Xbox One Exclusive Quantum Break: Remedy Head of PR Clarifies Input Lag and Cutscene Information

Remedy Head of PR Thomas Puha clarified his statements on input lag and cutscenes, while the embargo for previews will drop on Thursday.

[Kurisu]

I'm no technical guru but most games have input lag, so I don't see why so many articles about this are popping up about it for Quantum Break.

[Wallstreet37]

All games have input lag, whether or not it is noticeable or has heavy input lag is another thing.

Sounds like QB will be just fine.

[rainslacker]

Generally anything under 100ms is considered acceptable. The game loop doesn't run that fast anyways for input polling, and the human brain can't perceive time on that level for an interactive medium like games.

Dunno what QB was at, but can't imagine it would ship with anything above that, and from the one example I've seen of it, it seemed more like a lag of the game loop than from input polling, which is a different issue, and likely fixed after all this time.

[MachuchalBrotha316]

Input lag is not good. Its like watching an old kung fu flick and the english subb not matching up with the mouth movements. Lol..og dudes no what im talking bout

It could make the game feel off.

[jagermaster619]

Has anyone on here played fallout 4? That game is the worst ever when it comes to this. Don't get me wrong I love the game but people are making a big deal out of nothing!

[jb227]

I agree, the input lag stuff is bogus arguments over semantics, the game looks stunning & if it holds a steady 30 then I'm sure it'll play just as well.

I'm no technical guru either but can anyone explain the difference (if any) between in engine cinematics & realtime cinematics? I was under the impression that realtime cinematics are just that, played in real time w/ the same fidelity & assets as the core game and in engine cinematics are using those assets but rendering w/ higher quality effects afforded by the recorded & scripted nature.

"we have no CGI. Some of our real-time cutscenes are played back as video for loading reasons."

Can a real time cutscene be played back as video? I assumed that real time was exactly that, that sounds like a prerendered in engine cutscene. I know all of this sounds like more semantics but I'm just genuinely curious if there is any difference between the 2 or if they are essentially the same thing...just heard a lot of talk about the possibility of these real time cutscenes this gen vs. the in engine cinematics used a lot last gen.

[javauns]

Sounds like the real time is with actors like a movie, or in this case the tv show episodes. where as cgi would be the actors acting like in a gears of war or any game that utilizes face and motion tracking but uses the image of the in game character opposed to the people acting. cgi is neo in the matrix/ computer world, and real time is him walking around the ship

[rainslacker]

In Engine means the cut scenes are rendered within the game engine. This could be done either while playing the game, or during development with the output being made into a video file for display while playing the game.

Real-time just means that the cinematic is rendered in real time, as opposed to each frame being rendered despite the length it takes to render said frame....like say days for a really complex frame. So basically, in this case, real time means that the cut scene was rendered at 30-60 fps(not sure the fps of the game).

Real time can either be in-engine(common) or bypass the engine and use a third party tool which takes over the rendering process to display the cutscene(not very common with today's game engines).

Real time and in engine do not indicate that the cut scene you see is not pre-rendered. Pre-rendered just means that you are watching a video file made during the development process. Pre-rendered can be rendered in real time at the dev house using the engine, it can be rendered in real time using a separate program, or it can be rendered using special processes which can take a great deal of time to render a single frame(like a Pixar movie can take days to render a single frame).

As to the CGI qoute...it's a misuse of the CGI term since technically they're all CGI but it's common to do that...what that means is that is the cut scenes are rendered within the engine, in real time, and then output to a video file which is then played back during the game itself....to mask loading times if I'm reading it right. Uncharted and TLOU used a similar method. He says this only applies to some of the cut scenes.

I don't believe there is any set definition to describe what all these mean for marketing purposes, or even in the development community. They are just kind of understood, but I"ve seen nuances to it all, and at times, it can be confusing when used for marketing purposes, because people assume that in-engine is real-time and that real time means that it's not pre-rendered.

For some games, to tell if it's done "on the fly" using the engine and not pre-rendered, you just have to look at the characters. If they are not using the same equipment or clothing as when you're playing, then it's probably pre-rendered.

[jb227]

@javauns

I believe the cutscene stuff isn't referring to the live action in this case. From what I understand that's just going to come in 3-4 22 minute episodes inserted in certain spots. The cutscenes themselves will be just like a traditional game I believe. The difference between the 'cgi' he's referring to & in engine or real time cutscenes would be that cgi is created in its own realm, not typically using the games actual assets, but creating something from the ground up, like they used to use for older gen games where there'd be an abrupt change in quality from cg cutscene to gameplay.

@rainslacker

That makes sense. I had seen some mentions of real time cut scenes being more difficult to achieve, and in Uncharted's case in particular ND was talking about how they were able to achieve them for UC4 so I was assuming that the other games were in-engine cutscenes but I never knew the full difference between the two, I was assuming it meant that in engine was within the engine but w/ post processing & rendering done & real time was sans that stuff. Interesting to hear a more accurate description.

Going back to the God of War remastered collection, they had cleaned up all of those cg cutscenes & made them look better than ever, the gameplay was cleaned up so well too, then you'd get to those short pre rendered cut scenes & they looked basically like the original release & I recall the devs saying that pre rendered stuff can't technically be "cleaned up" like the game engine itself was, and the cg cutscenes were able to be redone, but that the prerendered stuff would either be too much work to clean up or that it wasn't possible. Since then it's always been an interesting subject to me. I honestly think the biggest innovation that ND ever brought to the table was working on making that transition from cutscene to gameplay so seamless. They may not have been the first ones to do it, but they definitely brought it to the forefront & I'm glad that it's more common these days

[Wallstreet37]

Preview embargo drops thursday so we should be getting more information on the game.

[DragonDDark]

Finally lol

[christocolus]

Thursday? Nice. Looking forward to learning more about this game.

[Kingdomcome247]

I am so dang excited.

[AizenSosuke]

Thursday is going to be interesting.

[Zizi]

Higher fps means lesser input lag, I guess.

[rainslacker]

Input lag is caused by the game loop. Low FPS can give the appearance of input lag. I'm not terribly sure what the dev was calling input lag myself. The technical terminology is usually transparent to the end user, as they have the same effect, except that input lag means that you will probably die because your input wasn't received and processed in time, whereas low fps means that you will die because you didn't realize you had to press the input at a certain time, and when you do press it, the game will have received the command too late.

[MachuchalBrotha316]

Thursday can't come soon enough. Would love to read and see more on this game.

[mark_parch]

can't wait for thursday

[Kingdomcome247]

Goodness... so that shot of Shawn Ashmore is completely in engine. The Northlight engine looks to be something rather special. I cannot wait for the previews. This has been my most highly anticipated game for three years now. I am so stoked for April.