IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Rockstar's L.A. Noire Is 'An Interesting Dead End' According To David Cage

Posted March 31, 2011 by M.H. Williams

Another week has come, and with it, more commentary from Quantic Dream's David Cage. Two weeks ago, Cage said that Quantic Dream created interactive storytelling. Last week, he called the PlayStation 3 the best platform in the world. This week, Cage told CVG that Rockstar and Team Bondi's L.A. Noire “looks good,” but it's ultimately “an interesting dead end.”

L.A. Noire is built on DepthAnalysis' Motion Scan tech, which uses 32 HD cameras to capture an actor's performance for the game. Team Bondi have utilized Motion Scan to provide characters that the player can interact with and in some cases, even tell if a suspect is lying. Cage says that Quantic Dream is already employing new technology to capture a full body performance as well, but its tech combines the face and body in a single shot. 

"What to say about L.A Noire? I think it's an interesting solution to a problem for now. But it's also an interesting dead end. That's exactly what I feel. Their technique is incredibly expensive and they will never be able to shoot body and face at the same time,” said Cage.

"We are doing that now [at Quantic], and our next games will be shot with performance capture. We see a huge difference between shooting the face and body separately and shooting everything at the same time. Suddenly you've got a real sense of acting that is consistent,” he continued.

"[Those using MotionScan] will never be able to do that. The other thing is that they can't have real time lighting. Their technique means they can't have lighting the way I think we should do it. Basically, they take pictures; they take scans several times per frame. They also have limitations on the shaders they use, they can't re-target the eyes because they eyes are captured. When you have actors in real time you like to to re-target the eyes to make sure they look at each other.”

Cage still feels that Team Bondi is doing good work with L.A. Noire, but he says that Quantic Dream's technology has far more room for improvement.

"It's a list of important problems that cannot be solved with their technology. I think L.A Noire looks good - honestly, it does - but I don't think they'll go much further than where they are. With the technology we use, we can improve; there is a lot of room for improvement and we hope to show very soon where we are now. We've made significant progress since Heavy Rain and will continue to make progress until we reach the stage of Avatar. That is probably three, four five years from now."

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.