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[Doc Holliday]

I was looking through the godfather x360 thread and something occured to me. People are in for a rude awakening when it comes to next gen graphics. Not because I think the hardware will be weak but because I dont think devs had the pipeline or workforce to handle the upgrade.

As off now most game devs consists of low poly and low res texture artists. Mostly guys that came up from the mod scene. A lot of them are great, and a lot of them are not prepared to handle upcoming workload. I mean jesus I mean you have model high rez models for a lot of shit and paint perfect textures at high resolutions. With HD tv's these crappy art is going to become even more apparent.

People take for granted how hard a lot of this shit is to do. Not that many people can model like the Epic, Konami, and capcom guys. Get ready for a lot of crap folks!

 

[blackadde]

Pretty much, yeah. Although it's not going to be as tough as sprites -> polys by any stretch. For the first wave I expect a lot of unoptimized models.

 

[Reilly]

Haven't you seen the Killzone video?

 

[pcostabel]

Actually, there is plenty of artists that can make very detailed models. It is much harder to make a low poly model look good than to create a high res model. Infact, normal-mapped models are created at very high res and then downres'd.
The reason some next-gen games look like current gen games with more polys is because that's how they are made: by porting current gen assets instead of building the game from scratch. For the next couple of years, it will simply be not viable to create a real next-gen game: very small installed base and huge budgets mean we will see truly next-gen games only from first parties until the installed base of next-gen systems reaches ten of millions.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Of course there are going to be great games, just like this gen. But since the number of games are going to go down, the crappy games are going to be more obvious. I tell you one thing, talended artists are going to be happy. Their stock is going to go up big time next gen. At least thats what im hoping for

 

[sprsk]

well yes.

also an extreme lack of imagination puts sets these guys back a little as well.

also wouldnt it be a better idea to model the people as they are regular then adjust them to how they act in the movie instead of just copying what they look like in the movie sometimes?(talkin bout godfather)

it would probably look alot more authentic if it was a model of a human playing the part instead of a model of the character itself. maybe the next step for digital acting is to give actors control of the animation.

im not gonna rewrite that so if you dont understand what i just said, i cant concentrate today

 

[element]

Not because I think the hardware will be weak but because I dont think devs had the pipeline or workforce to handle the upgrade.

well The Godfather has the workforce, they just don't have the art direction.

Mostly guys that came up from the mod scene.

Not really.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Content creation tools haven't progressed at the same speed as technology. Creating the content, even with a top staff is going to be difficult.

But in the end, it will become more apparent of who has talent and who doesn't.

I was going to say the same thing as pcostabel did about high res models being easier then low res. I know tons of artists who love working on things like cinematics, because there are almost no limits. Many artist are really looking forward to next-gen because they can have a body texture map larger then 128x128 or can use more then 'x' amount of polys in a character.

 

[sprsk]

well yes.

also an extreme lack of imagination puts sets these guys back a little as well.

also wouldnt it be a better idea to model the people as they are regular then adjust them to how they act in the movie instead of just copying what they look like in the movie sometimes?(talkin bout godfather)

it would probably look alot more authentic if it was a model of a human playing the part instead of a model of the character itself. maybe the next step for digital acting is to give actors control of the animation.

im not gonna rewrite that so if you dont understand what i just said, i cant concentrate today

oh god, you should go take a nap or something

 

[Kleegamefan]

element/O2....has your X360 game been shown yet??

 

[Doc Holliday]

Pcost you're 100% correct about high rez models being easier than low rez, but they take a shit load more time to make. Also high rez models are easier if you already know what you're doing. I mean you could find a a lot more low poly modelers that can do decent job with proper art direction than you can a high rez modeler with a great eye.

 

[element]

element/O2....has your X360 game been shown yet??

I'm not working on X360 right now But I'm still very involved with it. Perhaps I'll move back to it in the future.

 

[Warm Machine]

Z-Brush is going to be the tool of choice for character modelling in the future. Quickest method to bang out high poly stuff.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Indeed, i was playing around with Z-brush the other day....WOW! As easy as it gets right now if you're a tradiotional art type person. It's like virtual clay. You still need other apps tho to get a nice clean mesh unless you want to mess around with Z-spheres. They seem a little weird right now.

 

[KingJ2002]

Yea... i know that about 70 percent of the titles that will hit next gen are going to average or suck hard. Japanese / European developers will shine next gen and (side note: i also expect many mergers).

I truthfully want to see the next step in cel shading and things of that nature. Cel shaded characters are normally low poly... so imagining a high poly cel shaded world using todays new techniques... i know true art in gaming will shine.

I also would like to see the next ste in 2D games... these games are higher resolutions and better animation is a dream... but it probably wont happen because only companies like SNK still persue 2D development and they are paupers compared to other companies so i expect more rehashing of sprites and many of them to use that high res filtering technique like in rebout.

either way... my prediction of the art direction of next gen will probably go like this.

1 - 2nd gen - Push for realism (with in the second gen they will hit the true "CG" level through new normal mapping techniques)

3 and on - more games using different design techniques to seperate themselves from the sea of realistic fps and sports titles. Games that look like Killer 7, JSRF, etc... will come out more often.

Many companies go under or merge with bigger companies because they cant keep up with the new standard.