L.A. Noire from Rockstar

Yes, the facial animation is simply unprecedented, very very good job there!

It looks like they've done a complete capture for color and normal maps for a lot of facial expressions, maybe even for all the spoken lines. Kinda like they project a video and a normal map of someone talking onto the geometry.


Unfortunately the skin shading is nonexistent (color map, normal map and a simple Phong highlight, seems like not even a specular intensity or specular color map)
And the lighting is simply terrible, looks like 80% constant ambient and 20% for a single directional light. There doesn't seem to be any shadows at all, not even when someone's inside a room or a car or stands under a street light.

Edit: I think it's the hardware that's not enough for the entire tech and a good quality renderer, so maybe we'll see something truly awesome on the next gen consoles from this facial capture system.
 
Looks like they're going for LA confidential the game. Oh and god some of that voice acting was terrible... And yeah I agree the lighting looks kind of flat even with ssao.
 
And what about the rest of my opinion? :)

Seriously, I can't understand this imbalance in their features, all the extra effort spent on the facial system is almost completely negated by the lack of attention for other visual elements...
 
The lip syncing is superb! Best real-time virtual acting I've ever seen by a long chalk. Do we know if this is hard-baked from the English capture, or can they use alternative soundtracks and match up to those? Would be truly awesome if they could. Or if it is more dynamic and can be influence by the player, such as the player affecting an optional change of mood in an NPC.

As for the rest, my first impression was that they were going for a stylised look. Admittedly if they are, it's a very muted style! In the opening sections of the vid I felt the flat lighting was deliberate, although I was less comfortable with this opinion in later clips.
 
Even if the graphics, in general, aren't the best around, but the facial animation is amazing. Considering the way they're advertising the game, where you interview people and have to read their face for clues about whether they're lying, hiding something, uncomfortable with questioning or whatever, it looks like they might actually deliver! That's something new, and something I can get excited about.
 
Yes, it's one of those rare 'next-gen' techs that could be defining a gameplay, rather than just looking pretty.
 
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:runaway:
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Yes, it's one of those rare 'next-gen' techs that could be defining a gameplay, rather than just looking pretty.
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I imagine we're at a point where there are so many good ideas, regarding tech and graphics, that coming up with new complex tech will start demanding that others things we've become used to will have to be left out. As long as it defines the gameplay, as you've said, I'm cool with that. I'd rather lose some eye candy and gain some new tech that opens new gameplay opportunities.
 
xatnys said:
Is this confirmed to be facial capture then?
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"Facial capture" is a very loose tem, there could be dozens or even hundreds of very different technologies that we could call like that.

They're supposedly using their own method that involves light stages, high res digital cameras and lots of custom software to reconstruct geometry and textures.
www.debevec.org is a good start if you're interested...
 
So more like 3D motion scanning, with some interpolation system (delta animation?) to get final data structures that'll fit into these consoles and on a DVD.
 
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