A Look At the Tools Used To Make Metal Gear Solid 4 58
Soft Image is running a detailed story about the making of Metal Gear Solid 4. They explain the game's development cycle, from the art direction to the animation of characters to the building of models and textures.
"In terms of bones used for constructing the bodies of characters, about 21 joint bones were used that contained animation data and were activated through these data. But many auxiliary bones were also used to supplement movements such as the twisting of knees, elbows, legs and arms. These were not activated by animation data. Rather, they were linked to the values of the basic joints that were activated by animation. ... They also used a tool to automatically generate the rig for controlling eyeball movement and the muscles around the eyes. Because the area around the eyes is also controlled using both shapes and bones, when the eyeball locator is moved, the muscles move smoothly just like they do for the mouth. Further, even if the shape is edited to redefine the eye edges, it does not spoil the blinking or brow furrow expressions at all."
Chasing lights. (Score:3, Funny)
"Games: A Look At the Tools Used To Make Metal Gear Solid 4"
Ah! Coming to a Blender's feature list...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know... that is what made XEyes such a great game!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Just wait until the recently announced XEyes MMORPG is released. This, my friend, will put Linux on the gaming map.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
If it was, for shame!
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Thank you ...
Quit making games that look cool but suck! This is a damn plague these days.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought MGS4 was actually a lot of fun. It was different from the first three (and I loved the first three, mind you), but it stayed the same in a lot of important ways. The people complaining about cutscenes obviously haven't played...oh...any of the Metal Gear Solid series or something, because they're always long as hell (and done with the kind of panache that makes the length OK, for me at least).
Re:Covering everything BUT ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I had mod points, I'd mod you redundant. This is said on almost every slashdot article involving game technologies. Yes, we all know that gameplay is more important than graphics, can you please find something new and interesting to say? Or do you need the guaranteed "insightful" karma?
Just because gameplay (just a stupid term btw, since every one has their own definition of it) is more important doesn't mean that developers shouldn't spend resources on trying to get past the uncanny valley, since it is a real problem for games that are trying to achieve a realistic look.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
solid/liquid snake? Toilet humor?!?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Never played the games, never been near a console game.
I had a friend once explain that the "metal gear solid" is a reference to one of the characters, someone called "Solid Snake" and the fighting robot suit called "metal gear". Apparently theres also someone named "Liquid Snake".
What I've always wondered is... are these names some kind of wierd Japanese toilet humor?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The original (2D) game was just called "Metal Gear". You played as "Solid Snake", and were trying to destoroy the ultimate weapon "Metal Gear". That made sense to me, even if the name Solid Snake seemed unfitting for a high-tech soldier.
I've always taken the "solid" moniker in the name to mean that the game had moved to 3D, and now had a solid environment instead of a flat one. After all, the second one is not called "Metal Gear Raiden" or anything.
Of course none of this answers your question. I've wondered
He got the name from Escape From New York (Score:2)
Hmmmm (Score:1)
I for one am interested in the piece on how they made the game and can't wait until the price on PS3s falls into the range I am comfortable with so I can purchase and play what is probably the best series of games bar none.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
As Ethanol-fueled said, there are A LOT of cut scenes. I think the cut scenes at the end alone added up to about an hour and a half.
I enjoyed it, though.
As far as the whole series goes, I would probably rate Snake Eater #1, Sons of Liberty #2, Guns of the Patriots #3, MGS #4, and MG #5. I never did play Solid Snake.
Rating the original #5 is a bit deceptive. I played it to death when it came out and enjoy it every time I have played it since, but I really like the complexity (CQC, sneaking being har
Re: (Score:1)
What they needed (Score:1)
I could have... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I could have... (Score:4, Funny)
01001001 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01100110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101010
01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01111001 01110000
01100101 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000
01101001 01101110 01100100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01100100 01110101 01100001 01101100
00100000 01100010 01101001 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000
01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01110010 01100101
00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00101110
Rather have MSG than MGS (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
How about a bird that can be blown to bits (feathers showering down) because it's sitting on a fence and I can do it without PETA coming after me?
I dunno about 4, but that you could shoot as many pigeons as you could see in MGS2. It's not entirely malicious, as you usually do it as revenge after they cause you to plummet to your death. Back on topic, I agree, as do most players, that games don't have to have cutting-edge graphics to sell well, as long as they have decent game play and story, although it definitely doesn't hurt. Metal Gear Solid games, however, have always presented themselves as a more of a playable movie than as a pure game, and
Re: (Score:2)
Are you serious? I've found that MGS is better for this kind of thing than most games. You could snipe birds and rats, and you needed to lead them sort of realistically (except for your always-perfect aim which ignores wind). And yes, the birds do spray a few feathers and gore upon a hit (unless you tranq'ed them). That and the fact that you can get stung by hornets in MGS3 actually makes you think you posted facetiously, but whatever.
One good example of this kind of detail is in MGS2, almost on the level o
Re: (Score:2)
You appear to be the only one rolling on the floor laughinging
How many tools did it take... (Score:2)
to require three different accounts to play online.
In all seriousness, what the fuck?
I have my playstation account. Cool, but that isn't good enough. I sign into my playstation account and now I have to sign into a konami account? Uh, ok. That's great, I guess they wanted something that the playstation account couldn't provide.
Ok, all set, wait a third account? A gamer account? Uh, ok.
Yeah, I played MGS4 online one time and decided not to bother again. Three login screens was too much for a mediocre
A fascinating article, but... (Score:1)
A fascinating article, but it focuses too much on graphics and ignores the true point of the game series.
What software was used to write and manage revisions of the voice script? How was voice recorded, processed and stored?
=)
Muscle System / Driven Key Frames (Score:2)
But many auxiliary bones were also used to supplement movements such as the twisting of knees, elbows, legs and arms. These were not activated by animation data. Rather, they were linked to the values of the basic joints that were activated by animation.
We are doing something similar in MK vs DC Universe. Our Superheroes, Villians, and Kombatants have muscles that flex and move based on the position of other joints. This is done in Maya through "Set Driven Keys" and implemented in the game through a custom-runtime. It cuts down on the animation data required for an extremely large skeleton and it looks much more natural (biceps flex when arm bends). It's a win in both the memory footprint and visuals.
The cost comes with processing time and developer
all this tech is great... (Score:2)
But the NES Metal Gear was still more challenging and fun.