Thoughts on Assassin chainmail rendering technique

[Shifty Geezer]

This topic appeared in the Games forum but I think it deserves consideration as a thread. Here's the only pic offered for the game Assassin on PS3...

The question arises what techniques could be used to get that realistic chainmail (assuming it's not an offline render, and second guessing that it's as good in motion as it looks in that still), particularly the mail hood?

I can think of maybe two solutions. One is a procedurally generated normal map where the rings positioned are calculated and rendered onto a cloth-simulated mesh, passed as a texture to RSX. The other is the use of the Cell for raytracing CSG tori. As a simple primitive it should fit comfortably into a stream based collision and rendering system without constant memory accesses - ideally suited for SPEs. Looking at the shadow a raycasting system might also be easier for shadowing.

Any other theories?

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Just a clarifcation, so as not to anger anyone, but I think it's also coming to the 360.

As to the chainmail on the head... the body seems doable... everyone talked about that in the previous thread... I was wondering if it was done similarily to the way hair is done. Several "strips" of whatever maps the chainmail is designed with layered over eachother and then given some sort of cloth physics. Crude description at best, but I'm sure you get what I'm thinking.

By the way, do we know the chainmail animates? Looking at where it meets the body, it's not exactly resting on it. Looks static.

 

[SenatorMonkey]

Here's a video that includes footage of the above shot. Looks like there's 'some' realtime footage in here, but most is CG (as in, there's smooth sections that look amazing, and then a pretty nifty section of about 3-5 seconds that is much lower framerate).

http://www.1up.com/do/download?cId=3143792

 

[Guden Oden]

The mail around the back of the helmet is clearly individual rings, and the stuff on the character's back and shoulders are clearly plain old texturemapped polygons. I've no idea how realistically the individual rings move - if at all - but even if it was done somewhat cheaply with rings clipping through each other slightly as they move, would anyone really care? We've never had chainmail done with this level of detail before, even though it's not covering even a major part of the character. It's still a huge step up in visual quality.

 

[Npl]

From the few frames in the Movie showing the Chainmail, I could not spot individual movement of rings. When the guy moves his head you can spot Rings getting distorted (strechted).
Its just a polygon-cloth( maybe 2 which seem to partially overlap around 'nose-height') with nice textures/shaders IMHO.

 

[therealskywolf]

That's CG. Check the Teaser, it has like 3 sec of In Game, and you can se a world of difference between it and the rest wich is CG.

 

[Titanio]

That's CG. Check the Teaser, it has like 3 sec of In Game, and you can se a world of difference between it and the rest wich is CG.

Is there a teaser movie up somewhere? I can't see it on IGN or GS, would love to!

 

[slider]

Check the link in Senator's post. Only a very short clip & with a second of actual "chainmail animation" (TM).

 

[mckmas8808]

That's CG. Check the Teaser, it has like 3 sec of In Game, and you can se a world of difference between it and the rest wich is CG.

And that 3 seconds looked great too.

 

[Titanio]

Check the link in Senator's post. Only a very short clip & with a second of actual "chainmail animation" (TM).

Doh, that shows me for not fully reading the thread. Thanks!

 

[therealskywolf]

And that 3 seconds looked great too.

They looked good. Nothing special imo.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Just a clarifcation, so as not to anger anyone, but I think it's also coming to the 360.

IGN doesn't list it for XB360 though does for PS3, and the file linked to by senatormonkey also lists it as PS3.

By the way, do we know the chainmail animates? Looking at where it meets the body, it's not exactly resting on it. Looks static.

Having watched the clip, in glories hypercontrast-o-ramavision shakycam , it's unclear what's CG and whats prerendered and what's film footage! What's there, if realtime, is danged impressive. The chains on the helm definitely move as the head is turn, specifically around the neck. The quality of footage is too bad to determine 'it's CG as there's in game footage and it's much inferior', same as all shakycam footage. Neither could I see any ring distortion as Npl suggested. Of course the rings are only seen moving for a fraction of a second so it's hard to say either way.

 

[Powderkeg]

Just a clarifcation, so as not to anger anyone, but I think it's also coming to the 360.

I think you are mistaking this for the "Assassin" (Also known as Ruby) ATI tech demo shown on the 360.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

DANG IT!

THat's the second time I fell for that. Thanks Powderkeg.

I'm such a dunce.