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twesterm on 17 December 2009
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JaggedSac said:
twesterm said:
JaggedSac said:
twesterm said:
nightsurge said:
All Bungie cutscenes are in-game engine rendered. The actual gameplay will look like this, too.

There's a difference between in-engine and in-game.  No idea what the difference will be for Halo: Reach, but in-engine is typically pre-recorded with nothing else processing except what is absolutely needed on a super high end computer.

Best example-- Left 4 Dead.  All of their cut scenes are in-engine on their insane computers but the actual game models are nowhere as near expensive as those.

I didn't think developers would record in-engine output for cutscenes.  Seems like it would a better practice to run them real time in order to conserve disc space.  This is what Bungie always does.  They never play video for their cutscenes, you can tell this by texture pop in that would occur :)

Some stuff is pre-recorded, some cut scenes don't need to be. 

It's generally done in-engine rather than elaborate CGI because it's infinitely cheaper and you can brag that everything is in-engine.

You guys had some cut scenes in Ghostbusters.  Were they running real time or were they pre-recorded?  I assumed they were real time.

 

EDIT:  I know developers use better post processing effects and better in game assets during cut scenes(due to no AI, physics, collision detection, etc), but I thought even Uncharted cutscenes were real time rendered.

Nope, like I said, play the game and change Drake's shirt and you will see exactly which ones are pre-recorded.  It's generally the ones that occur when changing major areas because you have to load all that stuff in at some point.  I assume Uncharted 2 is the same way, I just haven't played through it with a different costume so I don't know which ones those are (though you can generally tell).

As for Ghostbusters, it was a mix of all three, though I forget which ones were which.  All three have their pro's and con's

  • In-game: absolutely in-game so it's the cheapest and easiest to change, but you also have physics, AI, effects, and everything else running.  In a lot of cases the player has control of the camera so I have to take all that into account.
  • In-engine: I have complete control over everything so that means AI isn't processing if I don't need it, and the camera can't see it, it isn't on.  Also, easy to change since it's all in-house and just involves changing that scene and then pressing record.  It takes time but it isn't something that's all too expensive when compared to other things.
  • Pre-rendered: the best looking but also the most expensive since I believe this is generally don't off site.  Also, if you ever have to change *anything* you either just have to live with whatever the mistake is or have to completely redo it which is incredibly expensive.