the same textures, however, not the same material. the material in the render is specific to mental ray and the in game material is a proprietary skin shader. This will definetly make it look a little different.

there is also texture compresion as you stated which kinda mushes a lot of the detail together resulting in less variation and an almost "flatter" look. It sucks, but its games.. something we all have to deal with to an extent.

Been there. We usually avoid it by just having textures layer on top of each other and emulate a few Photoshop blend modes in the process to cover things up. Only thing is you can't really do that too much on characters because they're so dense with geometry and material parameters to begin with. That's why I was finding it odd the way things looked localized as if they were layered on and thought "damn, how many textures is he throwing on there?" even with the realtime model.

I've often found that among the hardest things to do, though, is just to make things accessible to artists on both ends. Things like PTMs are just not very efficiently authorable or modifiable without a lot of work and a long testing time for minor tweaks. Conversely, things that make artists' lives a lot easier like bidirectional constraining are harder to implement in practice without creating a mess of problems and affecting a million systems at once.

 

[Diamant]

ShootMyMonkey - our in game shaders are pretty complex. the skin alone has a ton of different effects and maps that make up the final result.. some might be over kill.. but cool none the less i'm not really sure if i can talk in detail about them. but it is more then your standard color bump spec so yea, its a somewhat complex material with layering effects

maybe in the future they will allow me to talk more about it.. right now though its all hush hush.. i'm sure you understand

and yea, its hard dealing with all the bs with games. naughty dog is really pretty good with giving us the tools we need to get the job done. we have some of the best programers and tool writers in the world at our disposal. but yea, we still run into limitations and constraints. this is a proprietary engine so adding any little thing can effect other systems.. we really have to be careful and smart about what we add or dont add. many subtle things most people dont even notice anyway. i'd like to think in the end its all about the gameplay..

Metalmurphy- thanks for the compliments.. i was reading through this thread and the other and noticed things were getting a little heated.. i thought it might be good for me to clear things up.. i'm looking forward to see what everyone thinks about the game. soon enough!

-Rich

 

[deepbrown]

ShootMyMonkey - our in game shaders are pretty complex. the skin alone has a ton of different effects and maps that make up the final result.. some might be over kill.. but cool none the less i'm not really sure if i can talk in detail about them. but it is more then your standard color bump spec so yea, its a somewhat complex material with layering effects

maybe in the future they will allow me to talk more about it.. right now though its all hush hush.. i'm sure you understand

and yea, its hard dealing with all the bs with games. naughty dog is really pretty good with giving us the tools we need to get the job done. we have some of the best programers and tool writers in the world at our disposal. but yea, we still run into limitations and constraints. this is a proprietary engine so adding any little thing can effect other systems.. we really have to be careful and smart about what we add or dont add. many subtle things most people dont even notice anyway. i'd like to think in the end its all about the gameplay..

Metalmurphy- thanks for the compliments.. i was reading through this thread and the other and noticed things were getting a little heated.. i thought it might be good for me to clear things up.. i'm looking forward to see what everyone thinks about the game. soon enough!

-Rich

Every bit of information on your game just kills me! Sometimes I wish I was insider You appear to be doing a great job...and knowing ND...the gameplay will be spot on. This may well be the game I've always wanted to play since I picked up a controller all those years ago... (no pressure! lol)

 

[luke76]

thanks for the compliments guys!


luke76- Thanks man! and yes, you will be able to move the camera around his face and see the same detail in game. right now there is no difference between the game res and cinematic. so whatever res you see in the cinematic is there in game. we might upres for the cinematic but who knows.. right now all the detail is holding up pretty nice so we'll see!

-Rich

I love you much more now you know ? but please don't upres the cinematic because the model seen in the old trailer is perfect already,even in close-up!Trust me that many videogamers hate the difference between in game model and real time model and when this difference is not present everyone are happy i have some questions but if you can't talk because nda i understand you so don't worry .I would like to know if this game use streaming texture and geometry,if the water is dynamic and react to nathan's moves and if will there open and large space (This because in screens and scan seen til now the island seems have not much large enviroment,like crysis for example,it's just my curiosity!)

Anyway you must know and tell to other naughty dog that im the most big fan's uncharted in this world im italian and talks about uncharted everyday in the italian forum(some time i will get banned it's truth ),when the first time that i see the trailer i don't believe it.Finally i can play with real time graphics that seem cg (well cg from '90 but i like anyway!).Sorry for my english that it's not perfect and many compliments for your work because nathan model it's simple stunning (he will change in the final version of the game??? Ok..ok i stop my questions...)Thanks anyway for the information that you can give us.Are very appreciated

 

[Crossbar]

It seems like n4g.com quoted Diamant from this post and did not provide a link. I think that sucks!

"The in-game version was built on top of the high res. re-topologized to be low enough for games. Then a normal map was crated to get all the high detail of the original model.

You will be able to move the camera around his face and see the same detail in game. Right now there is no difference between the game res and cinematic. So whatever res you see in the cinematic is there in game."

http://n4g.com/ps3/News-38532.aspx

 

[luke76]

It seems like n4g.com quoted Diamant from this post and did not provide a link. I think that sucks!



http://n4g.com/ps3/News-38532.aspx

wll he doesn't break any dna with only tech information that interest developers and not public so there's no problem i hope

 

[Crossbar]

wll he doesn't break any dna with only tech information that interest developers and not public so there's no problem i hope

I was thinking more along the lines that it would be appropriate for them to show some courtesy to B3D.

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

wll he doesn't break any dna with only tech information that interest developers and not public so there's no problem i hope

Well, him breaking "DNA" is a little hard...
Nonetheless, they did take sections of his posts out of context making it *look* as if "ND's Lead Character Artist has officially announced that Gamer's Day is the big event for news on Uncharted" and that we'll hear a release date or something similar by then. They seem to enjoy doing that sort of thing.

 

[Diamant]

hmm.. not good..... i kinda wish that did not happen.. if anyone knows them i'd appreciate it if that was taken down otherwise i might be in trouble.. and in no way did i say it will be officially announced there.. that is taken out of context.. .i just said, lets wait and see

 

[luke76]

Well, him breaking "DNA" is a little hard...
Nonetheless, they did take sections of his posts out of context making it *look* as if "ND's Lead Character Artist has officially announced that Gamer's Day is the big event for news on Uncharted" and that we'll hear a release date or something similar by then. They seem to enjoy doing that sort of thing.

ops im wrong too

 

[luke76]

hmm.. not good..... i kinda wish that did not happen.. if anyone knows them i'd appreciate it if that was taken down otherwise i might be in trouble.. and in no way did i say it will be officially announced there.. that is taken out of context.. .i just said, lets wait and see

man im sorry for this but there's no source to this so what's the problem ?

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

hmm.. not good..... i kinda wish that did not happen.. if anyone knows them i'd appreciate it if that was taken down otherwise i might be in trouble.. and in no way did i say it will be officially announced there.. that is taken out of context.. .i just said, lets wait and see

:I

Uh oh, I've already seen this on neogaf and it's probably already hit some other forums... ... I really hope it's not a big issue...

GAF thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152217&page=10

 

[Diamant]

well they put my name on it.. so it probably will come back to me.. even though i did not say it.. gotta love how that works.. it would be cool if you guys went on there and maybe said i never said that.. validate it maybe?

 

[marconelly!]

Hey Rich, how confident are you that the final in-game look will be close to (or same as?) the old trailer we've seen at E3? I've seen an interview in French with one of your programmers who has said that shaders had to be downgraded a bit in the early build compared to that trailer.

Looking at Game Informer preview and released direct buffer screens, the game does look somewhat different than the original trailer, but I don't know if the difference is necessarily technical, or due to artistic choices (everything looks quite a bit more color saturated for one, and Drake's skin looks maybe less realistic in the Game Informer screens)

Also, can you comment on a seeming difference in looks of character of Elena, between your Mental Ray render and her in-game look. I'm not talking technical details, just the actual character design. She seems somewhat more feminine in your render compared to her in-game look. I actually like the idea of making a female character relatively ordinary looking instead of some blondy busty bombshell, but for example, the in-game Elena (from Game Informer screens) looks somewhat like Helen Hunt, while your render looks nothing like that. They just seem to look different, I'm not saying I prefer one or the other.

In any case, keep it up, I really anticipate your game a lot, quite possibly more than any other out this year, except maybe MGS4.

 

[luke76]

well they put my name on it.. so it probably will come back to me.. even though i did not say it.. gotta love how that works.. it would be cool if you guys went on there and maybe said i never said that.. validate it maybe?

well can works if they will just link to this topic to prove their article will prove only that you said to wait gamer's day and see,just all!I can try if you want and hope that other user want to help you come with me

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

well they put my name on it.. so it probably will come back to me.. even though i did not say it.. gotta love how that works.. it would be cool if you guys went on there and maybe said i never said that.. validate it maybe?

Best I can do is put a report on the story anonymously. Anybody who has an actual account on the site who can put down a comment in the actual thread on the story?

 

[luke76]

Best I can do is put a report on the story anonymously. Anybody who has an actual account on the site who can put down a comment in the actual thread on the story?

but we must say kinda like "No richard have no said nothing about uncharted and gamer's day!" just something this ?

 

[marconelly!]

Well I've put a comment there voicing Rich's concern and trying to clear up what he said.

 

[Diamant]

thanks guys! i appreciate it! i just hope it doesn't come to bite me in the ass.. otherwise i dont think i'll be allowed to post anything until after the game is launched unfortunetly...

 

[AlNom]

Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg....