Rendering movies with realtime engines.
polycounter lvl 18
I've been wondering about this, but are there any short movies rendered using real time engines? I'm not talking about traditional machima, where the asset specs are kept relatively close to those of the games that use the engine, but something high(er) poly, with 'actual' animation (by that I mean entirely animated sequences with morph targets, not using different sequences tied together).
Game Engines can now render content with such a high quality that it's not all that easy to set up something that produces a similar in a standard 3D renderer, and the render times will always be a lot better. Of course for a short film you need specs that are a lot higher, but in most cases it will only have to be able to run in SD resolution (768x576 for PAL, even lower for NTSC).
Of course it's tricky to depend on actual realtime rendering, especially if you use very high poly standards. But if a game engine could be set to run a certain animated scene with a timecode exporting at a set framerate (which probably already is possible anyway), it might only render it at 12 or even 2 frames a second, but the quality you get out of a 3D software with similar render times doesn't even begin to compare to that...
Even a game like Day of Defeat Source, which doesn't come close to the standards of for example the unreal 3 engine, has certain detailed areas look very good and this is in actual gameplay in a dynamic environment. It's not pixar, but beats the rendering quality of many shorts I've seen.
I recently started a four year course at an arts academy here in Holland and we have a pretty high output rate but we don't exactly have a huge renderfarm at our disposal. I was just wondering about the possibilities of this, using for example scenes that have two characters at 5 times the amount of detail in geometry and textures. This would not run entirely real time at 25 fps, and with such specs might need a workaround to even import assets, but it could save a lot of time with a much better outcome.
Long post, but do you think something like this is possible and might even be used in production, especially for something with a high output rate like animation shows on television.
Game Engines can now render content with such a high quality that it's not all that easy to set up something that produces a similar in a standard 3D renderer, and the render times will always be a lot better. Of course for a short film you need specs that are a lot higher, but in most cases it will only have to be able to run in SD resolution (768x576 for PAL, even lower for NTSC).
Of course it's tricky to depend on actual realtime rendering, especially if you use very high poly standards. But if a game engine could be set to run a certain animated scene with a timecode exporting at a set framerate (which probably already is possible anyway), it might only render it at 12 or even 2 frames a second, but the quality you get out of a 3D software with similar render times doesn't even begin to compare to that...
Even a game like Day of Defeat Source, which doesn't come close to the standards of for example the unreal 3 engine, has certain detailed areas look very good and this is in actual gameplay in a dynamic environment. It's not pixar, but beats the rendering quality of many shorts I've seen.
I recently started a four year course at an arts academy here in Holland and we have a pretty high output rate but we don't exactly have a huge renderfarm at our disposal. I was just wondering about the possibilities of this, using for example scenes that have two characters at 5 times the amount of detail in geometry and textures. This would not run entirely real time at 25 fps, and with such specs might need a workaround to even import assets, but it could save a lot of time with a much better outcome.
Long post, but do you think something like this is possible and might even be used in production, especially for something with a high output rate like animation shows on television.
Replies
some machinima reaches this quality level you speak of. not all machinima is made up of choppy movements from already existing game charcters. i've seen some that are very high quality all with custom animations and content.
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Well that's what I was wondering, as I've only seen those with game spec qualities, or below. Do you know of any by any chance?
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some machinima reaches this quality level you speak of. not all machinima is made up of choppy movements from already existing game charcters. i've seen some that are very high quality all with custom animations and content.
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Well that's what I was wondering, as I've only seen those with game spec qualities, or below. Do you know of any by any chance?
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i am sorry, i don't off hand. my friend showed me a few like what you're interested in... but i don't know where he foudn them.
http://www.ati.com/gitg/promotions/crytek/index.html
http://www.ati.com/designpartners/media/edudemos/RadeonX1k.html
LAFF.
in order to save rendertime i'd rather do it the other way around, match my prerendered output to the looks of a game engine to save rendertime and remain being able to use all the tools and tricks of a 3d package... ...rather than getting insane over the limitations of some realtime tech that wasn't intended for that purpose in the first place.
btw. to speed up your workflow, think rendering in layers and make heavy use of compositing. saves heaps of testrendering.
personally i found the crytek machinima stuff entertaining, in a probably unintended way
in order to save rendertime i'd rather do it the other way around, match my prerendered output to the looks of a game engine to save rendertime and remain being able to use all the tools and tricks of a 3d package... ...rather than getting insane over the limitations of some realtime tech that wasn't intended for that purpose in the first place.
btw. to speed up your workflow, think rendering in layers and make heavy use of compositing. saves heaps of testrendering.
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yes, but that is also why they have rendering engines. these type of engines are ment purely for visualization and are therefore not bogged down by some of the resources that would otherwise be used for physics, ai, player code...etc.
ever seen quest3d?
go here to checkout some of thier stuff.
mainly take a look at:
1.) Azure Temple
2.) X_Fridge (recently made by a guy from gamedev.net, good stuff).
3.) The Coast
4.) Widescreen Room
5.) and here is a video only of a condo.
checkout some of the others too if you want.
lol
http://www.nvidia.com/page/gz_home.html
That way there's no conforming to game standard, importing, setting up scripts, animation, etc in game format. Camera work typically sucks in getting to game engine as well.
The main problems with using a game engine (even with cranked model/texture specs): motion blur, high-quality AA, texture filtering, DOF, lighting quality.