I was wondering what kind of facial animation quality we can expect from the final product? To me this is last piece of the puzzle regarding the art level of the game.
Everything is top notch from the foliage to the clothing (even if some clothing looks wafer thin) but the faces make it drop into uncanny valley. I know they are only temporary but i was wondering what quality level the team is aiming for
As far as I know there will be some face MoCap, so this will me high quality. At the moment its all temporary.
there are mostly placeholders right now, the mocap is not done yet, and i dont think it is going to be implemented in the alpha version, perhaps in beta?
One of their stretch goals was a motion capture animation. And I quote “If you saw Ryse, we talk about the same quality here.”
from the experiment they showed, it looked better than ryse imo. because they are using realistic faces and ryse had cartoon stylized faces.
Ehm, no. Both are using the same mo capture method. And the exact same engine! There is no difference in graphics really.
Having used the cryengines face animator i expect in the final edition the movment will be based off the movement of the voice actors face, making it very interactive and realistic. This game is pioneering in this kind of technology and I can assure you that the end result will be a smooth experience.
Such as Ryse or LA noire. Yes, hopefully.
i know, kcd also uses different actors than the face in the game. they just map the muscles and extensors to the corresponding places.
but ryse had really fake looking stylized faces that don’t look human. example below queen boudica:
her actual face player:
Mocapture doesn’t necessary have to capture the entire face. But the facial animation. As a result, anyone can do facial animation for anyone. Ryse doesn’t look stylized. People’s features just seem to be little bit larger and deeper. Probably has something to do with the mo cap.
Which is another think I fear for KCD 
Hope they will find the sweet spot.
of course they are capturing the entire face, it makes no sense to do it any other way.
also, war horse are are using real faces, so the issue from ryse won’t exist. and bigger and deeper features is stylized. it means shifting and enlarging facial bone structure around to produce something more striking. as seen with some of the younger or female faces in ryse, it can produce some horrifying results. a woman’s face tends to be smaller, so trying to stretch it onto the same proportions as a man’s face. yikes.
f course they are capturing the entire face, it makes no sense to do it any other way.
What I mean by that, is that you don’t have to have your real world face in the game, in order to use Mo cap. And without any lost quality.
faces in ryse, it can produce some horrifying results. a woman’s face tends to be smaller, so trying to stretch it onto the same proportions as a man’s face. yikes.
Sure, but on the other side that doesn’t produce the uncany valley effect. Which can very well happen with much more real faces, if not done perfectly.
the uncanny valley in gaming has been largely relegated to a power of suggestion. the technology has surpassed the expectations. it may have been true a decade ago with smooth plastic faces, but nowadays the sensation is gone. with games like la noire and call of duty using two vastly different techniques of performance capture of accurate faces to no ill effect.
also, imho uncanny valley has basis in a type of visual illusion that needs to be actively achieved by the artist. for example, flipping and reversing features:
Fair enough. But as I noticed, a lot of people didn’t like Ryse because the facial animation fealt weird. And those people made a big fucking deal out of it. I thought Ryse done it beutifully. Which only points that the effect isn’t all that gone still.
Why is this thread even a thing? Is it really that hard for non backers to watch the video updates?
that’s because ryse fucked it up by making the faces unrealistic.
Some people might not have the time to go through all the videos but stilll want to get information. That’s why i though asking might make it easy
