14 DAY TRIAL // Infamous: Second Son boasts an impressive and complex visual and particle effects system that was quite a challenge to implement, according to developer Sucker Punch.
Infamous: Second Son is the next big PS4 exclusive game and developer Sucker Punch has taken its time to make sure that the new title will amaze owners of Sony's brand new console.
According to a new interview with the studio on the PS blog, the whole team worked on a variety of all-new systems designed from the ground up to take advantage of the PS4's power, instead of adapting the mechanics already employed in previous PS3 games like Infamous 1, 2, or Festival of Blood.
One such example is the new visual effects system, which was entirely designed to use the power of the PS4's GPU, instead of relying on the CPU or other components.
"When we went into this project, we knew that we wanted to start from scratch on our visual effects. The VFX for a game like this are as important as any aspect of what we do, so we didn’t want to just take our old system and add a couple of features," Sucker Punch's Brian Fleming said.
"So the system was redesigned to entirely run in the graphics chip. There’s so much computational power there. And then we had to design an authoring system, and it ended up being dramatically more technical to author particle effects and special effects in our game than it had previously."
The new effects system ended up being so complex that the art team was forced to learn complex mathematics theories in order to better create great particles and visuals, according to Fleming.
"There was a really big technical jump required of the art team. They had to get comfortable with linear algebra and vector fields, and all kinds of crazy advanced mathematics. It’s really to their credit that they were able to train themselves and come to an understanding of all the math that goes into making the particle effects work. And the results are spectacular."
Infamous: Second Son has already showcased some of these new visual and particle effects through many different videos and screenshots in which the great new powers of Second Son protagonist Delsin Rowe, like the smoke or neon abilities, were in full force.
The new game is set to launch exclusively for the PS4 on March 21 worldwide, so expect to hear more in the next week.