Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales just received a free update which adds the Advanced Tech Suit to the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. The same update also introduced a new PS5-only visual upgrade: advanced muscles.
Ironically, the Advanced Tech Suit is a poor showcase for the upgraded muscle deformation technology since it's essentially plated armor. But it looks really cool, so we'll let it slide. Insomniac was great about adding new suits to the original Marvel's Spider-Man, so it's nice to see Miles Morales getting the same love.
The PS5-only muscle tech is impressive in its own right. "Muscle deformation" isn't the prettiest or most informative term, so lead character technical director Josh DiCarlo unpacked the new feature in a few tweets.
"We've fully simulated the entire character from the inside-out, using techniques previously only available in film," DiCarlo explains. "Every deformation that you see on the surface of the costume is the result of muscle and cloth simulation."
DiCarlo further clarified what's going on under the hood and shared some side-by-side in a separate tweet. Have a gander:
For those asking about @insomniacgames new physically-based muscle and costume deformations in #MilesMoralesPS5, best experienced in motion, but here are a few side-by-side photomode grabs, illustrating before & after muscle and costume simulation. pic.twitter.com/UvfWG7oM5hMarch 30, 2021
The images speak volumes. Miles looks noticeably more slender after the update, which fits his frame and body type, and individual muscle lines are also more noticeable through his suit. The new muscle deformation doesn't Hulk him out, but it does make him more toned. According to DiCarlo, that's thanks to "a highly detailed and anatomically accurate skeleton, muscle, and fat/skin system fitted inside Miles, along with costumes that have varying material properties (cloth, rubber, etc), which are all simulated together to produce final per-frame deformations."
Spec Ops: The Line and Star Wars Battlefront 2 writer Walt Williams has joined Insomniac. We don't know what he's working on, but it's probably good.
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