This looks incredible and is the future of mocap in our industry looks soo good and offers unlimited potential for immersion.
Plus a new rock star game must own!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/17/l-a- ... emonstrat/ (original article)



In gaming, 3D graphics get more powerful, environments get more expansive, enemies get more intelligent, but still facial animations haven't progressed much since Pac-Man chomped his first power pellet in 1980. Finally, a major breakthrough courtesy of Australian company Depth Analysis. It has developed technology called MotionScan, which enables a high-res 3D recreation of a person's face -- not just capturing bits and pieces of facial animation but their entire head, right down to the hairstyle. It's getting its first use in next year's L.A. Noire, a 1940s PS3 and Xbox 360 murder mystery game from Rockstar, and while we don't know enough about the title to be able to say whether it's worth plunking down a pre-order now, after watching the video embedded below it's clear that the bar has been raised.

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

Yeah apparently the industry was desperate to employ more animators who specialise in facial expression. I guess they wont be need them so much now haha. They're also gonna start applying CGI to actor's faces, to 'improve' their acting. I'm not so keen on that though.

This is actually quite cool. Though in-game the models still don't look anything out of the ordinary... I think the major step will come with the next generation of video games when they are actually able to put models like the one displayed in real time during the capture in-game.

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

yeah i agree Lim, the only thing really letting down this mocap technology is the CGI itself. You will always need amazing 3D artists, and new CGI tech.

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

Thing is, there's a danger of this sort of thing falling into the Uncanny valley. Not sure how well used the term is, but when things get too real looking we react negatively towards them. Sort of like those pictures where they try to make Homer look like a real person, it's just creepy.

The dip is between things that show a human like quality, and things that are almost totally human looking. The stuff inbetween just creeps us out, so it interacts with us even less than something almost cartoony, because we wont be expecting things to look spot on, that were never meant to be. If that makes sense? You probably know what it mean anyway. I don't think this game will be in any danger from that actuallt, it looks great, but I just wonder at what point realism in CGI will alienate us.

If it looks exactly life like, then surely it would just feel the same way as a film? The CGI in films doesn't creep me out.

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

If it's exactly life like it doesn't fall into the valley, but if it falls short of exactly human it puts us off. It applies to robots better, but CGI also. The valley desribes the sudden dip on scattergraph results.



I mean I'm not sure what does and doesn't fall into the valley, but they've been anticipating it for years, so it might be avoidable. Even Chris Landreth I think, pioneer in CGI, had a psychorealism thing going, to stop it looking too real. His stuff is a must see if you're into CGI.

Yeah, I thought you were referring more to once the CGI is completely life-like

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

I saw this earlier and I can't believe that this is the first game this kind of technology had widely been used in. Surely there would have been at least another game using this technology? Although, that guy's zealous use of his eyebrows is very creepy....

Dude..I've been waiting for L.A. Noire since they first promised it to come out like 2 years ago.

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Breasts

Well this mocap is ESSENTIAL for THIS game, as it is required to see if characters are lying or not, normal game facial animations have always been lacking and never look great. In order to see micro expressions which demonstrate lying or not.

A good counter example is the game my company made (AVP) which had AWFUL lip syncing, it was literally flapping guns. So im all for this tech, its a great advancement for our industry. But I agree its not necessary for every game. I mean, TF2 has great facial animations without the need for mocap.

As i said before, this software relies heavily on the end 3d model as well, if the head looks crap then the animation mocap is worthless.

argh, polar express was creepy :S

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

some very good comments from Ballsy and Lim here.

I must say whilst im hugely impressed when seeing the 3d rendered heads on their own... i must say when watching the actual 'footage' of the game, something looks wrong to me....

I actually think in this instance, they have spent so much time making the face look impeccible, that im some of the shots where you see the full body (and the clothes / collar / hat etc DONT look as insanely perfect, it gives the strange effect of looking like the head has been 'stuck' on to me (if that makes any sense?)

im all for games like this though... Heavy Rain was probably my game of 2010, and im sure its realism and movie like qualities are what made it so special for me.

The only thing that makes me nervous about the original comment is the line 'PS3 and XBOX' ...

I own Consoles, but im definitely a PC Gamer first and foremost... and the increasing rate of titles being released 'Console only' really worries me for the future of my favourite format... although thats a different question for another thread i guess!

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"What are you guys talking about?"
ZombieStalin: ... God... and Porn....
"NIIIIICEEEEEE"

Yes, i agree, i am awesome

It does look weird, i admit, especially on some of the characters, and others its subtle enough to work, but thing is for this game it's a nesscary feature as the gameplay relies on you distinguishing who is lying, and with the old facial animations and mocap its a lot harder to do micro expressions which are the results of lying (Watch the tv show Lie To Me - with tim roth - it is a bloody fantastic show). And again, this tech relies heavily on final 3D model itself.

PC GAMERS FTW!

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

Doesn't Rockstar usually release a PC version of the games a little later on?

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Breasts

Not always, no. In fact, in most cases they don't.

I think they only feel obliged to do it with GTA because it originally started life as a PC game. Games like Table Tennis, The Warriors, Midnight Club and Red Dead Redemption never saw the light of day on PC though.

Ah the old GTA's. How epic was GTA3 being all 3d and shit.

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Breasts

GTA1 still holds a very special place in my heart

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

The GTA's are probably my favourite games. I think San Andreas was the best for me, you could get his haircut, give him badman clothes, and motherfucking double yield! Vice city, had the best missions though I think. The latest one, athough it's fantastic game in it's own right, they could have made it a lot more fun.

They did with the expansion packs. However GTAIV blew my mind with fun for 1 reason only; the ragdoll physics. So many times I'd bash my car into a low wall just to go flying limply

I only played GTA once, but GTA2 holds a special place in mine. However GTA3 was the first game I ever hacked by making police cars invincible and act like tanks.

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Breasts

I only ever played the old 2D ones on the PC, but yeah I do love the ragdoll physics in IV, people die real nice

Cars are on it are real fun to crash, all it needed was some of the features from San Andreas and it would of have been perfection. Plus the cheats you can get for San Andreas, are more fun, like the tank was awesome, and the jetpack etc.

IlLoved the rural area with all the crazy redneck drivers

CRYSIS 2 Anybody?

will be sick!
GTA1 was a classic, and the violence was awesome for the time, and it was just a real laugh playing LAN with my bro, and just driving around normally then suddenly seeing this massive explosion of cars and this one car smash out and start chasing me. "oh fuck" its my bro bring it!

GTA2 i had on the ps2 and like you ollie has a special place in my heart.

GTA3 - i just loved sitting on a hill and watching the world burn!

GTA: Vice City: Best Gameplay, Most intense races! (that if you fucked up for 1 second you would lose - unlike GTA4 where the AI just drive into walls and can't find their keys) Also, even though it was a massive rip off of scarface, had some great acting talent and a good story.

GTA: San Andreas: I loved the customisation stuff and the how much new stuff they added. I loved how big the world was and how much there was to do and explore. I especially loved getting in a plane, crashing into some gangland warfare or giant buildings, plus the sky diving was more fun than the "realistic" gta4 sky diving. I just hated all the gangsta crap, CJ was a shit 1 dimensional character compared to Tommy V, and Nikko. But some of the missions were sooooo long and hard too, which was good and bad ^^ depending on what attempt you were on hehe. The story was okay, but got a tad silly when we ended up in area 51 with a jetpack :S.

GTA4 - Great physics, and a cool story, with some awesome characters and moments. But... FUCK OF ROMAN! I DONT WANT TO GO FUCKING BOWLING!

Red Dead Redemption - IS bloody fantastic, and has some really fun mechanics and the cougar AI is freakishly good :\ so good infact that i spent a good 10 hours hunting the fuckers... or being hunted

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

I reckon San Andreas had the coolest missions, if not the most ridiculous. The plane mission where you chase it with a motorbike was goddam epic. GTA2 was also goddam epic with the gang warfare which was made much better since the first which, if I recall, was you and the gang vs. the cops. GTA3 did the gang part weirdly. I was just driving then all of a sudden the Yakuza were shooting me, little did I know I pissed them off by working with that other second island gang.

In terms of the characters, Niko stole my fucking heart. He was the best I had ever seen and I almost felt like crying when *spoiler* I COMPLETELY agree with you on CJ. While he had a few funny one liners I just got sick of him by the end. The last mission also annoyed me. It was just badly done...you chased some fat dickhead around a room who had a lot of health, and then apparently everything was on fire. However, that said, the world was freaking amazing and the amount of time I spent spawning Hydras and Tanks and just driving/flying could have really gained me some life skills if applied to anything else...much like Minecraft!!

Vice City though, was my favourite by a mile. I hadn't seen Scarface though, so when I finally got around to watching it (I was a youngen when VC came out) I was like "these guys ripped off GTA!!"

All in all, GTA is my ultimate gaming series. I rarely play any games except exploration games. In fact the only one I consider is Gears of War, apart from that if there isn't an open world I don't want much to do with it. GTA has done the combat, the world, the characters and the plot so consistenly well, and Red Dead Redemption is on a complete different field. The epic of epicness that it was blew my face off.

[/OllieboysOpinion]

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Breasts

Approve

The one thing the 3D GTA's were missing were the long conga lines of Elvis impersonators (even thou they had individual ones in San Andreas) and hare krishna people that you cold splatter in one fell swoop!

San Andreas did also had a great by the late Chris Penn and of course, Sam Jackson who is in everything anyway.




this crude animation makes me laugh so much

(sorry about the weird widescreen noobishness of some noob youtuber)

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

GRAND THEFT AWESOME WAS EXACTLY HOW I FELT AT EVERY MOMENT OF THAT GAME!!!

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Breasts

Vice city is a shameless rip off of Scarface, but what a great film to rip off.

Grand Theft Awesome is so true haha

Anyone know anything about the new one?

the new gta? didn't know one was in production. I fucking hope they do a GTA:Europe (not just GTA:london) because then you could do cocky gangster (lock stock/snatch style) then also drive around Italy in a mini, and maybe rip off Assassins Creed 2 with a bit of Venice action

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

What about GTA-GTA?
Grand Theft Auto-Greater Toronto Area

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Yeah the fans have been waiting for a European one, but if they make it modern day it will suck.

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Breasts

I dont know, id quite like to do some missions for some london ruuude bois! then turn up to their hangout and FUCKING MURDER THEM ALL MUAHAHAHAHAHAH

plus, i loved the street banter in GTA4 now imagine all those cocky english accents and funny dialogue hehe

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."