Crossing The Line: Moving From Film to Games and Possibly Back Story = Gameplay Evan Hirsch Senior Art Director Microsoft Game Studios [email protected] | [email protected] Course Agenda Time Section Presenter 8:30 - 9:00 Introduction Evan Hirsch Story=Gameplay (Trading Visual Expectations for Frame Rate and Gameplay) 9:00 - 9:45 Team Structures and Workflows Rick Stringfellow 9:45 - 10:15 Real Time Character Pipelines Paul Amer 10:15 - 10:30 Break 10:30 - 11:15 Lighting/Post processing Brien Goodrich Jamie Marshall 11:15 - 12:00 Transitioning your Shader and FX skills between Film Cliff Brett and Real Time 12:00 - 12:15 Q&A All Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 1 of 94 Two Different Mediums, One Ultimate destination • The Living Room is the ultimate market • Television Sets are ultimate delivery medium • Shared set of expectations by consumers… – Language of Visual Structure – Antagonists/Protagonists – Escapism Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Consumer Spending: Film, DVD and Games Consumer/End-User Spending (US$ Millions) $70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 DVD/VHS Sales Box Office $30,000 Video Games (console HW not included) $20,000 $10,000 $- 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004p 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Source: Price Waterhouse Coopers Global E&M Outlook 2005 Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 94 More Market Trends: Game Software Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Translating Market Spend to Real Time PS1/N64 PS2/Xbox Xbox 360 Feature Film Typ. Poly Count/Frame 5-10K 80-100K 150-300K N/A 1024 x 1024 x16 Typical Texture Size 64 x 64 x 4bits 256 x 256 x8bit 2048 x 2048 x 32bit bit Bones per Character 12-25 20-35 30-60 100+ Animations per game 500 800 1500-2000 - 320 x 240 @ 640 x 480 @ 1280 x 720 ~2048X 1152 @ Rendering Resolution** 15-20FPS 30-60 FPS 30-60FPS 24FPS Typ. Team Size for a AAA title 12-15/10 15-20/40-50 17-30/50-70 N/A (Programmers/Artists) Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 3 of 94 Maturity of Games as a Medium? • The more successful developers have stopped trying to make games as interactive movies • Growth of business looking to “casual games” segment or broadening trends • Film and licensed properties continue as successful segments too Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Mythbusting: Game Graphics Are Really Simple Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 4 of 94 Really Simple: CPU Geometry Size Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Draw- Draw Calls Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 5 of 94 Really Simple: Draw - Sectors Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Draw - Wireframe Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 6 of 94 Really Simple: Draw – Filled Wires Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Draw – Portal Culling Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 7 of 94 Really Simple: GPU – Color Pass Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: GPU – Simple Shaders Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 8 of 94 Really Simple: GPU – Light Count Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Lighting – Debug View Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 9 of 94 Really Simple: Lighting – Attenuation Map 1 Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Lighting - Lambert Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 10 of 94 Really Simple: Lighting – Point 0 Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Lighting – Point 1 Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 11 of 94 Really Simple: Lighting – Point 2 Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Lighting – All Points Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 12 of 94 Really Simple: Lighting – Spec Pass Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Lighting – Spherical Harmonic Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 13 of 94 Really Simple: Lighting – Normal (repeat) Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Really Simple: Complete w/Post Processing Passes On Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 14 of 94 Creating for Linear v. Interactive Film Games • All hail the Director • All hail the Player • Direction is supposed to • Direction is far more be clear collaborative • Programmers serve the • Programmers drive the image image • Every pixel tells a story • Every click drives the story • Story leads all • Gameplay leads all – Does your work push the – Does your work add value to story? the gameplay experience? Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Moving from Film to Games Pros Cons • Excellent production values • Games is a “lesser” medium • Used to taking and sticking to • May not have any interest in a direction games • Used to long hours and • Expect a more established crunches environment • Very experienced in taking • Don’t actually want the direction freedom/looseness of games • Expect high levels of support • Require training for R/T (TD’s, tools, etc) It all comes down to core craft Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 15 of 94 Moving from Games to Film Pros Cons • Used to working in fluid teams • Production values are artists dependant • Expects to have technology change in production** • Titles mean different thing in different places • Used to long hours and crunches • Likely not used to level of artists direction that comes • Very proficient at working lean established hierarchy and light • Reel may be harder for you to relate to It all comes down to core craft Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Games to film: some examples • LODS – Necessary for game performance and memory constraints – Turns out they cut render times for film • Crowd systems and large flocking architectures Evan Hirsch: Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Siggraph 2007 Crossing the Line: Moving From Film to Games (and Possibly Back) © Microsoft Corporation – All Rights Reserved Page 16 of 94 Film to games: Borrowing is Flattery • Visual Language – Camera – The “Designs”: Production, Costume, Lighting – Audio (Soundtrack, Foley, etc) • Structure (3 Act Structure) • CG backbone: Shaders, Lighting, etc. Evan Hirsch:Hirsch; Crossing the Line: Story=Gameplay © 2007 Microsoft. All Rights Reserved Applying Bloch’s Principles to Games • The same elements apply, but in space, not time. – Sets = Levels – Plots = goals/challenges – Mechanics of story = mechanics of gameplay – Tempo