Next-gen character modelling (GDC 2013)

[babcat]

Combine these talking heads with a non stylized Crysis Three and we would be darn close to photorealism.....

 

[Bagel seed]

Porn games industry may see a real breakthrough..

Also, with Kinect or PSEye scanning everyone we might see some fairly realistic VR avatar experiences.

 

[ArcticCircle]

Amazing and absolute creepy at the same time. We're near that Northen Express (animated Tom Hanks movie) tipping point of uncanny valley. It'll take some time to climb back up from there, but we'll make it in... probably in next ten years.

I'm looking forward to all the zombie, paranormal and phycological thriller games in next gen.

 

[dagamer]

Amazing and absolute creepy at the same time. We're near that Northen Express (animated Tom Hanks movie) tipping point of uncanny valley. It'll take some time to climb back up from there, but we'll make it in... probably in next ten years.

I'm looking forward to all the zombie, paranormal and phycological thriller games in next gen.

Hopefully not every game is going to be some gritty brown trench warfare shooter. Playing BioShock Infinite made me have a love affair with color in an FPS.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

74 fps on a 560 TI at 1080p. We are going to have really nice quality talking heads next gen.

Because capturing dozens of actors and processing terrabytes of data has absolutely no cost and every studio will be able to afford it.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

We're near that Northen Express (animated Tom Hanks movie) tipping point of uncanny valley.

This is already way way better than Polar Express. Maybe you should watch it again

 

[Bagel seed]

Because capturing dozens of actors and processing terrabytes of data has absolutely no cost and every studio will be able to afford it.

Regardless, we'll still see these heads though, be it confined to AAAA games only or not.

Any insight into how much a full capture like this would cost? I wonder if a new business opportunity is emerging here. Selling capture data of actors.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

There already are studios specializing in scanning services.
The "full body" system (basically 8 scanners based on projecting structured light) we've looked at requires about $100K, but it doesn't have enough resolution for skin details. That works better with photogrammetry based approaches, requiring a LOT of DLSR cameras.

A lightstage is even more expensive but there are some in both the US and the UK, too.

 

[Bagel seed]

I figured that but I thought maybe through this new tech we'd see the actual performance data being bought and sold like you could buy premodeled everyday assets or something, rather than small studios having to rent the studio and employ actors for capturing.

Maybe I misunderstand this face tech but I think it captures all the range of emotions anyone could ever emote and then a designer/programmer could create whatever performance to his heart's content..

 

[Ethatron]

You mean so that games look even more alike by using the same assets?
If you want a distinctive look, you have to pay, in work-hours. Entertainment productions start to top the work-hours put into big medieval cathedrals.

 

[Bagel seed]

Well obviously yes, you want to be distinct you need to put in the work. But I'd hope going forward (10+ years) this kind of tech can be democratized for all. Maybe with enough source material it'll work out.

Ever watch that movie S1m0ne with Al Pacino? I'm sure we'll get there eventually, with B or C rate actors selling off their likeness to be in games. Maybe even A rates too. I don't see movies being that much greater in quality as a medium of storytelling anymore anyways.

"Hey Tommy C, my man, we got this great new sci-fi video game in the works, wanna be in it?" "Ok". Bam he's in.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I personally still prefer hand-made assets, with a distinct art style, like the characters in Last of Us...

 

[Bagel seed]

Jimenez GDC tech presentation in depth

Magic happens at 8:00

 

[Cjail]

I personally still prefer hand-made assets, with a distinct art style, like the characters in Last of Us...

I am with you on this.

 

[eloic]

Jimenez GDC tech presentation in depth

Magic happens at 8:00

Yeah, very nice, but honestly, I'm tired of seeing that guy (the last one): I hate his facial expressions, what he does with his eyes, eyebrows and mouth. Seeing the same expressions again and again... Heck, I would punch him in the face! Am I the only one?

I also hate these kinds of demonstrations, because employing all your computer resources to render one face =/= how games will look in a near future... unless a game consists of showing only a face and nothing more.

EDIT: Agni's Philosophy, on the contrary, showed whole characters and environments as well. That impresses me more, even though faces lack detail in comparison to these faces.

 

[Bagel seed]

These faces run at 70+ fps at 1080p on only a 560 TI though. So it isn't using a ton of system power at all. In one or two years consoles and most PCs shouldn't have any trouble running them at qualities close to what we've seen so far.

Only the best quality heads would ever be used in close ups, like in cutscene with two characters in a dialogue. Not exactly a special case with cinematic games. And LOD would take care of the rest in other situations. We'll see it used.

 

[almighty]

It's a bit different having a single head on screen and having to render the same head in an actual game with a shit load of other stuff on the screen with it.

Sony showed a similar tech demo for PS2 and aside from the odd game ( Silent Hill 3 comes to mind ) not a single game in the machines life came close to matching it.

 

[Bagel seed]

Yup SH3 came to mind. But that's the whole point of these heads, to use them in close ups. So to say they won't be representative of the graphics of all games all the time.. well duh They'll be used when appropriate, like in a cutscene, or in games with a more controlled or limited setting, like Heavy Rain or future Quantic Dream stuff no doubt.

 

[eloic]

It's a bit different having a single head on screen and having to render the same head in an actual game with a shit load of other stuff on the screen with it.

Sony showed a similar tech demo for PS2 and aside from the odd game ( Silent Hill 3 comes to mind ) not a single game in the machines life came close to matching it.

That's exactly my point.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

The shader isn't really that complex or expensive, and as others have already mentioned the demo runs very fast on not exactly top notch hardware already. Which is why Activision instantly hired this Jorge guy who had absolutely nothing else in his CV - but he did write and probably own this shader.

This is one of the best examples of production ready tech and it will appear in games in this console generation (even if not necessarily with scanned heads). Count on it.