Cloud Imperium Games Adds Faceware Player-Driven Facial Animation To 'Star Citizen'
Faceware’s facial animation motion capture solution is widely used in the video game development industry for capturing facial animation for scripted NPC characters, but the company wants to extend that capability to offer more realism in player-to-player interactions. Faceware recently released the Faceware LiveSKD, which allows developers to enable real-time, player-driven facial animations in their player avatars. Cloud Imperium Games is the first developer to announce that it's leveraging the technology for a game.
“This is the first time any game has used this kind of technology to detect and stream the facial movements of players in real-time, and I believe it’s a revolutionary step in gaming,” said Chris Roberts, chairman, and CEO of Cloud Imperium Games. “For the first time, we’ll be able to deliver the full range of human emotion, not just voice. Our players’ facial expressions will be translated onto their avatars’ face. Combine that with a player’s voice correctly positioned in the virtual world, and you have the most lifelike player-to-player communication ever.”
Cloud Imperium Games used the Faceware LiveSDK to develop a communication feature called Face Over Internet Protocol (FOIP), which handles voice communication between players in the Star Citizen universe. FOIP also handles the transmission of facial expression details so that your avatar’s facial animation syncs up with what you’re saying in real time. The FOIP feature will work with a “soon-to-be-released facial motion sensor” from Faceware. We don’t know many details about the camera yet, but Cloud Imperium Games said that it could “detect hundreds of facial movements in a variety of lighting conditions.”
“We’re seeing more and more interest in this sort of real-time animation, but Cloud Imperium is the first game company to take it to this level,” said Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware Technologies. “I can’t wait to see the reaction of Star Citizen fans as they chat, in-game, about their next mission, their ships, or what they had for breakfast. Player-driven characters could change multiplayer games forever.”
Cloud Imperium Games didn’t say when the FOIP feature would be available to try. Even if it’s available today, it wouldn’t matter; Faceware is still mum about the expression tracking camera that you would need before using the new chat feature.
The game crashing during todays Gamescon Demo was priceless.
That statement is inaccurate. According to their presentation, you can use a normal webcam, and the technology will work. Faceware's camera, like a GTX 1080ti, is only necessary if you want the BEST experience. (albeit presumably not nearly as expensive as a 1080ti)
The issue is one of the camera's FPS and lens. Again according to their presentation, standard webcams record at 30fps and at a relatively wide angle. FaceWare's camera will record images at 60fps (enabling smoother animation), have a lens with a narrower field of view (making the players face larger, and thereby allowing greater accuracy in tracking expressions), and use an image sensor better suited to low light situations (since a lot of us play with the lights off.)
Also, the story missed another major point - it also has head tracking, making the $150 TrackIR with it's silly hat clip obsolete. And so as long as their camera costs less than $150, I'm sold.
I don't think it's a useless feature... but it isn't essential. At this point in their, errm, "Development Cycle" they should have a locked-down featureset and be focused on fixing/polishing their concrete plans. NOT adding new non-essential features. This kind of thing could be added to the game in a major update down the road. They need to get the core game full operational and work to boost performance (not drag it down). Star Citizen is like this eternal project that seeks to stay cutting edge, so they add new features which delay it, which means more tech comes out in the meantime that has to be added to stay cutting edge... Codename: Project Quagmire.
Thats my exact feelings
Cutting edge technology? Last time I have seen SC it look like few years old game with crappie textures and not impressive 3D model's. Let sey something between Mass Effect 1 and 2. I tell you its Duke Nukem all over again next they gone start to mess with the engine and game will be delayed even further and then they run out of money and go bankrupt. Didn't they already took bank loan ?
While I have a hard time defending them, no they didn't take a loan, they have something like $150m in pre purchases. As for the game, you must have been looking at something else, the graphics when it functions are literally beautiful, absolutely unreal quality.
We must remember these games differently.
I just check one of newest videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCtdyNFwQWo
and I say again graphics look outdated. Better then before when it look simply awful but still nothing special. For example Rage from 2011 looks as good if not better and Metro Last Light from 2013 look better.
You are saying this looks just as good as that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2375yukmK8c
You need to get your eyes checked my friend.
Yes for me it look very similar + I use ALOT texture pack and ME2 look a bit better when I play it like a month ago.
This is an amateur operation with zero focus of project management techniques at work. I wanted to believe but my money and anyone else's money is sunk at this point. Feel bad for those guys that donated thousands when reality kicks in. I can live w/o $30
You can't be serious. I've played A:I its excellent, but no it doesn't even look vaguely as good. I will give you SC was (and often still is) choppy as hell except on the best hardware, but choppy performance (it is still Alpha) is not an indicator of graphic quality.
SC:
A:I
Where did I read about SC's graphics? Literally everywhere, every review.
SC is pretty choppy, but not as bad as when they only had the hangar module. That was a shocker.
Now comparing with Alien: Isolation is a bit unfair. That game has a tiny "world" so making it detailed to the nth degree is comparatively easy. It is also finished, whereas SC is not (and may never be, but that's another issue).