54 réponses à ce sujet

[ScooterPie88]

I understand why ME uses in game engine cutscenes.  It's the only way to put in a customized Shep and squadmate armor appearance.  Still I liked the live action scenes (the trailers, landing on Illium, Omega, and Citadel).

The live action scenes reminded me of Dark Forces II which had probably some of the best cutscenes of any game ever (might have been low res but were content wise cinematic gold) and it was made in 1997.

Example (Dark Forces II spoilers):

[Mr. MannlyMan]

I... don't think any of the ingame cinematics were live action. Non of the trailers were.

On the other hand, Blur does tremendous CGI work, and I hope they get commissioned by Bioware again for the ME3 trailers.

Edit: the clips of the Normandy docking on Illium/Omega are so low-res, though, especially on an HDTV.

Modifié par Mr. MannlyMan, 11 novembre 2010 - 06:01 .

[Atmosfear3]

I don't think the OP understands the difference between live action and CG cutscenes.

[SSV Enterprise]

"Live Action" refers to the filming of actual, physical objects. Mass Effect has no "live action". Everything in it is either rendered in-engine or animated separately through CGI.



The scenes from Dark Forces II, however, are actually live-action with real life actors.

[Fancando]

Like in the old FMV games? They cycled out for a good reason, they were too expensive and only a few of them made their cost back. Besides CG can look more real than real with the new rendering methods.

[the3rdbiscuit]

As said before, live action means real actors, real cameras, microphones etc. Most films are live action. Mass Effect 2 uses pre-rendered and CG cutscenes.

In ME2 landing on a planet just triggers a (fairly low res) video of the Normandy docking. The game engine isn't handling that at all, it's just a pre-made video there for immersion.

Most cutscenes in the original Mass Effect used on-the-fly rendering, similar to GTA IV and other games, which allows continuity to be kept as characters will be wearing the right clothes etc. (bar one notable error on Virmire).

[mattylee10]

the3rdbiscuit wrote...
Most cutscenes in the original Mass Effect used on-the-fly rendering, similar to GTA IV and other games, which allows continuity to be kept as characters will be wearing the right clothes etc. (bar one notable error on Virmire).

Continuity?  I've lost track of the amount of times Shepard has used a gun in a cutscene which he shouldn't have acess to (especially that damn magical avenger:pinched:)

[RinpocheSchnozberry]

Live action came and went for a reason. I'd rather see them spend their money on in engine cinematics that they can control to a much much greater degree.

[the3rdbiscuit]

mattylee10 wrote...

the3rdbiscuit wrote...
Most cutscenes in the original Mass Effect used on-the-fly rendering, similar to GTA IV and other games, which allows continuity to be kept as characters will be wearing the right clothes etc. (bar one notable error on Virmire).

Continuity?  I've lost track of the amount of times Shepard has used a gun in a cutscene which he shouldn't have acess to (especially that damn magical avenger:pinched:)

Yes, mistakes are often made in the cutscenes of Mass Effect, especially with weapons, but those are errors on the part of the programmers. The on-the-fly rendering concept allows for continuity, as many other games have shown. BioWare are lagging behind Rockstar and other developers in this area.

RinpocheSchnozberry wrote...

Live action came and went for
a reason. I'd rather see them spend their money on in engine
cinematics that they can control to a much much greater degree.

BioWare have complete control over their in-engine cinematics. They can make anything than the engine can do be done and replicate that in videos or cutscenes.

For many cutscenes, which are pre-rendered, they don't even have to be limited to doing it in-engine as any 3D animation software could easily produce the same or better results.

Modifié par the3rdbiscuit, 11 novembre 2010 - 05:37 .

[ScooterPie88]

Yes I understand the difference. I said live action when I meant seperate from game engine. The Shepard, Jack, Miranda, Grunt, Thane, and Mordin trailers had that imitation live action look to them. I know Dark Forces II isn't true "live action" it is just really really good imitation. Same with the ME2 trailers I mentioned and the Illium, Citadel, Omega landing sequences. Clearly those weren't actually filmed but the CG was good enough to make it seem like it was. I suppose what I should have originally said would be that I want to see more cutscenes of that quality instead of game engine ones.

[Inquisitor Recon]

As much as I miss the 1990s days of live action cut-scenes, I think they deserve to stay in the past.

[the3rdbiscuit]

ScooterPie88 wrote...

Yes I understand the difference. I said live action when I meant seperate from game engine. The Shepard, Jack, Miranda, Grunt, Thane, and Mordin trailers had that imitation live action look to them. I know Dark Forces II isn't true "live action" it is just really really good imitation. Same with the ME2 trailers I mentioned and the Illium, Citadel, Omega landing sequences. Clearly those weren't actually filmed but the CG was good enough to make it seem like it was. I suppose what I should have originally said would be that I want to see more cutscenes of that quality instead of game engine ones.

The trouble with that is it can draw the player out of the experience. If you're used to seeing your Shepard and the other characters the way they are in game and then they're suddenly super realistic for cutscenes it can be a somewhat jarring difference.

The character trailers demontrate this. The talking head portions are obviously CGI, whereas the rest is obviously in-game. It looks wrong putting them together.

By the way, the cutscenes in Dark Forces II were live action - insomuch as they used real actors - the spaceships and whatnot obviously weren't real.

Modifié par the3rdbiscuit, 11 novembre 2010 - 05:48 .

[ScooterPie88]

I was unsure about Dark Forces II thanks for clearing it up. I understand why they can't do it in ME since people use custom characters and different armor and what not. Still liked the trailers though and wish they would do more of them. (Though since they did ones for both ME1&2 they will likely do it for 3). (Distress Call trailer in ME1, interview trailers in ME2)

[RocShemp]

 the clips of the Normandy docking on Illium/Omega are so low-res, though, especially on an HDTV.

There are plenty of clips like that throughout the whole game.  Bugged the crap outta me because the game looked so beautiful by comparison, even at a modest 1920 x 1080 (I game on my 52" HDTV so that's the best I can do).  I much preffered how all the little cutscenes were generated realtime in ME1 as opposed to pre-recorded in ME2.

[Sursion]

I hope the Mass Effect movie is done by Blur in CGI.

[Kat313]

yeah a ME movie done in that spectacular CGI they did for the ME2 promo interviews would actually make me not hate the idea of a ME movie.

[SSV Enterprise]

RocShemp wrote...

 the clips of the Normandy docking on Illium/Omega are so low-res, though, especially on an HDTV.

There are plenty of clips like that throughout the whole game.  Bugged the crap outta me because the game looked so beautiful by comparison, even at a modest 1920 x 1080 (I game on my 52" HDTV so that's the best I can do).  I much preffered how all the little cutscenes were generated realtime in ME1 as opposed to pre-recorded in ME2.

Pop-in and low frame rates would invade the Normandy takeoff scenes in ME1 because of that.  I don't think the 360 version of ME2 had this resolution problem.

[Skilled Seeker]

No to live action, completely ruins the immersion for me. And no to CGI cutscenes as well, on my PC the CGI cutscenes look worse than the ingame stuff because they are made for 360 and horrible low res.

[uzivatel]

Live action trailer could be good. Provided it would be something like, say, Deliver Hope.

[the3rdbiscuit]

I would imagine the comparatively poor quality of the videos is down to either disc space or streaming bandwidth. Higher end computers could handle better but lower spec PCs would struggle, as would the 360.

It seems a slightly strange choice to go for low res CG cutscenes rather than better alternatives, but I would assume BioWare had good enough reasons for doing so.

[spacehamsterZH]

I actually hate these trailers with the more detailed character models, especially the Mass Effect ones. With the trailers created for DA:O, at least the characters genuinely look better than in the game (but then again, that creates this wistful feeling of "why can't Morrigan REALLY look like that"), but I actually always thought the ME ones looked off to the point where they're creepy.

[Skilled Seeker]

Bennyjammin79 wrote...

Skilled Seeker wrote...

No to live action, completely ruins the immersion for me. And no to CGI cutscenes as well, on my PC the CGI cutscenes look worse than the ingame stuff because they are made for 360 and horrible low res.

They're not any better on the 360 either. All arounfd they need to be sharpened up.

That is pretty poor quality control then. I agree they need anti aliasing and a higher resolution.

Modifié par Skilled Seeker, 12 novembre 2010 - 06:12 .

[Skilled Seeker]

spacehamsterZH wrote...

I actually hate these trailers with the more detailed character models, especially the Mass Effect ones. With the trailers created for DA:O, at least the characters genuinely look better than in the game (but then again, that creates this wistful feeling of "why can't Morrigan REALLY look like that"), but I actually always thought the ME ones looked off to the point where they're creepy.

Nah I loved the CGI trailers. The characters looked so lifelike especially Jack. Awesome.