David Cage says L.A. Noire mo-cap tech is an 'interesting dead end,' photorealism in five to six years

L.A. Noire's mo-cop technology is impressive enough to earn the game a coveted spot in the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, but not, as it seems, enough to gain the respect of Quantic Dream's David Cage. In a recent interview, Cage commented on the practicalities of using Depth Analysis' MotionScan technology, stating though he believes it does the trick for now, it is ultimately a “dead end” for developers.

Chatting with CVG, Cage noted he was impressed with what Team Bondi and Rockstar are doing with MotionScan, but there are simply to many detractors to using the system down the road, stating, “I think it's an interesting solution to a problem for now. But it's also an interesting dead end. That's exactly what I feel. Their technique is incredibly expensive and they will never be able to shoot body and face at the same time."

Coincidentally, Cage revealed Quantic Dream was working on a way to do just that, adding, "We see a huge difference between shooting the face and body separately and shooting everything at the same time. Suddenly you've got a real sense of acting that is consistent...We've made significant progress since Heavy Rain and will continue to make progress until we reach the stage of Avatar. That is probably three, four... five years from now.”

When CVG asked if he was referring to the "photo-realistic visuals" of Avatar, Cage confirmed:

"Yes. Four or five years. Maybe it's going to require a new [gaming] platform, but when you look at where real-time is right now, it's probably where CG was five, six years ago. You can say there's a five-year gap between CG and real time. Avatar was released last year, so that's where we should be in five, six years from now."

Back on L.A. Noire's mo-cap, Cage cited other shortcomings including the inability to incorporate realistic lighting, or convincingly manipulate a character's eyes. Careful not to rock the boat too much he added, "I think L.A. Noire looks good - honestly, it does - but I don't think they'll go much further than where they are.”

Dang, I guess that's one less name on the Tribeca after-party VIP list.

[Source: CVG]

Apr 1, 2011

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