Sony: Most GOWIII cutscenes won't be pre-rendered (real-time)

PSUni:

"When we found out that God of War III's cutscenes wouldn't contain any CG trickery, we still questioned whether the in-engine scenes would be pre-recorded and played back as videos (ie. pre-rendered.) When we further discovered that God of War III would be on a dual-layer Blu-ray, we felt that we had further evidence to point towards the huge amount of disc space required for FMVs, but now Sony Santa Monica has corrected us."

[Lord_Ranos]

GOD OF WAR 3 Goty 2010!!!!!!!!

[ELite_Ghost]

God of War 3 GOTG GAME OF THE GENERATION!!!!!!!!!

[swiftshot93]

"however some scenes were just to epic to run real time and thus are recorded videos."

Well, thats interesting. Im wondering how they've built they're engine to have most cut scenes in real time and still have no loading. From what Ive seen in most video games you either have to have one or the other (MGS4, Gears, Uncharted...). Anyways their engine seems very versatile, impressive.

Edit: @ plastica

thanks, yeah that makes a lot of sense. Having some baddies or a simple puzzle in a cavern or hallway would definitely mask loading times well. In fact I think GOWII did that as well, just dont see it in other games...

[young juice]

"however some scenes were just to epic to run real time and thus are recorded videos."

the word "Epic" is not "EPIC" anymore.

i've also noticed alot of video game devs refering to their protagonists as "badass".

we need a new word something thats stupid but smart at the same time.

[Immortal321]

or this game is so "Nuke"
or this game is so spectacu
or this game is so bliss

[FamilyGuy]

Since when have CGI OR pre-rendered cut-scenes become a bad thing?

"This game is going to be GOW3!"
Hows that for a new saying that means epic?

[young juice]

pludo (pluto).

yea man this game is pludo.:)

ima say that from now on.

watch me look like a tard

[Hellsvacancy]

God Of War - "its gonna b f-in epic"

Off topic: i just gotta email from Sony sayin "Welcome to the PlayStation Home Private Beta" wots that about, Homes been public 4-ages

[AKNAA]

“I hope you guys won’t miss the CG, I know I don’t miss it. The current cutscenes make the game feel more unified and flows from story to action better IMO.”

CG is so last gen....

[TheGodofWar]

I'am the backbone to this game. It's going to epic in every way, shape and form. I'am coming for you Zeus and you will finally know what fear is like because I'AM THE GOD OF WAR! CHAOS WILL RISE AGAIN! After Zeus your next xbox fanboys.

[supraman21]

I liked CGI cut scenes in the old days of PS1 and PS2 cause its hard during cutscenes to have emotion towards characters with boxy smooshed faces. Now sense technology caught up and surpassed PS2 CGI cutscenes I dont care for pre rendered vids. It has the same graphics ingame just more epic sheat going on.

[sikbeta]

"the word "Epic" is not "EPIC" anymore"

[EPIC = God of War]

"however some scenes were just to epic to run real time and thus are recorded videos"

JUST EPIC

GOW3 FTW!!!

[FamilyGuy]

More so now than ever before. When I look at the cut scenes in FF13 and even the ones in White Knight Chronicles I just think about how awesome a movie would be if it were rendered by these guys. Or how the game would be if it looked like those scenes. The CGI in FF13 FAR surpassed Advent Children already and that movie looked really good.

I know the scenes cut away from the real game play but I get MORE immersed in the games universe when those scenes play because they show a detail that the game itself can't achieve, not even in THIS console generation.

Just as in-game graphics get better, so does CGI though CG seems to have reached it's peak and when in-game finally catches up this time I should be satisfied.

[Syronicus]

Articles like this are simply showing the fear of great PS3 games that is currently worn ont he sleaves of weak and prepubescent Xbox fanboys. Sad that they cannot just enjoy the games.

[Immortal321]

for using their engine instead of cg. to me that's just rising the graphical bar to another level for console.

if this game graphic's does not get a 10, the reviewers are bias. people thought the the latest trailer was cg! and it's not! it's in-game.

not only that, the scale of the game is massive. It's a day 1 purchase.

games like this don't hold your hand, they just throw you in the deep end.

[gameraxis]

and yesterday,

"No other reason could possibly explain why the game takes up the amount of space that it does."

NO OTHER REASON you say?

..gowned

[jmd749]

why do people care about this nonesense. GOW3 is going to be a legendary game regardless of cutscenes being pre-rendered or not. so what, if the cutscene isn't realtime, it wouldn't look as good?! people these days... so stupid...

[DW]

does any of this matter? I mean seriously, the game is gonna be hot - nuff said.

[Hotel_Moscow]

gar is the word

[stuntman_mike]

DA BOLLOX!

[tiamat5]

Not so good with the tech speak. Is this bad? does it affect gameplay? Does it take away from the awesomeness? If not who really cares?

[pixelsword]

-Is this bad?
No, not at all; it's just saying that some of the scenes may have been too taxing on the PS3 in terms of their current knowledge versus any future breakthroughs, so they recorded some of the cutscenes; but they did not use any CG.

-does it affect gameplay?
No. The only thing it does is if you have bonus costumes in some scenes, those costumes may not be in those scenes because the scene was pre-rendered as opposed to a real-time cutscene.

Does it take away from the awesomeness?
Not at all, unless you were looking forward to Dairy Bastard skull-Raping Zeus.

If not who really cares?
Exactly.

[Nitrowolf2]

. "This way you can enjoy the bonus costumes for most of the cutscenes in the game, including those found in the E3 demo!”

wait there were bonus costumes (in the demo)? how do i unlock them or am i miss interpreting this? cause i don't think he was talking about the cutscene running in-game at that part wen he had already said that in the beggining

[Gago]

almost every game this gen has in game cutscene

[shadow2797]

Most cutscenes are pre-rendered, though. Very few games actually render them in real time. Not that it really matters.

Most games that have "in-engine" cutscenes have higher detail character models than when you're playing, also.

It's quite a feat to run most cutscenes in real time.

[bjornbear]

GOWIII can be mistaken for CG quality...so they have to clarify

on most games its obvious though =)

but not in GOWIII....

[Unicron]

Why is this non-issue being made into one?

Hell, the full CGI in GoW1/GoW2 were stylistically awesome and gorgeous, especially the death of Ares/Titanomachy.

[Bathyj]

The cutscenes in 1 & 2 were Hollywood grade. Voice acting and direction were awesome.

Part of the reason I got turned off Bayonetta was because as soon as the first cutscene came along, I was yanked out of my immersion by the cheezy B-movie acting and dialouge, which quickly reminded I was just playing a game, not living this epic adventure.

GoW's cutscenes really make you feel like you're in the middle of it all.

[Nitrowolf2]

i felt the same about bayonneta cut scene, i was expecting better but ya as soon as it showed up i wanted to turn it off, cause i didn't want to watch these scene(skip option but i can't skip a story)

[Sarcasm]

Here's what I think of Bayonetta

[Pennywise]

Unicron, good question. This game will deliver a epic scale in a game unseen this gen. PS3 exclusives always get grilled for trivial stuff never questioned of other games.

On Bayonetta - That first cut scene with the dude in the car was horrible. I just don't get the GOW comparisons.

[Ravage27]

exactly :/

[Bathyj]

I know its an Xboxers job to try and bring down every PS3 exclusive, but seriously, grasping at straws this time. Really, really feeble.

Would a prerendered cut scene diminish our perception of the PS3 hardware at all? No. Give it up.

@ 4
Pixelsword answered very correctly, but I'll dumb it down even further, so those of us without big boy hair yet can follow.

On the fly (realtime) is like watching something on TV. Pre-rendered is like watching something you TIVO'd.

The difference is about the same as the difference between a nickle and 5 cents.

[decimalator]

Technically, being pre-rendered would require less horsepower to display so in theory if you have to resort to using pre-rendered video one would assume that it was because you HAD to use pre-rendered video because your hardware or game engine were INCAPABLE of rendering the video in real time.

But really? Who cares? Oh, that's right. Fanboys.

That's like claiming that Beethoven is a hack because he wrote a piece in C major, requiring mainly only white keys to play, key changes aside. Obviously it's because he couldn't figure out what the black keys were for.

[BlackKnight]

The "Tivo" analogy isn't really good since when you watch TV live thats not "rendering".

Basically they use the game engine for the select few of video cutscenes that are too "epic". So basically these cutscenes can't run in real time on the PS3 because the framerate would be too low or maybe not enough RAM. Sounds like to me some cut scenes will have SO MANY models/characters on screen at once or areas that are way larger than a game level. Not a big deal honestly.

[decimalator]

@ BlackKnight

You got it a little backwards, but I think you knew what you meant. They're using the engine to render most everything in real-time, except for the scenes that just had too much going on where they resorted to some pre-rendering.

And yes, if the game looks awesome I don't care how much is pre-rendered.

Now, if they lied and said it was all real-time and it turned out to be FMV then that would be sketchy, but who gives a crap HOW they make it look badass.... SO LONG AS IT IS BADASS?!?

[Bathyj]

My point about the TIVO thing was, when it comes to the end product, whats the difference whether you're watching it live or a recording?

The quality of the cutscene isnt an issue here, its how it arrived on our screens. Its just another thing for the haters to try.

[techie]

The cutscenes are real-time...this is a positive. We get to see the PS3's power, and also get to have Kratos' costumes in action. I don't what you're getting upset about.

[Immortal321]

anonymous that the 360fanboys know the ps3 have better games, that why they resorted to game sales!

and deep down, the ps3fanboys want sony to run a monopoly in the gaming industry! they so stingy.

and the only reason the wii-fanboys don't exist is because majority of them go shopping at the mall, or they're little kids, or they know they are not competing against sony and microsoft.

what you guys think?

fyi I know this is off topic.

[Solid_Malone]

WTF

[Bathyj]

I disagree Sony wants a monopoly. Sony dont mind competing at all, they know its neccessary, and speaking as a Sony fan, all I want is for them to be allowed to blaze their own trail without the constant harrassment, or being held back by lesser hardware. Sony are well aware of its competition, they're just more interested in their own stuff.

M$ (and its fanatics) are the ones who want to dominate without competion, they want to succeed in a bubble. That first year with no one competing you never saw such happy fanboys. And they still havent stopped riding on the coat-tails of that "success" citing their hardware lead constantly. Then as the PS3 approached, they becang to turn rabid, badmouthing hardware they'd never touched so much they thought it might be stillborn.

They knew Sony was the top dog, the team to beat, but they'd rather do it through FUD, viral marketing, sucking up or paying off media, and generally being sneaky and underhanded, then do it by simply offering a better product. Everything they do or talk about is a reaction to what Sony is doing or talking about. Sony would rather fund a risky game for millions of dollars, M$ would rather buy exclustivity of a 3rd party game they know Sony might want.

Thats my impression of the difference between the two companies approaches.

[Immortal321]

it's interesting! well to me it is.

why they hate each other, who started what, and find a solution.

our hate towards one another can kill the industry, or be the death of a console but who?

I make the thread.

[decimalator]

They needed 35GB to hold all of the blood

[SpartanZero]

Bayonetta > God of War III and seriously 360 got the best games cause I don't care as much about the PS3 as much as a PS3 owner would care about the XBOX360

[Unicron]

You don't care, yet here you are trolling...

Amazing that "Ps3 owners buy no games" and "Bayonetta > GoW3".... yet the game didn't even chart on January's NPDs. For a GoW killer, you Xbox fanboys sure didn't support it at all. Sad. Yet funny, as you basically just owned yourself. GG.

[decimalator]

Maybe you should care about learning some grammar, friend.

[Sarcasm]

360 got the best games, yet it doesn't have Uncharted 2, GoWIII, The Last Guardian... Damn, I need to stop feeding the trolls.

[d3nworth1]

2 things wrong with you statement. 1 Bayonetta is a multiplat meaning its also on ps3 wither its better than GOW3 is an opinion not a fact seeing as you never played GOW3. 2 360 has better games is also an opinion not a fact seeing as there is no way to prove that and you havent played every single ps3 and 360 game to make a valid conclusion. To put it simply you fail.

[Pennywise]

Someone should of told you that the horrible game known as Bayonetta is on the PS3.

and btw - WAY OFF TOPIC.

[tiamat5]

Bathyj I have to say you are one of the few insightful persons I have seen on this site. I like your point of view and how you use your words instead of just a long mindless post briming with fanboyism. If the people here used your type of logic on n4g more often this site would be less of a migraine to shift through

[Bathyj]

Thanks, I do my best.

I guess I just try to explain my point of view, without trying to force it down anyones throat. If you still disagree with me, but at least you get what I'm saying then thats ok with me. Sensible people seem to respond to this.

And dont forget I'm a gamer of nearly 30 years. Even though PS3 is obviously my favourite, I dont hate XB, just some of M$'s sleazy tactics, and the more crazy fanatics, (on both sides.) But I have been stung a few times by 360's faulty hardware so its not all plain sailing, but alot of the time I'm defending PS3, not attaching XB. Some people need to learn the difference.

Wii is my personaly least favourite console, simply because I think Nintendo doesnt care about gamers anymore, the people like me who have supportted them since Game & Watch. Alot of you probably wouldnt even know what that is without google.

[brolik86]

I'm relatively new here on N4G, but i've been looking at the articles on here for a while now and honestly @bathyj...kudos man. Just because you have a preference to one console doesn't mean you hate the other. it just means you have a preference. Say that around here and most people will categorize you into one of the fanboy sections( be it Xbox or PS3) and go on with there trolling.
I really wish more people on here would be secure enough in themselves to say they like one console over the other for such and such reasons WITHOUT bashing people for not sharing their views. But yea...we need more people like you.

[clarkdef]

to what was in this conversation earlier, about replacing the word "EPIC" with another word. I think we should replace the word with "Canis" this is the biggest star known to man :D

Check it out, if this ain't Epics replacement, nothing is http://www.suite101.com/vie...

[wazzim]

how can it be so big then?

[Ult iMate]

Lots and lots of different hi-res textures for many environments, I guess.

[terrorofdeath]

Imagine playing and watching GOWIII with costumes, say for example the "Doughnut" costume used in UC2. Now a Doughnut Kratos in a cutscene hammering Zeus. Lol :)

[lovestospoodge]

i wouldnt be sure what to say if i saw a fat kratos, prolly rip helios's head off and THEN eat it.

[MetalGearBear]

GOW3>ALL XBOTS.
nuff said....

[Karum]

CGI is awesome because it can still offer a level of detail that even the best in game engine can't match.

However if they can provide stunning cut scene visuals in real time from the game engines then that's awesome. If it looks amazing then great, I'll gladly have that.

[gameraxis]

and yesterday,

"No other reason could possibly explain why the game takes up the amount of space that it does."

NO OTHER REASON you say?

..gowned

[Deathz]

I dont see what all the fuss is about.
The games going to use the in game engine to render the real time or the occasional pre rendered cutscenes(which were probably too epic for real time), there NO CGI.
Regardless, can't fukin wait for this game been waiting years ever since that epic cliffhanger.
Bring on March.

[CryWolf]

God of War 3 is going to bring chaos to the bot with no GC in the game, 90% of 360 games have CG now tell switch console is Next-Gen again.

[Gue1]

I think that people are confusing the terms pre-rendered with pre-recorded.

when a cut-scene it's real-time you can see weapons and armor customizations that you have made through the game during the scenes(example: WKC). While pre-rendered are the static backgrounds used in the PSX era to makes seamless transitions without much effort. The problem was that with in-game pre-rendered you just couldn't move the camera around in a 3-D area but it was easy to make seamless transitions to CGI movies from the pre-rendered backgrounds because as you can see, it a was pre-rendered backgrounds. It is like a static CGI image with 3-D model characters running around (example: Resident Evil 2, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, etc). That's why the battle scenes in the PSX FF games were in 3-D. The purpose was to move the camera dinamically during the battles.

An jrpg game that tried to use pre-rendered backgrounds for battles and failed miserably was: the "Saga Frontier" games.

What GOW3 is doing is presenting a pre-recorded scene made with the in-game engine. Basically more than half of the games this gen are doing this but it is not until GOW3 that some people come to complain and make an issue of it? Are you kidding me? The seamless transitions are still there because both images come from the same sources so it'l be easy. Not like trying to connect a fully rendered 3D scene to a CGI movie.

And Sony's confirming that most cut-scenes in GOW3 will be real-time so you can see the different armors and blades of Kratos during the cut-scenes anyway so you can be sure of their word. Not like in Uncharted 2 that during cut-scenes no matter what weapon you had in hand it just dissapered but it wasn't needed anyway. Beside the couple of skins you gain after you beat the game there's not much customizations to be made on Uncharted 2 anyway.

In fact GOW3 it's a techinical master piece if you consider the fact that the game will have in-game cut-scenes with no install and minimal loadings. That's something really hard to achive but thanks to the fact that every PS3 has an HDD to stream data this is possible. While on the X360 with a game like GOW3 it'll have loadinds as long as 3-4 minutues between real-time cut scenes. You know, to render the detail of yor customizations... But if a game doesn't have customizations then all the hardwrok to achieve real-time scenes would be just a waste anyway. But for a game like White Knight Chronicles well, it's kinda mandatory but reviewers never tried to see that. In fact, they didn't even mentioned it once as a pro in their "cons vs pro". They didn't ecen try to be fair with the poor game. They just rated it with 4's and 5's and said that the graphics were weak and blah blah blah.BS =(

[tulholdren]

My opinion is day one no matter what some haters have to says..

[Hotel_Moscow]

these epic cutscenes must have like powers on a titan vs god scale

[mp1289]

God of War

[Dance]

Sony said the same about GOW3 and GT5 running natively in 1080P at 60FPS...so what happened with that?

[Biggest]

They decided to put it on DVD.