Browse by Tags
All Tags »
graphics (
RSS)
POSTED:
Jun 02 2009, 01:39 PM
By Jenny Freeman, Art Director
Hi there,
I thought I’d give you a quick peek into our Photo Game Face feature in Fight Night. We’ve had tons of fun creating some very realistic, or sometimes some very bizarre looking new boxers for the game. Using this feature is a great way to put yourself, one of your friends or your favorite boxer in the game. I thought I’d show you the results we got using a photo of Brian ‘Brizzo’ Hayes our game play producer on Fight Night.
After uploading Brian’s photos, I placed the markers onto the images so Photo Game Face can accurately work out where to put features such as eyes, his chin and the basic shape of his face. This way, you aren’t just pasting a photo onto any piece of geometry. Photo Game face takes the photo and changes the geometry to fit, this makes the face you create much more individual looking and accurate. If you can get a side view of yourself or whoever you are creating, as well as the front view, then your head model will be even more accurate.
Placing the markers…
This is the result you get from the photo, the hair is a default one and facial hair colour isn’t set from the photograph, so that needs to be changed…
And here are the results once facial hair and skin-tone was changed. I also tweaked his chin and forehead to make it bigger with the advanced facial morphing tools and added facial hair...
For really good results, make sure you are in a well lit room or even outside so the light is very even. We found you didn’t get good results if there were loads of shadows all over your face.
With the advanced facial morphing section, you can push and pull the facial topography to really get accurate with the boxer likeness.
After playing with the face a bit more, you can go and tweak your boxer’s body type, attributes and all his equipment, plus much more. The Create Player section is pretty huge, so I won’t go into the details in this blog right now. Here’s a image of some of the screens in create Player:
After that, into the game…
Brizzo Vs Calzaghe:
Using Photo Game Face has been a lot of fun, we’ve created all sorts of boxers, and some people who aren’t boxers… but I’d get in trouble if I showed you those images!
That’s it for now.
Jen
POSTED:
May 16 2009, 01:00 PM
By Jen Freeman, Art Director
Hi, Jenny here to bring you more insider info on the graphics in
Fight Night 4. This week we’ll take a look at some of the venues in the
game
There were a few reasons why we picked the venues we put in
the game, firstly we wanted to make sure every one of them was
authentic and had some historical value and meaning to boxing. We also
wanted to create a lot of variance in the feeling of every venue you
went into, from East Coast to West Coast USA, and then onto the UK and
all the way to the Philippines. Variance in the size of the venues was
also important from the 19,000 seated New York arena down to the 3,500
seated State Palace theater and even the 30 people in the crowd venue
of the Windy City gym.
For the complete blog with visuals, go to the Inside EA SPORTS blog: Venues in Fight Night Round 4
POSTED:
Apr 30 2009, 04:16 PM
By Jen Freeman
At the beginning of FNR4, when we were planning the visual priorities, a crucial feature was ‘authenticity’. To us this meant being true to the sport, and making every boxer unique and accurate.
Height, weight and reach, every boxer is unique – every boxer in our game has his own unique body. What we did was created 7 different body types that your boxer could be, and combined that with non-uniform scaling. So this means that your reach is independent of your height, and also your weight. As reach is so important in boxing, and essential to the gameplay in Fight Night, we created a system where 2 boxers who were roughly the same height could have very different lengths of arms. Take George Foreman and Tomasz Adamek for example; there is only one inch in height between them and 10lbs in weight, but a difference of 7 inches in their reach. Getting this non-uniform scaling system in the game was one of our top priorities, and one that we’ve managed put in our create player feature. Now you can create any boxer you like accurate to the inch and the pound.
For the complete blog, check it out on the Inside EA SPORTS blog: A closer look at Graphics
POSTED:
Mar 16 2009, 11:29 AM
The following was written by Demetrius "POETICDRINK2U" Egerton, one of the moderators on the Fight Night Round 4 forums as well as a voice on a number of other boxing & gaming related sites. He, along with a number of other community members, had the chance to get a first-look and hands-on time with the game to be released this summer. Here is his first of many impressions on the game.
by Demetrius "POETICDRINK2U" Egerton
Three years. Three years have passed since the day a certain game with all-time money maker Oscar De la Hoya graced the racks of stores around the world for the first time. Three years since gamers saw perhaps for the first time the true power of the new so called “next-gen” consoles. Three years since people watched in awe a true to life representation of their favorite boxers sitting on the corner and watching straight back. Yes, Fight Night fans, it has been three long years since the day EA Sports released the latest entry in their acclaimed boxing series and now gamers want something new. And something new is what they are all getting this year as the new game in the series, Fight Night Round 4, will be released this Summer under the watchful eye of new developer EA Canada. Recently, I had the pleasure to attend the headquarters in Vancouver and was able to catch a look on what they have been doing so far.
It's in the Details
When Fight Night Round 3 was released, it was a revelation to gamers around the world. It was perhaps the first game to give gamers a reason to upgrade their last-generation consoles to harness the visual powers of this new technology. To this day, Fight Night Round 3 is still a looker. So, what did EA Sports do to surpass themselves? They worked on the details. Fight Night Round 4 puts in use new effects and visual cues to make the game look realistic and more authentic to boxing when compared to Round 3. It all starts with the character models which look eerily close to their real life counterparts. You have heard about every muscle on a boxer's body being detailed and tuned in the game engine and I can say that it shows. Seeing Tyson bobbing and weaving toward Ali and then throwing an uppercut to the body puts in motion different areas of his trunk displaying muscles reacting accurately to the movement on screen. It is truly a feast to behold and adds a lot to the game in terms of making it look like two guys going at it.
The level of detail in the graphics department is also seen on the facial damage system which is now employed in the game engine. By now you may have seen some screenshots of Ali and Tyson being swollen and battered throughout the match. When compared to Round 3, this year's installment is closer to what you see in boxing matches in terms of the damage on boxers' faces. No longer do we see faces with damage in specific areas as a sticker on the character model face map but swelling now takes a whole cheek or eye socket. Blood is not only a careful stream running down a boxer's face but is splattered scarcely around the area as if a punch has scattered it all around. Again, details like this make the game feel true to the sport and real life.
By now, many of you have already seen the first in-game trailer released on March 12th. There has been a strong reaction to certain areas of what has been shown, specifically the animations displayed by the character models. In particular, many of you have criticized Ali's jab animation as one that does not closely resemble the one we all know from ESPN Classic reels. Let me put that argument to rest by saying this couldn't be farther from the truth. In motion and on a regular gameplay camera, Ali's jab along with all other animations in the game look swift and quicker than anything Round 3 could ever put on display. This aspect alone was perhaps the one that struck me the most about the game on first sight. Every animation, from Ali's jab to Tyson moving it at close range while bobbing and weaving, was exquisitely fluid and added a lot to what was already a great graphics package. Do not be fooled by the slow motion speed on IGN's trailer which was used for heightened drama. When you see this game in motion and on glorious 60fps you won't be disappointed and will forget about Round 3 in a split-second.
You are in the Ring
If there was one aspect of Round 3's impressive graphical presentation that did not fulfill the promise of next-gen consoles, it was the ring atmosphere surrounding the boxers battling it out. If you noticed the people around the ring, you only saw three to four polygonal models in the background repeating the same animations in tandem. This is not present in Fight Night Round 4. Finally, boxing is presented with the fanfare that surrounds the all-out wars happening on the ring. The crowd visually reacts to what is going on between both boxers and are more detailed than past models. Not only is the audience more detailed but now you got several key characters that you would expect to see in a real boxing match. While you play the game you will notice VIPs, judges, camera man taking pictures of the action, reporters and your corner men all standing close to the ring watching your every move. And they are all visible from the standard gameplay camera so they are not in there for the replays alone. Having details like this adds to the authenticity of the title and makes you feel like if you were watching a brawl on Pay-Per-View, or better yet dishing it out yourself.
Having spoken about corner men, it should be noted that your entourage is as detailed as the boxers themselves and there are several character models in display. This means your trainer will not be the same as your opponent's trainer with a different voice and clothes. Also, having your corner men walk in with you to the ring really adds to that boxing feel the game is trying to nail. And that also goes for the authentic ringwalks each boxer has. Long gone are the days of watching Ali dance to hip-hop in a boxing match, each ringwalk fits the boxer on screen. This is nowhere more apparent than when seeing Tyson walk his way toward battle. Seeing him walk menacingly with his crew behind him and with that classic towel on top of him is the sign of a game that is paying attention to details and catering for the hardcore boxing fans.
Isaac Newton in the Game?
By now you probably have read about the all new physics game engine that Fight Night Round 4 is putting to use for their latest go around at the videogame ring. Some might take this for a gimmick or a marketing tool. Yet, having witnessed the game firsthand I must say that this is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect that this new game is bringing to the table. The "No two punches are ever the same" mantra the EA Sports developers have been feeding the masses is a fact and it deeply affects the way you play and watch the game in motion. Punches land everywhere. They are not only restricted to specific parts of your opponent's body but to all his body and the air around him. Get to close to your opponent and a full extended hook could land on the back of his head. Throw a punch and have it graze your opponent's head and watch it move upwards. This goes to great lengths to mimic what occurs on a real boxing match. Watch highlight reels of boxing's greatest wars with punches going everywhere and you might be getting an idea of what this new physics engine can do. And yet with all these possibilities and punches flying, the action never looks awkward. It is fluid and as real as you could get without strapping some gloves on.
This new physics engine also allows for glancing blows or punches not fully hitting their target. Since punches are no longer restricted to specific "hit zones" in your opponent's body, they can theoretically land everywhere. This means punches can just graze your opponent's face without causing much damage, all depending of both of the character models position and movements. And again, punches do land everywhere on the boxers' bodies: arms, gloves, back of the head, chest, liver...It all opens for countless possibilities to attack which give away different reactions and always a fresh game to behold. This also extends to the knockdown animations which are still governed by physics as in previous releases of the series. All knockdowns are different and depend on the direction both boxers are moving and the punches thrown. There was never a time when a boxer fell like a dead body to the floor or when rubbery legs kept swinging back and forth until finally falling cold to the mattress. It seemed as if it was a deeply refined ragdoll system put to use for this specific area. With all these refined physics system in place, it begs the question: Did EA Sports have Isaac Newton as consultant for the game developing? It sure seems like it and the gamers are the ones that will be taking the fruits of these new physics system this year.
A Whole New Game
Fight Night Round 4 has been a long time coming. To date, hundreds of users daily are duking it out online on the Round 3 game servers and they are all craving for something new. And new is what they will get because with the marriage of stunning graphics, authentic visuals and revolutionary physics, Fight Night Round 4 has become the game hardcore boxing fans have been waiting for a long time. That holy grail of a game that properly displays what is like for two boxers to duke it out in the ring.
Stay tuned for future articles describing a more in-depth look at gameplay, controls and features.
For a video recap of the Communty Event, check it out here: Community Event