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Heavy Rain - Playing a Story

Posted by Soulskill on from the drops-of-realism dept.

Edge Magazine is running a piece about Heavy Rain, a thriller by Quantic Dream that's been in development for a few years now. Edge spoke with David Cage, the game's writer and director, about using graphics technology not simply for breathtaking landscapes or realistic lighting, but to bring the characters to life and make them more believable. Cage walked the folks at Kotaku through a demo, and they provided details on how the controls will work. From Edge: "'We worked very hard on motion capture, especially facial motion capture,' explains Cage. 'As you know, eyes are incredibly hard to do: the minute movements they constantly make mean you can tell whether something is human or not. We created a technology to motion-capture that from actors.' The shaders applied to the lead character's eyes and the skin that surrounds them also conspire to nudge Heavy Rain's characters closer to believability. The 'deadness' that so often afflicts such digital mannequins has been significantly chipped away, and we are presented with Madison, a character whose facial features, though attractive in an expectedly unnatural sort of way, also carry blemishes that succeed in breaking down her artificiality."

4 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Short summary; by B5_geek · · Score: 5, Informative

    PS3 only. Good quality visuals. It is a detective story/game.

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
    1. Re:Short summary; by ya+really · · Score: 5, Funny

      With a nick like "MSFanBoi2," surely you would never have an axe to grind, would you? I'm also guessing you opinion is always completely non-biased and always gives a fair look to sony/linux/apple/etc. right?

  2. Am I the only one by nawcom · · Score: 5, Funny

    ?ho immediately thinks of the production of "Chubby Rain" from that Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy comedy Bowfinger? heh. Off topic. Mod me down.

  3. Re:Is it live or is it Memorex? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you probably do need to say it. What's your point? That every attempt to improve facial features is doomed because of the uncanny valley? That this technology shows that the uncanny valley worries are unjustified? That this project has achieved a lot but still fails due to the uncanny valley? That despite suffering from the uncanny valley, this project nevertheless has achieved a remarkable level of empathy?