![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , December 13, 2005
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Valve Goes Cinematic
Valve is using cutting edge technologies to push the Source engine to new cinematic heights. We give you an overview of what Valve is developing to add depth to your Source engine gaming experience.
Real-Time Effects
Now we will talk about some real-time effects that will be implemented in Day of Defeat in a Steam update soon. These effects can very much be used today and cause no large performance drops on current video cards; in fact, the performance difference on today’s cards is minimal, a few frames per second loss is all.
Color Correction:
Color Correction has been used in film for a long time now. Many movies use color to relate a specific tone, feel, or mood to a movie. A couple of good examples are Minority Report, which used a very blue color to present a very cold, futuristic look. Then there is the recent movie Sin City, which uses color differences to give a graphic novel look to the movie. The same thing can be applied to games to give or change the mood of a certain scene in the game.
Typically, when you want to change the color or tone of the game, you have to actually edit the art itself in the game. With Valve’s new Color Correction technology in Source, you do not have to edit any game art at all. This also presents the benefit of being able to re-use game art and simply use Color Correction to change the level or event specific look. In the first comparison above, you can see that Day of Defeat can be moved from day to night without having to edit the game art. Using a texture-based lookup operation, Valve can change the color properties on the fly as a post process. If you are at all familiar with Photoshop, you can understand how this is done with layers.
Valve provided a real-time demo of these effects for us to show you today. This is a level created by Valve that shows you what Color Correction and the Film Grain and Dust effects look like in-game in Day of Defeat. First, we will look at Color Correction.
In the first screenshot, you can see how the game looks normally. As we step up to each pad, a new preset color scheme is implemented in the game dynamically. Stepping on the day as night pad makes the game look like you are playing at night, all without having to change up the colors on any textures—it is all done automatically. The high contrast preset level adds overly bright contrast to everything. The sepia preset level creates a very somber World War II feeling to the game. Finally, black and white is there to show you some of the extremes you can go to with this effect.
Valve has implanted a very easy to use user interface within the game to control all the color levels for Color Correction. If you are used to Photoshop, you will better understand how to manipulate these controls and understand how everything is done in layers. These controls allow you to control every color and balance level for the game. The top left window shows you all the colors currently visible in the scene. As we adjust levels, you can see how they can affect the game on the fly. With just the push of a slider, we can completely change the mood of a scene and make it day or night. In the last screenshot, you can see how our manipulation has changed this scene making it a very eerie, dark setting.
Film Grain and Dust:
Another special effect Valve is working on is film grain, dust, and noise. If you have ever watched an old movie or a clip meant to represent an old time period, you will notice that there is dust and grain on the film or popping. This is even seen on modern films that have some defects that cause black splotches or problems with the film. These are all elements that play into our movie watching. They are also elements that play into our perception in regards to the age of a film. If you are watching an old World War II movie, you expect to see a lot of dust, and noise and grain the film. A producer can intentionally add these effects to give you the impression that it is an old time movie taking place in the past. The same thing can be done with games as a post process.
For the most part, these effects are mostly used in cut scenes to make you feel like you are watching a real movie. In gameplay, these effects may not be needed as much except in specific circumstances that may play into the gameplay aspect of a single-player game. Certainly this film grain effect may be distracting to you in a multiplayer game. Since single player is more like telling a story, introducing some noise or grain here and there can help make the game feel more cinematic. Again, this is a fine balance the game content developer must walk to determine where and when this noise needs to be added to improve the gameplay.
Here are some in-game examples of film grain in Day of Defeat. The first screenshot shows you what the game looks like normally. In the second screenshot, we have stepped onto the film grain pad. This is a very heavy use of the grain to show you what it looks like. The game content developer can lessen or increase the level of noise depending on the situation. In the final screenshot, you can see Film Grain combined with Color Correction.
What Does It All Mean:
What it all means is that Valve has some great 3D gaming ideas in store for us in future titles. The Source engine is incredibly flexible and it allows Valve to keep pushing 3D effects in games. It seemed like this event was held to convince people of the real potential that these effects can bring to us in terms of gameplay. We can certainly see the benefit of Motion Blur and Depth of Field for use in single player games where you are telling a story and may want to focus attention to and away from certain areas. We aren’t quite sure how this is going to work for multiplayer games, however, where the benefit of 3D gaming is the ability to see everything clearly at all times and freely roam around putting the focus on the things you want. We will just have to wait until these effects are implemented in a multiplayer game to see how it all works out. Like High Dynamic Range (HDR) effects, some hardcore multiplayer gamers may chose to disable the effects if they become too distracting or a hindrance to their gaming.
Color Correction and Film Grain are also neat effects. Color Correction is probably more important than Film Grain since this technique can be used to set the mood of a scene without having to change game content art. Art can be re-used for scenes and if you want to change the mood, just change the color with an easy-to-use interface. Another area where these movie-like effects could benefit people are in films that are created by using 3D rendering engines or games. You may be aware of Red vs. Blue. These videos are created by using a game. This is a growing field where actual gaming engines are being used to aid in films, whether it be literally used or used to aid in CGI rendering for a film. With the new effects Valve is implementing, this could further push game engines to be used for media other than just games.
One thing is for sure, Valve is focused on bringing some cool effects to games as we have seen with HDR and these new effects talked about today. We look forward to new games that can implement all of these features and bring the gaming experience one step closer to realism.
Oh, and what about Team Fortress 2 you may ask? Valve is silent. As for Aftermath, the word is we should see it around the end of Q1 2006.