Character Realism

[WhiteZero]

heh, I was just thinking today... that for all the newer game engines comming out, Source still has the best, most realistic looking characters. When it comes down to clothing detail, facial animation, and everything, Source characters still seem to dominate. Though the place they excell the most is with the facial animation and lip synch. Even Oblivion's characters facial animations don't really compare.

/end rant

 

[Ennui]

I concur.

 

[bumblebee]

Well, I do agree with the fact that they are certainly realistic characters, I wouldn't call them the greatest looking character models. I replayed MGS3 not long ago, and compared the models to other games, and so far in my opinion, they look alot better than alot of other models.

However, besides the modelling, the lipsyncing wins over just about any game I've played. The animations make them more convincing, and the lipsyncing make it feel more convincing as well. The modelling is still great, but I wouldn't call it the best.

 

[cquinn]

Japanese made games have an advantage that the creative teams behind them come from or are related to the anime/manga industry, which has
had several decades in which to perfect the art of rendering various
facial expressions.

Valve went out of their way, as I understand it, to create a specific facial
expressive technology that could be used to dynamically create character
expressions. And they used a limited set of parameters for HL2, less than
the full range of expressions they had available.

So they have a way to go, but they also have a great engine to build
upon, and a library of expressions and other effects that they haven't
even tapped into yet.

 

[Przemek]

I agree with you, WhiteZero!
It's been over a year since HL2's release and I still haven't seen a game with such realistic characters. And I don't mean the facial expressions! That's obvious. I mean the character animation and detail. Oh, and is there any game where NPCs actualy look with their eyes?

 

[ríomhaire]

And the glazing on the eyes helps too.

 

[Sulkdodds]

They don't look like re-animated corpses. Which is a plus. Or a minus, if you're weird like that.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Absolutely, the character are still unbeatable, especially the facial animation.

 

[ríomhaire]

Absolutely, the character are still unbeaten, especially the facial animation.

Fixed. They will be bested some day.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Ah, but on that day they will no longer be unbeatable therefore his statement was correct!

 

[Greatgat]

^ Grammar FTW!

Notice, also, that I spelled "grammar" correctly! YAY!