Real Riven, real characters?

[mitsuracer85]

Don't you think it would be cool if the devs used real characters for starry expanse? That's one of the things I loved about the Myst games. It adds so much realism. I was just watching the jungle island demo and was surprised that it was a CG character that opened the peep hole in the door. Is it even possible to use real characters in a game with Unreal 4 engine? Is it only possible if everything's pre-rendered? Thoughts/opinions?

[zib_redlektab]

For our part, the consensus among the dev team is that the inclusion of live-action elements would actually detract from the realism of the game, not add to it - they would appear as flat planes in the 3D space, which would not be realistic at all. The only way around this would be a hybrid approach, like what was used in realMyst and End of Ages - CG characters with videos of actors as the textures.

However, the assets from the original game would not be suitable for that kind of usage, the performances would've had to be recorded with a special camera rig designed for that purpose. We would need to re-shoot them. This would mean getting a studio space, equipment, a crew...and actors. We would need to re-cast all of the roles, which would ultimately result in a new performance. By animating the characters by hand, we can capture exactly the original performance, comparing frame-by-frame if necessary.

This is one of the most contentious issues for the project, but we remain confident that we can deliver a high-quality, immersive experience with CG characters.

[xbolt]

Gehn just wouldn't be Gehn if he's not played by John Keston. I agree that the original performance should be used if at all possible. That was my primary problem with RealMyst; Atrus' performance was different than that of my childhood, even if it was a lot crisper.

[jameverywhere]

When I played realMYST, it was still using the old quicktime videos, it seemed like, except after Atrus was finished talking it kinda switched to a 3D model of him writing.

Did they change something in the rebooted Masterpiece edition of realMYST? Did they actually re-record the acting?

I was always kind of disappointed by the character models in Uru and Myst V. I guess that is a compromise that you make when you switch from pre-rendered videos to real-time 3D. As long as the human characters are rendered equally well to the rest of the world--like, as long as they seem integrated as opposed to an afterthought or something clearly shoved in after-the-fact--I'm sure it will be amazing.

[KellyCoston]

Did they change something in the rebooted Masterpiece edition of realMYST? Did they actually re-record the acting?

Yes, they re-recorded his performance for realMyst.

For your other comment, you're correct. They used a composite of green-screened video on a 3d environment. Which is the other reason why we aren't doing that. It looks weird, because it is weird.

[Dario]

I think cg characters is a good solution when youre running realtime graphics.

Maybe you could use the original sound files from atrus gehn katherine etc . ?

[philip]

We almost certainly will (if we can)! The original actors' performances can't be beat, and it'd be quite a challenge to cast and re-record all the voice-over anyway.

[tim]

In response to xbolt's comment on Gehn needing to be John Keston, that's also a big part of it for us. Since the old videos wouldn't really work in our updated HD game, the only live action option would be a very expensive reshoot with new cast, etc. By going the cg route not only will it be more consistent with the look of the game, it also allows us to recreate characters in the likeness of the original actors, as they looked back then.

We definitely know that this will be a challenge, but we look forward to putting every bit as much attention to detail and accuracy as we have already done for the rest of the recreation.

[Andross]

Do you have any character assets that you are prepared to show us?

On the subject of the voices, do Cyan have the original copies of the recordings in high quality?

[tim]

The best we can give you right now is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QXFKlHC9E0#t=50 Keep watching our blog, but our focus isn't heavily on characters right now so it might be a little while before you see character assets in full.