Remedy aims to beat L.A. Noire tech

By Robert Purchese Published 12 April, 2011

Rockstar "set a bar", admits Alan Wake dev.

Yes, L.A. Noire has impressive facial animation, but Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment reckons its new technology is even better.

The Finnish studio captures a detailed scan of an actor, including 64 facial expressions (a base from which any look can apparently be created), reported Edge Online. Animators then do the rest - a system removes the need to act and capture each scene.

Remedy is even working on a way to copy blood flow beneath the skin, allowing cheeks to flush realistically when tempers flare, for example.

"L.A. Noire has set a bar for facial animation," Remedy CEO Matthias Myllyrinne accepted. He thrust one hand forward then another significantly higher and said, "But [Rockstar's game] is here, we're aiming to be here."

Whether that new Remedy game is Alan Wake 2 we don't know for certain. The model Remedy demonstrated the new technology with to Edge Online was Alan Wake's Ikka Villi.

Posts for job vacancies at the Finnish developer have also hinted at Alan Wake 2 - a game Remedy has confirmed to Eurogamer will be exclusive to PC and Xbox 360 should it exist.

L.A. Noire relies on a groundbreaking facial animation system as a core gameplay mechanic. Working out if one of your detective's suspects is lying is tantamount to your success. Team Bondi's game invested heavily in technology that automatically recreates a real actor's look and performance in game, saving hours and hours of painstaking animation. L.A. Noire launches next month.

L.A. Noire in action.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Octoroc #1 1 year ago

    Are Remedy biting off more than they can chew again?

  • jablonski #2 1 year ago

    Seeing as how the sections in LA Noire with the fantastic facial animation are all non-interactive cut scenes, why not just film the real actor in front of greenscreen and use him?

  • altitude2k #3 1 year ago

    If they can, then great. If they can't, then at least they're putting that effort in, which will result in better results than if they hadn't tried.

    Good luck to them, I say.

  • evild_edd #4 1 year ago

    @frankfurter209 "You wouldn't know it from Alan Wake's rubber faced characters. "

    Given that AW came out over a year ago, and LA Noire is due out in May this year, I think it's fairly safe to assume that their new tech is for the next release, rather than the one already on shop shelves...

    I, for one, am looking forward to an AW2 (which I hope will happen). Enjoyed the first as a flawed but engaging title. Just hope Remedy can add a little more variety to the gameplay....

  • Deckard1 #5 1 year ago

    @jablonski

    Its not just cutscenes it's used in. And it also gives you a 360 image of the performance you can use in anyway you want. Plus actors on a green screen would look shit.

  • MrEuroTrigger #6 1 year ago

    I donīt care what beat what. I wish Remedy will persuade MS to release it on PC as well as Rockstar&Bondi will do the same with LA Noire. I will gladly pass some minor flaws of facial animations in both games.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #7 1 year ago

    Take note Cage. THATs how you compliment another company's tech whilst still publicising your own.

  • TruWari3r #8 1 year ago

    "Seeing as how the sections in LA Noire with the fantastic facial animation are all non-interactive cut scenes, why not just film the real actor in front of greenscreen and use him? "

    Actually no,

    a) you haven't seen the interrogation gameplay, which relies heavy on the facial animation.
    b) all throughout the game, every person you meet will have this great facial animation, every voice acting bit is done with this great facial animation.
    c) there's this popular word called immersion, as developers choose to have the cutscenes done in the same manner as the rest of the game to not break the magic.

  • jag10 #9 1 year ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYyf3vb6_aw

  • Negotiator #10 1 year ago

    I loved Alan Wake but the face animation in that game was not the best even when it came out, but if they have created better tech for AW 2, bring it on.

  • PixelPirate #11 1 year ago

    The animation can be the most awesome technically clever thing ever seen.

    But if the game is crap I won't buy it.

  • Mercatoria #12 1 year ago

    "Animators then do the rest - a system removes the need to act and capture each scene. "

    Maybe there have missed the point. Having an animator guess the look and reaction is something very different from having someone play the part properly.

    There is a big difference between perception and reality

  • BillyBrush #13 1 year ago

    I cannot wait to play another Remedy game...AW for me personally was just perfect...it's one of those games you can just keep playing for 3hr stretches.

  • LetsGo #14 1 year ago

    I think Remedy should concentrate a little more on gameplay rather than tech this time around....

  • nuanimal #15 1 year ago

    "Animators then do the rest - a system removes the need to act and capture each scene."

    No big deal this has been around for ages and not just in games. Jennifer Lopez already has her own system that removes any sense of acting in every scene she's in.



  • Yuroko #16 1 year ago

    The thing is, for me, when it all starts to get a bit too realistic I don't think I'll enjoy shooting people that much, I reckon I will feel guilty. I struggle playing the bad guy in moral based games as it is, as if I am going to hurt the characters feelings. This is an extension of that. Sounds silly, I know.

  • spekkeh #17 1 year ago

    Sounds silly, I know.

    Sounds excellent really, if a shooting game can conjure up more emotions than just wanton sadism.

  • evild_edd #18 1 year ago

    @Yuroko:

    You could always just stick to shooters that focus on sniping and mortaring the enemy from tactic, safe with the feeling that they're non-descript blobs on the distance and therefore not real people suffering slow and horrifically painful deaths.

    I understand that this is a tactic the US military has been using for some time....(the Battlefield 3 trailer where they rocket an entire building to whipe out a lone striker wasn't as unrealistic or tongue-in-cheek as some interpreted it to be)

  • StooMonster #19 1 year ago

    I enjoyed Alan Wake, but the facial animation was like rubberised versions of shop window dummies ... the uncanny valley effect nearly ruined the whole game for me.

    So, if they've solved this and it's as good as or better than L.A. Noire looks to be then fantastic, but Remedy have talked big before.

  • spongebob #20 1 year ago

    With the new tech the characters in game can blush everytime there's an embarrassingly stupid gameplay moment! That's what I call realistic!

  • bratmandu #21 1 year ago

    This is the kind of competition I like hearing about, two companies trying to advance past the standard forms of animation, to deliver a really immersive experience - better than the squabbles of kotick, molyneux and blezinski.

  • CamberGreber #22 1 year ago

    With the Low Quality Facial Animations on Alan Wake Im a little Worried.
    Although that was most likely caused by time contraints (they couldnt trade out the Stand in Animation before launch).

    Heres hopeing the game this Tech is for is ALAN WAKE 2.

  • Xardan #23 1 year ago

    Alan Wake 2 looks even more likely. Woohoo!

  • homerramone #24 1 year ago

    And we only have to wait 5 years to see this mega improvment...

  • mkreku #25 1 year ago

    Anyone remember the awesome tech demo Remedy did on the then new four core Intel CPU's (and top-of-the-line GPU's) back in the day? The one with the open world, tornado stricken, Havok physics enabled gameplay? It was called Alan Wake.

    Now compare that to the Alan Wake that was finally released five years later. Beat LA Noire? I'm not betting any money on that.

  • Ror1984 #26 1 year ago

    "Yes, L.A. Noire has impressive facial animation, but Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment reckons its new technology is even better"

    There's a difference between claiming your tech is better and telling people you're aiming for yours to be better.

    Regardless of how much I enjoyed Alan Wake (a lot), the facial animation was very poor. Even if their tech doesn't at least match R*'s, hopefully it'll be a significant update over that of the original game.

    As for L.A. Noire... I'm not a fan of R* games. I always get bored after about 20 minutes. But I'm fairly sure I'll be buying this one.

  • Ryze #27 1 year ago

    Show 'n' Prove.

  • smoothpete #28 1 year ago

    "Seeing as how the sections in LA Noire with the fantastic facial animation are all non-interactive cut scenes, why not just film the real actor in front of greenscreen and use him? "

    Wrong. The facial tech appears throughout. It's on, all the time. During the shootouts for example, its used then.

  • YenRug #29 1 year ago

    @jablonski

    Go back and watch all the trailers again, then take note of the comment from Rockstar that everything you see is generated in-game and is not pre-rendered in any way.

  • Smoped #30 1 year ago

    Did they really say 360? Because considering their speed and the desire to top everybody else, the game won't be finished before the Xbox 720 is released. Hell, it's likely that the Xbox 1440 will be released before Remedy's next game.

  • menage #31 1 year ago

    Alan Wake was great, that is all.

  • dean0null #32 1 year ago

    I really hope it is Alan Wake 2, but they need to take out and beat the designers that created the mini-map where you knew where to go every second of the way.

  • davisorle #33 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Kaminari #34 1 year ago

    Can't wait to play the next Remedy game around 2015.

  • kongzi #35 1 year ago

    makes sense for them to work on that. In Wake, the facial animations, and to a lesser extent, were weak compared to the rest of the package. In terms of pushing pixels and polygons there's not a whole lot of headroom for this generation to get better. In animation/character, there's still a lot to do. So I expect that to be one of the main aspects developers are going to improve in the coming years. Still any solution that doesn't do a facial and body capture at the same time isn't the optimal one.

    btw, that subdermal bloodflow sounds to me like it's a texture or shader effect. They make it sound a lot cooler than it actually is. I think that effort woud be better spent on other areas. Flushing cheeks is something you're not going to immediately notice on a midsize screen, the kind of stiff, hokey animation thats the standard in games is.