Will cutscenes be pre-rendered or rendered real-time?

I think the cutscenes will be rendered ingame. Thatā€™s the state-of-the-art technology for years nowā€¦ :wink:

But I still hope that they will change the cutscenes to first person view (and of course rendered ingame)ā€¦

2 Likes

But I still hope that they will change the cutscenes to first person view (and of course rendered ingame)ā€¦

Same here, same hereā€¦ Seems to go against the whole ā€˜locked into first person for maximum immersion thingā€™ when you pop out to third person just to ask someone a few questions. I wonder if they tried it?

4 Likes

I think in-game rendering will be used because of your clothes. If the scenes would be pre-rendered then changing your clothes would have no effect. Since we know the layering and clothing system is something special in this game and Warhorse did bother to develop such sophisticated system in the first place, of course, it has to be shown in all itā€™s glory during the cutscenes. Also, the player will be able to see himself in his unique outfit and feel awesome about it.

Donā€™t forgetā€¦ you totally can see your character during all the conversation bits.

Sadly, yes, at least so farā€¦

Voice you concern. :wink:

2 Likes

Yepp. Everything should be in first person. Gameplay, dialogue, cutscenes, whateverā€¦ :wink:

I talked about the issue in depth in this thread: (Non-KCD) Better late than never

2 Likes

Proof: not pre-rendered

I believe that Dan said in the livestream that since it was a very early build that was put together solely to show publishers there were some things that were pre-scripted (like NPC routines) in the demo that would not be in the final build.

I am expecting that by the time they reach the final build the cutscenes will be completely different than the ones in the livestream.

And I agree that the 1st/3rd person issue could easily be solved with an option to choose, which it sounds like is something that cryengine should be able to handleā€¦

Thatā€™s definitely true. With the horrible optimisation in current video codecs the quality would probably be quite a bit worse than in-game cinematics.

Actually I disagree stongly on that one. 1st person and 3rd person cutscenes are completely different. 3rd person cutscenes donā€™t mean that you just have a camera behind your character but a ā€œfreeā€ camera from the outside, a ā€œcinematic cutsceneā€. A cinematic cutscene and a 1st person cutscene are not compatbile with each other, not at all. They require completely different approaches, content and camera work.

Yes, you are right they are completely different.

I guess I am already assuming that they will render the cutscenes in game for the final version, which, I believe in cryengine would allow for either camera. I know that has not been confirmed, but everything I have seen has given me the impression that this will be one of the things that will be implemented with full funding over the next 22 months.

I could be completely wrong, but at this point I am hopeful. To be honest though, I can live with whatever the developers decide.

I would prefer 3rd person view for cutscenes, you just have a wider range of view and you could see your character.
The camera would be much more free and could change perspectives.

1 Like

Well, first person cut-scenes are more like a dialog view than an actual cut-scenes I guess. For me it would be boring, I want and expect a cinematic experience.

2 Likes

Hundred percent!
When done well, cinematic scenes offerfar more immersion than something like a Skyrim approach. I also think conversations should be cinematic, rather than the regular ā€œPress E/ā–³ to talkā€ and youā€™re still staring at the same thing as when you walked up to the person.
I find it surprising that people would want first person cutscenesā€“each to their own of course. FPV cutscenes would be cool for something like a horror game, but a cinematic approach in a medieval game would be epic.

It depends if you want to feel like youā€™re there or feel like youā€™re watching a movie/playing a game IMO.

Third person is certainly easier to do well, but I bet first person done right could be really engaging and dynamic.

Please, watch this in full (itā€™s only ca. 2:20 anyway).

It works for other genres too, not just horror.

4 Likes

Nice one, good example ;).

To be fair I think Iā€™d be happy with either, but Iā€™m not convinced that you could just have it be an option without it feeling a bit odd in one of the modes (without perhaps a good deal more work). One of the things that generally puts me off FPV cutscenes however is that itā€™s not always obvious when they start/stop, and for me it breaks the immersion just as badly - in fact often more jarringly - when something happens in a FPV cutscene that I wouldnā€™t do (it just feels more like I should still be in control over the character than it does when youā€™ve seen a switch to 3rd person).

I guess what Iā€™m trying to say is that while TPV cutscenes always/almost always lower immersion a little, itā€™s something Iā€™m used to and it doesnā€™t feel too unnatural, but when a FPV cutscene inadvertently breaks my immersion it does it much more jarringly.

As soon as I watched that, I downloaded the demo on Steamā€“never heard of that game before.
That video is actually a really good example. However, as good as it was, it still feels artificial; it feels like a camera is moving, rather than the characters head. Cinematic cutscenes, with different thecniques, angles, lighting, etc., can do a much better job (iā€™d argue) with delivering the cutscene. And it also allows the protagonist to display his emotions, something that is usually overlooked.