I have every sympathy with Shigeru Miyamoto. When Zelda: Wind Waker was originally revealed, the Great Man was barracked from many quarters about the shift to a new look. It was a bold decision originally; Link and the world of Hyrule are completely different from previous incarnations, and this progression in visual style was bound to provoke a reaction - both good and bad - from the many loyal fans.
Of course, Miyamoto has been vindicated; Zelda is a triumph of style and substance, demonstrating that with creativity and a commitment to evolution, spectacular results can be achieved from an original and imaginative visual style.
In a more low-key way we, too, were criticised by some gamers for changing the look of the Broken Sword world and the characters that, over time, they have come to know so well. And, like Zelda, I'm convinced that anyone concerned about the shift to 3D will welcome the change in graphical style once they see the game running.
Much of this month has been spent tweaking the visual style of the locations and characters which will appear in the finished game. The visual style has certainly come a long way since we first started the pre-production stage over a year ago. The first two Broken Sword games were often praised for their cartoon-quality visuals. With those games we had deliberately aimed for a Disney-style, which was way ahead of its time for computer games. In discussing the style of The Sleeping Dragon, we contemplated keeping a similar look. Indeed, early test screens used cartoon renderer algorithms to emulate the original style.
However, the look did not deliver what we had hoped it would. It is the shadow on a character that defines and gives it shape. The 'flat' look - what has been dubbed 2.5D - simply delivered a style that lacked visual depth. Indeed, one of the primary benefits of 3D was being squandered. This was not the revolutionary leap we were striving for: so it was back to the drawing board - literally.
Our criteria for the style was simple but ambitious. We wanted the visuals to look believable but not necessarily realistic. In particular we had no interest in photo realism. While certain genres, particularly simulations, understandably aim to be as visually realistic as possible, we have the opportunity to push the style beyond realism. The Japanese animated films, in particular, provided a great reference. Akira blew me away when I saw it originally - a rich, amazing story which could never properly translate to film. More recently, the excellent Princess Mononoke points to a graphic style that is so rich; it shows what can be done by escaping from the confines of reality. These two examples are very much aspirations of Revolution.
To achieve our objectives, it was clear that we would need custom technology. We wanted rich colours with sophisticated shadowing to create believable visual contrast. In particular we wanted to escape the flat/repeat texture look of so many 3D games. To do this, the technology and the art teams worked closely to develop an innovative variation of dual-pass texturing technology whereby the first pass applied the flat textures, while the second applied a detailed light-map. Textures were hand drawn to achieve the 'cartoon' look, while the light-map employed 'radiosity' to create very
realistic lighting.
Current games that use dual-pass texturing generate light-maps off-line using ray-tracing - a technique in which a light ray (or photon) is fired, in a backward direction, from the eye towards the scene and ultimately the light source. The rays are tested against all the objects in the scene and the appropriate pixel is set to the colour values determined by how the specific ray has been affected. Ray tracing algorithms are well understood and easy to implement. The technique however is prone to aliasing, and does not account for bounce lighting.
Radiosity is a more advanced rendering technique that performs a complex analysis of light reflections off diffuse surfaces. This, in particular, allows for light bouncing from one surface onto another, and results in subtle shadows and hues. So, for example, a strong light can bounce off a yellow wooden floor and that light will then be carried around the room subtly affecting the walls and ceiling.
So the technological requirement was achieved through the development of a sophisticated light-mapping system which renders the light-map offline using radiosity techniques and then applies it in real time. This gives us the opportunity to, for example, get the vivid dapple where the light comes through a tree's leaves, and harsh shadows in corners which are not affected by a light source. On the PlayStation 2 in particular, this is very much a first.
The move to 3D with the advance in hardware has allowed us to move to 24bit colour. Combine radiosity with this increase in colour depth and the result really is stunning.
And of course we continue to implement the content; particularly the backgrounds, animation and dialogue. The critical path of the project makes it necessary to lock the dialogue fairly soon so that it can be recorded and translated into multiple languages - but that cannot be done until the logic is fully implemented and the backgrounds complete to the extent that the situations and descriptions can be precisely written. I hope to update you on this next time.
So until then,
Best,
Charles
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