Uncharted 4 Dev Flaunts New Milestone in Face Animation

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/uncharted-4-dev-flaunts-new-milestone-in-face-anim/1100-6427293/

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End developer Naughty Dog has discussed the improvements made to its facial animation systems since Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us, saying that face models now animate with "between 300 and 500 bones."

In an interview with GamesTM , writer Josh Scherr contextualised the improvements by comparing them to previous Uncharted games and The Last of Us, which he said used "about 90 and 100 'bones' in their faces."

"We've completely revamped our facial animation systems," he said. "Think about that, how detailed Joel and Elli's pained facial expressions were, how well the game captured the respective actors ... Now, the faces have anywhere between 300 and 500 bones."

"[This] lets us emote more, with all the 'bones' we can put onto [faces] - you pan round the camera to look at Nate's face when he's climbing and you see him grimacing and all this kind of stuff ... we're pushing detail on a macro and micro level that I think people are really going to respond to," added lead designer Ricky Cambier.

Unlike previous Naughty Dog titles, for which "some of the animations might have been sample at 10 or 15 frames per second to save memory," which code would then interpolate to run at 30 frames per second in-game, the new tech can "afford to record [animations] at 30 frames per second so that [they] look that much smoother."

Speaking about the visual fidelity of other PS4 exclusives, Cambier said Killzone: Shadow Fall was "pretty damn impressive looking for a launch title," while The Order: 1886 is "one of the best looking games [he's] seen on any system ever," but says developers are still in early days with Sony's latest console.

"If you look at the first Uncharted and how that looked versus how The Last of Us looked ... I have difficulty fathoming that we'll have that kind of graphical leap in the next several years. The reality is, we probably will as we learn the systems better, so it's all up from here, and that's exciting."

Naughty Dog has said it is targeting 60fps for Uncharted 4, but the studio won't push the PlayStation 4game that far if it compromises the overall experience. According to director Bruce Straley, the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Gameplay Demo was locked at 30fps, though the game is now achieving a higher frame rate.

In March, Sony delayed the Uncharted 4 release date until Spring 2016. Take a look below for a gallery of up-close shots of Uncharted 4's characters.

Gallery

This is good stuff, SW. Naughty Dog always pushing the envelope with their games. Uncharted 4 making out to be one of the most stunning games ever. How many games work on this level of detail in their characters?

Yay! At least drakes face will be pretty as we look at his back during all the mediocre gunplay, QTE's, super linear levels, and terrible "puzzles". :D

@inb4uall: I disagree.

Almost makes me forget about the fact that it is not coming this year.

@davem1992 I can see why you would disagree. I must admit it's really not much to get excited about. But the burning passion that fills my heart and loins for Sony and Naughty Dog helps me remain in denial of all the obvious reasons that Uncharted is a rubbish game series.

you confused the threads, this is about uncharted not the gears of war remaster mr random.

@Krelian-co: At least Gears has good gunplay.

No, I'm positive I have the right thread sony drone #612. You might want to go back to primary school and work on your reading comprehension however.

That smile form Drake is fuckign creepy. I'd love to see it in game.

Star Citizen

And Gears of War doesn't have QTEs.

it is ok mr random, no need to be upset.

This is the most next gen visual, imo. I like the mentality that Naughty Dog has in pushing things further. It is something that can go unnoticed by many as well, and seems to have based on reactions from the last presentation.

Ohh look, a generic "why you mad brah?" statement. Must have been really difficult for someone like you to come up with that. Come back when you can do something that can at least pass for trolling.

@deadline-zero0:

The animation is the one area where star citizen is really lacking. Even the developers currently think this.

@Heirren: No shit. It's still in alpha and SC is more focused on the ships themselves.

Here's some of the current animations: http://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14697-Star-Marine-FPS-Update

The jukes video. Still missing alot of stuff

nah you are not worth more of my time mr random nor one of my incredibly witty replies, if i can make you anal bleed in fewer words that usual, mission accomplished.

The thing is that we already saw one downgrade, and ND is known for their downgrades, so I'm still skeptic and will wait until it is released

I get the feeling you haven't actually played an Uncharted game. Or haven't a clue what a good game is.

I own all four and have played 1 & 2. The first two were so underwhelming that I couldn't be bothered to even open the 3rd. I bought the vita one because it was on sale and wanted to complete my collection of vita exclusives. My PSN is Blitzkreg18 if you don't believe me.

As for knowing what a good game is, I know uncharted isn't one of them.

After the delay I'm sort of expecting an upgrade, actually.

That video is not even worth comparing.

Yeah I get the feeling Uncharted 4 will out class SC in facial animations. That SC Traler with the aliens and those guys landing on a planet, everything looked insanely good, but the faces looked plastic and robot like. Uncharted 4 so far has shown the best facial animations i've seen in both the teaser and gameplay. I'm not arguing that it will be more of a technical achievement than SC all together though. It's just that those guys at ND really know their animation.

Uncharted 2, i'd argue is a far better game than Gears Of War 1 2 or 3. It's pacing, it's fluidity and vertical movement, set pieces and combat are simply more varied than Gears. Linear levels doesn't matter. Open world isn't all of a sudden the defacto style of game. In fact that can often tamper with game pacing in a negative way if it's not done right. But whatever, i'm not asking you to agree. I'm just saying it how it is. The facts. Uncharted (2) is a great game. Not the best game of all time some people would have you believe, but it's very good all things considered.

Yeah , so lets make his face a blurry circle and who cares how hell look like in cutscenes ...oh wait i forgot , you dont know what cutscenes are , not such thing in Nintendo games , its all about gameplay!

Anyways , as i said before , UC4 was the only console game as of now that gave me the impression that is really a next-gen product and not something that looks slightly better than last gen.. It looked phenomenally for a "limited" hardware like Ps4 . Shadow/lighting/facials/animations/physics/depth of field / textures etc ... all looked too good for a console.

It does, but I would argue that in most other aspects Uncharted 2 is a better game.

Hey if I want to watch a movie I'll go watch a movie. It will have a better story than the shit sony's come up with lately.

Meh.

Yes, it relies on both the technology and people behind.

Of all the next gen stuff so far--all the Unreal stuff, the driveclub weather, etc--I think when it comes down to it, the most practical use of more powerful technology is looking to be Uncharted 4s animation. Not just facial, but the way it is intended to impact gameplay. It sounds as if Naughty Dog is finally trying to rid combat of "it feels like its playing itself" and more revert to a 2d feel. I think most people didn't understand what they were saying back then in regards to the amount of animation way back when.

I'm thinking they aimed to high, and now they try to at least go as high, but they aren't going to be able to achieve it, which is why you'll see a downgrade

Most? I'd like to know.

I love watching cutscenes if they are top notch than reading wall of texts in story heavy games while im having a gameplay blast in between. Some others dont even bother to have voice acting let alone cutscenes in their games ... yes in 2015. Cheapies

@Heirren: Cool story

The facial models are also alpha. They're all just the base Cryengine assets pulled straight from the raw engine.

SC is using motion capture for facial details and body animations. Also, it depends on how you mean.

Nathan Drake will probably be better animated and designed, since he's the main character and face of the series. But much less for minor characters and random ai guys.

SC will also be the same. Populating a universe with millions of npc is bound to require some "downgrades" but since SC doesn't have a MC, one won't be able to directly compare. However, to give you an idea, SC character creator is aiming for Ryse cutscene level of fidelity.

Besides, the character models have already been updated and look much better. Can't find the pics unfortunatly.

I don't remember when the game was to launch, and when it is launching now. Is it a full year? If it was scheduled to release this october and got delayed 6 to 8 months, that is 6 to 8 months of optimization time.

Perhaps ND incorporates some kind of scaling resolution, because the amount of detail shown in the teaser trailer would not even be visible in 1080p given where the camera sits.

Oh how ND and Sony love to get the cows all worked up by showing Drake's face to help take their mind off that huge downgrade.

They want to deliver the best game possible, and when they showed that teaser thing on the beach, the graphics were amazing. Now they have to live up to it, but we've already seen a downgrade when the gameplay was shown, they are aiming for 1080p60fps, but pretty sure they aren't going to get there, or there will be trade offs.

It was planned to be released in Q4 2015, and now it's Q1 2016, so that's a 3 month delay.

Better traversial, vertical stretches, pacing, combat, terrific set pieces, more interesting locations. I would say the same for Tomb Raider 2013 too since that had some good movement and ways of getting around. I feel Uncharted 2 progresses better than any Gears Of War game. Not to mention the plot is well told and keeps you engaged more so. If we are going to judge it's puzzles and auto platforming, then by all means shit on it.

Agreed.

Dunno why cows get so excited about Uncharted like it's the 2nd coming. It's a decent game series imo, drake & sully are very likable characters. The major thing that bothered me about Uncharted 1 & 2 was the gunplay (...it was terrible), and the immersion factor. The series has always had great graphics, no arguing that. But it's just boring to me honestly. Personally, I liked The Last of Us much, much more than Uncharted. But some could even argue that game isn't ALL that either. I really want TLoU 2 or a prequel, so they can really do the series justice. I can even admit that I am more biased towards TLoU because it really nailed the survival horror aspect I wanted last gen. I really got immersed into the story, characters, and atmosphere.

@lostrib yup, I love a flop (TLOU) :P

@FastRobby:

You could be right.

Keep in mind the "gameplay demo" was just that. It was the game, playable, in its most stable build.

Either way it is one of the few big next gen games that has me interested.

Yeah, that's the nature of Uncharted. It allows the player to platform. Don't really see that working in Gears of War. Wouldn't fit. They allowed a bit of verticality in Judgment, which made for some interesting encounters online.

Why don't you go pay through the order again then instead of reading all these forum posts? See you back here in 4 hours. ;)

@bobrossperm: I would say the gunplay of Gears is much better than any of those individual aspects. Better to exceed at one thing than be mediocre at everything.

The reason is obvious. Cow only like it because of it's exclusive status. Uncharted truly is one of the most over hyped series in gaming.

lol, yeah you sure told yourself!

I hope Gears 4 changes the kind of magnetized-to-the-ground movement of the series. I just felt more in control with Uncharted. I like that the player is in the center of the screen like a traditional action adventure game, and not in the left corner. I like the old school elemental themed levels with the water and ice levels. Reminds me of 90's games which I love. It's why I like Naughty Dog, they have an old school vibe about them.

That is very much preference though so I'm not preaching. I just love adventure feel of the game. Same with the Tomb Raiders prior to the latest one. I really hope the TR series progresses to a less grounded and more epic feel like TR Legend.

Yeah I see what you're saying. Good thing Uncharted isn't mediocre at everything then :)

My bad I was on my phone. It happens.

Just found it amusing that's all XD

I doubt they'd go that far, really. GeoW is a robust, combat heavy third person cover shooter, and I don't think it's gonna change that much, for better or worse.

TR 2013 went really full Tomb Raider at the end of the game, which I liked. And from what I've been reading, the new one is gonna be loads of fun. I just hope they can pull it off properly.

Competition from Uncharted will pretty much garuntee they will pull it off. I'm interested in this more experienced new Lara than the battered College kid in the 2013 release. I expect it to be a superior game in every way.