Accurate Human Rendering in Game [2017]

Thought some Gears of War 4 would be interesting here since it targeting xb1 limitations means certain constraints a pure PC release or PS4 release would not have. Cutscene @ 7680 X 4320

Gameplay in single indoor light @1920X1080

 

some NPCs (cutscene)

http://i.imgur.com/MyZAZvo.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1JBa875.jpg

 

Why is it that in some games subsurface scattering is present during realtime cutscenes but not during gameplay. It's especially jarring in ROTTR and U4. I love how it's present at all times in Horizon. Very rare for most games though.

 

Resource intensive techniques I'd guess. Some closeups on Aloys eyes

 

And some full body shots

 

And two more at a full fat uhd and that's it from me for now (.jpg trough photoshop to preserve detail)

 

It is present during gameplay in Gears of War 4, it just depends highly on the light type affecting the face. For example, if the secondary lighting in a scene is just from a cube map ambient, or just from an unshadowed point light... then the effects of SSS are scarecely visible.

For example here you can see SSS in gameplay: (the ears)

Or the way shadow looks when it falls on skin:



As to why it is not visible in certain scenes of UC4 or the Order? I think it is because those games (like gears of war) use a lot of baked lighting, specular or diffuse, and the baked lighting does not trigger the SSS, while the dynamic lights and shadows do.

 

I am pretty sure SSS exists in Uncharted as well during gameplay

 

Definitely is, just in some scenes it is not. I am not sure if that is because how the light type in that scene plugs in to the skin shading (if at all), or if it is because they turn it off for performance reasons in certain areas when they are already overbudget.

 

These might help:
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsendmtjfk.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsend9sjfn.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsendmrjt9.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsend5vjik.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsend9ukzo.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsend44jb9.jpg
https://abload.de/img/uncharted4_athiefsendylkzr.jpg

It's definitely a screen space technique and it doesn't work with bounce lighting, it's also off in some intensive areas like you said

 

Alright, this is probably post worthy. The iris of the eyes appears to have translucent properties (like it should), the skin also has some nice specular highlights to it, cubemap reflection of the surrounding environment as well






the full 4k .png files in links
https://abload.de/img/1g6kmd.png
https://abload.de/img/29fk91.png
https://abload.de/img/3yrjmr.png
https://abload.de/img/4pqkaf.png

 

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/vfx/cg-actors-logan-never-knew-149013.html

I feel that the next generation could get very close

 

The CG render has better shadows than real life, nice

 

Seeing that Hugh Jackman model on the same page with in-game renders is very humbling. Love it!

 

They should not go too realistic too soon; in film photorealistic renders of actors have existed long before, it is the animation which usually breaks apart the illusion. Movies often have higher 'cgi' budgets as well as more data for render motion capture vs realtime cutscenes.
The character from Zero Dawn probably still looks 'good' when she talks, even if the lip sync is slightly off. With Hugh Jackman, if the motion and animation is even less than perfect, it could end up looking 'faker' and less believable than Zero Dawn or my favourite, Quantum Break.

 

This! I think we've reached a point where we can recreate humans digitally up to an acceptable enough level but animation tech is still lacking behind. The more you approach reality the easier it is to notice all the little details that went wrong in animation.

 

Back to video games, I like how small variations in lighting can change how the skin and eyes look in Horizon. Whatever they ended up using for skin subsurface looks quite convincing imo (even if a bit stylized)

 

How do other characters look in comparison at the same distance. From my point of view it is not enough to have a handful of characters who look very good to say that a game has very good characters. There should already be at least 20. Better would be over 50 characters with such a quality in a game or best all characters have about a similar quality. Even random NPCs.

 

Hard to say, I'll have to keep taking screenshots of different NPCs but in general I find the level of detail spread nicely across many models. This NPC for example:


Looks very detailed. Aloy is probably still the best of the lot but I don't think there's a huge disparity.

 

Compared to other current open world games Horizon has definitely better looking characters. Nevertheless pictures of other characters would be appreciated.