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A Look At the Tools Used To Make Metal Gear Solid 4

Soft Image is running a detailed story about the making of Metal Gear Solid 4. They explain the game's development cycle, from the art direction to the animation of characters to the building of models and textures. "In terms of bones used for constructing the bodies of characters, about 21 joint bones were used that contained animation data and were activated through these data. But many auxiliary bones were also used to supplement movements such as the twisting of knees, elbows, legs and arms. These were not activated by animation data. Rather, they were linked to the values of the basic joints that were activated by animation. ... They also used a tool to automatically generate the rig for controlling eyeball movement and the muscles around the eyes. Because the area around the eyes is also controlled using both shapes and bones, when the eyeball locator is moved, the muscles move smoothly just like they do for the mouth. Further, even if the shape is edited to redefine the eye edges, it does not spoil the blinking or brow furrow expressions at all."

10 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Chasing lights. by Ostracus · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Games: A Look At the Tools Used To Make Metal Gear Solid 4"

    Ah! Coming to a Blender's feature list...

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  2. solid/liquid snake? Toilet humor?!?!? by myowntrueself · · Score: 3, Funny

    Never played the games, never been near a console game.

    I had a friend once explain that the "metal gear solid" is a reference to one of the characters, someone called "Solid Snake" and the fighting robot suit called "metal gear". Apparently theres also someone named "Liquid Snake".

    What I've always wondered is... are these names some kind of wierd Japanese toilet humor?

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    1. Re:solid/liquid snake? Toilet humor?!?!? by johannesg · · Score: 2, Informative

      The original (2D) game was just called "Metal Gear". You played as "Solid Snake", and were trying to destoroy the ultimate weapon "Metal Gear". That made sense to me, even if the name Solid Snake seemed unfitting for a high-tech soldier.

      I've always taken the "solid" moniker in the name to mean that the game had moved to 3D, and now had a solid environment instead of a flat one. After all, the second one is not called "Metal Gear Raiden" or anything.

      Of course none of this answers your question. I've wondered myself, to be honest ;-)

  3. Re:Covering everything BUT ... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... actually making the gameplay any fun at all. Who cares about perfect eyeball movement in a game that will bore you to death?

    I don't know... that is what made XEyes such a great game!

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  4. Re:Hmmmm by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or, you could just watch all of the cut scenes on YouTube since MGS4 is mostly cut scenes anyway!

  5. Re:Covering everything BUT ... by AngryLlama · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just wait until the recently announced XEyes MMORPG is released. This, my friend, will put Linux on the gaming map.

  6. Re:Covering everything BUT ... by Cornflake917 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If I had mod points, I'd mod you redundant. This is said on almost every slashdot article involving game technologies. Yes, we all know that gameplay is more important than graphics, can you please find something new and interesting to say? Or do you need the guaranteed "insightful" karma?

    Just because gameplay (just a stupid term btw, since every one has their own definition of it) is more important doesn't mean that developers shouldn't spend resources on trying to get past the uncanny valley, since it is a real problem for games that are trying to achieve a realistic look.

  7. Re:Covering everything BUT ... by Sparton · · Score: 3, Informative

    Softimage [sic] is a company that makes 3D modeling and animation software. As such, their part of the story isn't related to gameplay at all, which is why only art and related programming was mentioned.

  8. I could have... by SlashDev · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... easily done that on MS paint

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    1. Re:I could have... by martinw89 · · Score: 3, Funny

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