Real-time or Pre-rendered?

FatAssasin

A co-worker and I were debating the 99 Nights trailer found here:

http://media.xbox.gamespy.com/media/747/...wmvhighwide.wmv

I say it's real-time, he says it's pre-rendered. But I don't see anything in there that can't be done with current engines, and will presumably be done better and faster with next-gen engines, especially considered the control environments and small number of characters in each shot. What do you guys think?

Daz

Most definitely pre-rendered. What's swinging it for me:

The lack of polygonal silhouettes
The little pool of liquid in the bottom of his eye in the first eye close up.
The hair.
It has a notably different look from videos of the game itself.

poopinmymouth

Looks an awful lot like UE3 lighting. I'd believe parts of it are in game. I dunno for sure though.

jzero

I'm not aware of any real-time engines that can do hair like that. But I don't know that much.

It may be real-time. On a Cray.
And pre-rendered for the rest of us.

/jzero

SouL

Pre-rendered.

JKMakowka

It is probably a mixture. All the close-ups are definitly pre-rendered, but some of the full body shots might actually be real-time.

ElysiumGX

Pre. New game graphics are rarely as good as promised. And even worse after the hype wears off.

MoP

Pre-rendered. Mainly because of the cloth and hair stuff, I really doubt you'd get something as precise and smooth as that in real-time.

That said, it does look very nice indeed.

ewooz

It seemed like 100% pre-rendered. However the models can be close to what they look like in-game and all those particle effects and blurring and stuff could have been done by a post production method. But why bother when it can be pre-defined in the renderering process? So that's why I think it is 100 % pre-rendered.

ScoobyDoofus

I'd say pre-rendered fo sho!

Eric Chadwick

Everytime I see a video of a game that's not on shelves yet, I always assume it's pre-rendered... until proven otherwise.

I never understood all the arguments about Killzone. Once you're in the industry you find that most companies do it, but never talk about it. Dirty little secret.

Ninjas

Pre-rendered using in game resources. The cloth and hair are not doable to that level in realtime.

Toomas

Who cares, even if it is realtime it doesnt look very good. The assets suck and no amount of cool effects can make them look good.

MoP

I wouldn't say the assets suck...

arshlevon

yeah i wouldnt say suck either.. i say they are lacking style.. they remind me a lot of the FFVIII intro.. it even looks like the same characters sometimes, the backgrounds and lighting are almost identical to that infamous gun blade battle.. definitly very typical design wise, but the actual execution is not bad at all.

ScoobyDoofus

This is a prime example of why I dont like many Anime & Japanese games in general.
They all look exactly the same. Not that our American games & Comix are much better...

If I see one more young spikey haired guy with a gigantic sword who's too cool for school, and prettier than the female lead, Im gonna puke.
Similarly, if I have to endure 1 more freakin' WWII game, Im gonna vomit.

This was good, but uninspired.

skankerzero

I can't believe anyone would argue this being real-time...

FatAssasin

Guess I was being overly optimistic about what the next-gen engines were capable of. Maybe next next-gen.

skankerzero

hah... just saw in-game footage on G4 for this game.

This is most definatley pre-rendered.

cep

After seeing this, I lost a bit of respect for everyone who said it was realtime.

MoP

I bet those folks are really burned, cep

cep

You better believe it!
I've gotten 30+ PM's since asking for forgiveness.

gauss

question: are cray computers even that good anymore? is that kind of supercomputer an outdated measurement of computing power or what?

SouL

[ QUOTE ]
Everytime I see a video of a game that's not on shelves yet, I always assume it's pre-rendered... until proven otherwise.

I never understood all the arguments about Killzone. Once you're in the industry you find that most companies do it, but never talk about it. Dirty little secret.

[/ QUOTE ]

The most hilarious example of this I can think of is when someone took a screenshot of a game I was working on and decided they didn't quite like it. So they put it in Photoshop to paint over it, while leaving very, VERY obvious paintstrokes in the image. Hahahahah

SouL - 1
DC - 0

Hahahaha

Eric Chadwick

Haha, yup. Love those Marketing schmoes.