Introduction
Artificial Intelligence
Enter HyperReality
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New Role-Playing Systems
2002 and Beyond
High-Tech Games
High-Tech Games: Pushing the Envelope in 2001 and Beyond
Enter Hyperreality

Max Payne
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: GodGames
Release date: Mid-July
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What's so high-tech about it: The new graphics engine uses photorealistic artwork to re-create the look and feel of Hollywood action movies.

If scenes from Max Payne have such a realistic look to them, that's because, from the very start, the designers at Remedy Entertainment have focused on building the titular hero's world through photographic art. "I think that makes a huge difference when compared to the art direction in most other games," says Petri Jarvilehto, one of the design leaders behind Max Payne. "There is practically no hand-drawn art to break the feeling of immersion and realism. Our characters, textures, and models simply look extremely real."

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Remedy developed an engine for Max Payne to take advantage of the latest graphics technologies, including a sophisticated radiosity lighting model that brings an amazing level of realism and subtlety to the game's environments. Radiosity lighting calculates and combines the effect of light sources on surrounding surfaces. More realistic than the dynamic lighting already found in many games, the radiosity technique calculates the reflectivity or emission of surfaces at regular points, taking into account geometry and material properties. This can produce natural highlights and shadows around contoured shapes and works well with indirect interior lighting. (Radiosity requires an engine based on light maps.) According to Jarvilehto, Max Payne is the first game to use this feature. "So far, no other game has really used radiosity. The way Max's lighting works is that we're calculating multiple-pass radiosity, where light is being reflected properly. The reflected light gives the smooth and subtle lighting that is typical of Max's environments."

While Max Payne is played from the third-person perspective, it might be an understatement to label it a "third-person shooter." The designers at Remedy have been working to develop the game's story, characters, and the production design of its action-movie atmosphere, treating the game as though it were an actual film. Underscoring this, the in-game camera will mimic the look and feel of a movie camera as much as possible: Various camera cuts and pans dramatize situations and actions at specific points. Remedy claims the camera work in Max Payne is closer to the style of movie cinematography than what any other game has accomplished so far. Because of this, "action movie game" is probably the more apt term that describes Max Payne.

screenshot
Click for full size image
These cinematic visuals won't get in the way of gameplay (as Remedy hopes). Instead, the developer is banking on the movie-style camera tricks in Max Payne--tricks that can help the player. One example is the slow-motion effect. During some of the gunfight sequences, the action will slow down; otherwise, things might go by too fast for the player to control effectively. The result is that gameplay will be more manageable (and fun)--and at the same time, the game will look and play like a movie. "The slow motion changes the game balance and emphasizes the coolness factor of the action," says Jarvilehto. "I still get huge kicks out of diving [Max] sideways with both guns blazing during the slow-mo scenes."

The use of graphics-engine technology has immensely shaped the way in which Max Payne has been developed. Because of this particular engine, Jarvilehto attests, the game designers were able to do much more than if they had used any of the existing 3D graphics engines. "The size of modern projects is clearly one of the challenges. Almost all of the hit games shipping today are huge, and good content takes a lot of time to create. As the size [of games] grows, the technology becomes more challenging as well." However, Jarvilehto points out that the biggest remaining challenge is trying to create something new, to bring new ideas to gameplay, or to even create whole new genres: "If you don't have anything new to say, it doesn't matter how good your tech is."
 

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