14 DAY TRIAL // Despite advances in the graphics power of both the PC and home console the developers at Bungie, the people that took advantage of them with the long running Halo series, believe that there are still at least two big issues that need to be solved when it comes to the look of modern titles.
Speaking to Gamasutra Hao Chen, who is the senior graphics engineer working at Bungie, has stated, “Number one is removing digital artifacts... removing all the jaggies, having very clean foliage edges, and awesome looking hair with no artifacts. Removing these digital artifacts that remind people you are staring at a computer screen is one of our top priorities.”
He added, “The other challenge is selling a dynamic world. In terms of what we think is important, we will even lower some of the quality in order for us to have a more dynamic world. This means dynamic time of day, lots of things that move in the wind, lots of things reacting to players moving through them, and when you walk on soft surfaces like sand and mud, you leave footprints. So basically everything we do to sell that this world is moving and dynamic is important to us.”
Both of the issues are important because games still lack truly believable character, even when the writing for them is pitch perfect, because of the uncanny valley effect, which basically says that faces and movements are most alien when they are closest to the real world.
At the moment Bungie, after wrapping up the original Halo series with the release of Reach during 2011, has moved on working full time on a new, unannounced project that is being developed in conjunction with publisher Activision Blizzard.
The speculation is that the company is creating a MMO first person shooter that is set in a new science fiction themed universe.