Grand Theft Non-Auto
In context of my current day job and former profession, I had a very good have a look at the newest GTA VI trailer in wonderful 4K resolution. I haven’t been keen on this game since across the third instalment because it’s not a automotive game anymore. The 26 minutes of footage and motion showed some driving, but mostly the story mode is presented as a life/walking/shooting people in the top simulator. This latest iteration does look visually stunning though!
Let’s speak about Game Art not automotive styling.. just this once.
Of the 1000s of talented artists and modellers on this project there don’t appear to have been many automotive enthusiasts amongst them. To not the extent that I’d obsess over after I was a lead automotive designer within the games business (LOL). For years now the cars have been borderline copyright infringements, but with the newest graphical fidelity I spotted some odd details similar to these below. In game and movie prop design we call these details “greebles”. A practice perfected by ILM with Star Wars ship models, these random details were added by model makers with no thought or idea of the function. Works great when creating detail on a Death-star trench run at speed, but for a automotive interior close up? No thanks from an OCD automotive geek. You had the actual automotive for reference right? Even should you don’t drive you at the least sat behind an Uber and noticed you could’t adjust wing mirrors from back there…?
There’s I think a reason for this front/rear door similarity, and that’s a modular-asset kit. The door card is equivalent, and is solely repeated for any door. A modular part labelled “door handle” would make sense for artists to re-use, although it could must be era-dated for every age of automotive in the sport. There could even be a procedural tool used to attain this, somewhat than hand authoring by a human 3D artist. That might be a wonderful time saving process but a facet often neglected is the UV mapping and texturing (for non professionals this implies slapping pictures on 3D models, somewhat than creating every detail). Re-using this area of a texture map would save memory space over specific front or rear door layouts, however the counter argument to this could be simply not to make use of this particular modular “door handle” greeble asset. One modular handle asset is flipped for left or right, and re-used front to back. This chunk of the door model/texture could simply be recreated without the mirror controls, for more accuracy. I doubt anyone would notice a lack of mirror controls but surely automotive nerds will notice the incorrect placement of mirror controls?
Overall a really impressive graphical achievement though, in lighting and details similar to the hair physics. The character modelling and animation team are absolutely one of the best on the world. I’m sure the script and acting can be top notch also. The lighting of all the world is astonishingly realistic, and the automotive physics are good too. Every detail in any game of this fidelity can be scrutinised by an authority somewhere on the earth however it’s fair to say 95% of players won’t ever notice this issue. This “mistake” does emphasises the extent of research/expertise now desirable for working game artists though. The paintwork gleams, but do any petrol heads work on this franchise and does this matter if Grand Theft AUTO isn’t any longer a automotive game?
Should you are keen on some next-level evaluation on the actual graphical tech I’d all the time recommend Digital Foundry.
In fact if you need to study Game Art I’ll recommend The Games Academy.
This Article First Appeared At autostyling.wordpress.com
