Accurate Human Rendering in Game [2017]

[Dictator]

Textures and shaders. I think that they aim for realistic visuals, but their model looks like what you get from a standard video game.

I guess I am confused about what a "standard video game" looks like. What do the multiplayer character models look like in other games? Or what is wrong with the skin shading exactly? Or skin textures for that matter?

Actually, your last pic remind me the Dishonored 2 engine.

Void engine? I think that is just because of lighting colour, otherwise SC is definitely not at all going for the painterly textured look or the cartoon proportions that dishonored is known for, which is not about engine or technical considerations... mainly just art direction.

And if you want to know what are my references, then i imagine a realistic face looking like that :

If you don't aim for strict realism, then that's what i call a good job :

But i don't know, maybe that my standards are too high for SC since it's a PC exclusive (but the black guy is good enough for me).

So what exactly makes the bottom image not an attempt at strict realism? It seems to be a scan of someone's face, just like the off-line render above it, but just happens to be within the restraints real-time rendering in terms of shader complexity and morphology. Do you say that because she has a fictional headdress on? I do not think it is going for some sort of off-realism as per Dishonored 2, for example.

 

[ultragpu]

SC models look very underwhelming, bad art direction or the flat lighting of the engine? Have to say the texture work, shaders, hairs and general model density look more impressive on the Horizon models and they are real time to boot. Just imagine GG targeting a 6-9 tf gpu..

 

[Jupiter]

Game does not have a flat lighting nor low quality characters:

But i'm expecting something like that in the final game for the single player mode :

Thats a Tier 3 character (lowest quality).

 

[Dictator]

SC models look very underwhelming, bad art direction or the flat lighting of the engine?

"Flat lighting"? Do you mean like "even TV lighting"? AKA the way sets on television shows were lit in the late 80s and 90s?

Given the two tonal lights from left and right of the model's face, and the general dingey atmosphere, I think its lighting direction in that bar is more in common with modern contrast /complementary based lighting that you find in 2000 and upward movies and shows.

 

[ultragpu]

Looks petty flat in the first shot with the dude's face, the rest are better but nothing impressive. I don't care what you assume those techniques are used in SC but compared to something like Horizon, SC's models just don't shine, the textured beard and eyebrows are not helping either.

With the amount of budget and processing power freedom SC has I expect it to blow away Horzion's models but it's really not. Lighting, art, hair and textures are the main difference here.

 

[Dictator]

Shots from cutscenes in HZD

As I mentioned in the post, the images of the NPC "Miles Eckart" are not from a cutscene. The shots are merely in gameplay, either I having just swung the free rotating third person camera to look at the character or using the zoom function that the first person view has.

Then your point of reference from which you make your comparative deduction is from cut scenes in HZD; that seems like an odd point of analogous comparison given the difference in control afforded to lighting artists. Why not use like-for-like of NPCs in the lighting conditions / shading and model geometry that they have outside of cutscenes?

I don't care what you assume those techniques are used in SC...

That is IMO a pretty strange opinion to have on B3D, of all places. It also seems overly condescending toward my posting and my knowledge base.

 

[chris1515]

SC shot is good for a random NPC... They have constraint too... After the HZD style is not photorealistic... You can say photorealistic is boring it is just subjective...

 

[chris1515]

As I mentioned in the post, the images of the NPC "Miles Eckart" are not from a cutscene. The shots are merely in gameplay, either I having just swung the free rotating third person camera to look at the character or using the zoom function that the first person view has.

Then your point of reference from which you make your comparative deduction is from cut scenes in HZD; that seems like an odd point of analogous comparison given the difference in control afforded to lighting artists. Why not use like-for-like of NPCs in the lighting conditions / shading and model geometry that they have outside of cutscenes?


That is IMO a pretty strange opinion to have on B3D, of all places. It also seems overly condescending toward my posting and my knowledge base.

NPC quality in HZD is very good but they outsource nearly all the artistic work. They mostly have concept artist in Guerrilla games. It is not a problem of power but of resources and they probably have less NPC on HZD than Star Citizen. You can't talk with this NPC if I remember well you can see closeup of him using the photomode

EDIT:
outsourcing in Guerrilla games
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023158/Art-Direction-Bootcamp-Guerrilla-Games


After in HZD the lighting is not realistic, they only use spectacular lighting set no boring lighting. They told it into a digitalfoundry article...

 

[Recop]

I am actually not sure if that supersampled lightboxed image above is the same quality model as the in game one in HZD. His ears are perfectly round in the super sampled light boxed image, yet in game, have hard edges

It's the same model. Edges are more apparent on certain angles.

I guess I am confused about what a "standard video game" looks like.

Something that looks a lot like a video game. I'm not sure about the right word, but i think it's "gamey".

Or what is wrong with the skin shading exactly? Or skin textures for that matter?

It's wrong because the textures/shaders look muddy and flat. I mean, don't you make the difference between the black guy and your pics ?

Also, his beard and hair are poorly rendered.

Honestly, your last pic is decent but your first ones are really average.

So what exactly makes the bottom image not an attempt at strict realism?

Because the final result looks stylized to me, a bit like in Uncharted.

Then your point of reference from which you make your comparative deduction is from cut scenes in HZD; that seems like an odd point of analogous comparison given the difference in control afforded to lighting artists. Why not use like-for-like of NPCs in the lighting conditions / shading and model geometry that they have outside of cutscenes?

NPC in-game, no cutscene :

 

[Recop]

Thats a Tier 3 character (lowest quality).

Still the best model i've seen in SC...

 

[Recop]

NPC in-game, no cutscene

Real time cutscene for comparison :

 

[Jupiter]

Gameplay animation in motion with high enough framerate.

After in HZD the lighting is not realistic, they only use spectacular lighting set no boring lighting. They told it into a digitalfoundry article...

Is this what some describe as hyperrealistic?

 

[ultragpu]

As I mentioned in the post, the images of the NPC "Miles Eckart" are not from a cutscene. The shots are merely in gameplay, either I having just swung the free rotating third person camera to look at the character or using the zoom function that the first person view has.

Then your point of reference from which you make your comparative deduction is from cut scenes in HZD; that seems like an odd point of analogous comparison given the difference in control afforded to lighting artists. Why not use like-for-like of NPCs in the lighting conditions / shading and model geometry that they have outside of cutscenes?


That is IMO a pretty strange opinion to have on B3D, of all places. It also seems overly condescending toward my posting and my knowledge base.

Oh I'm sorry I didn't know we are strictly comparing in game models, but my point still stands if that's the case, here's a few.

But yeah I don't mean to undermine your knowledge base, just pointing out how the end result does not impress in relation to its technical foundation that's all. Sorry if I worded in any offensive way.

 

[chris1515]

Gameplay animation in motion with high enough framerate.



Is this what some describe as hyperrealistic?

Yes they tune the lighting to keep only lighting looking good every realistic lighting condition looking boring are out of the scope...

 

[chris1515]

Watching the realtime Last of us 2 cutscene, I think rendering and animating acurately humans is not a question of power but mostly of budget(performance capture) and animator talent...

 

[Recop]

Gameplay animation in motion with high enough framerate.

It definitely looks better in motion. Facial animation is good, much better than in Horizon.

 

[chris1515]

https://kotaku.com/horizon-zero-dawn-looks-unnaturally-good-because-of-hyp-1793570455

explained to Kotaku that the studio spent many hours watching BBC nature documentaries, which allowed Guerrilla Games to lay out a conceptual framework for Horizon’s visuals.


“It’s a quality that isn’t actually completely photorealistic,” Beek said. “It’s a form of hyper-realism that we started calling ‘BBC-realism.’ It’s all shot in perfect condition, at the perfect time of day, with exactly the right dramatic light angle, cloudscapes and weather. There is a lot of cinematic grading to add contrast, atmosphere and saturation to the screen. It’s a film process that takes weeks to find those conditions and film a 10 second snippet.”

The lighting is not only controlled during the cutscene in HZD

“But it was not a matter of turning the beauty to 11. It was a matter of removing anything less than a 9.5 on the epic nature scale. It’s not a ‘reality’ simulation, it’s all very controlled. If we like a certain amount of fog at a particular time-of-day because of the nice lighting effect it gave, we simply set it up so that amount of fog was the ONLY amount of fog ever allowed at that time of day. If we only liked a certain amount of snowfall, then that would be the only amount of snowfall ever allowed.”

 

[Jupiter]

Interesting to know. This has advantages and disadvantages.

It definitely looks better in motion. Facial animation is good, much better than in Horizon.

I think that it is so detailed that even the lip movements could be read.

Would be better in 60fps too.

 

[DieH@rd]

1st Death Stranding teaser, unknown engine [most likely Sucker Punch's]

Then Kojima unveiled Decima engine with Mads reveal teaser

And now Norman in Decima:

 

[Recop]

The face was better in the previous trailer (better textures and shaders) but it's impossible to blame the Decima engine because we don't know on which hardware was running the first trailer. Also, it could be a classical downgrade that has nothing to do with the new engine.