Motion capture in video games is not a new thing. Developers have continuously pushed the boundaries of video games by continuously working and evolving the technology behind motion capture. For those of you who are not sure about the term motion capture, let me explain it to you.From Wikipedia the definition is: “Motion capture, motion tracking, or mo cap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model. Initially invented in Scotland, it is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications. In film making it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 3D animation. When it includes face, fingers and captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture.”
Enough of the gizmo talk now lets come to the actual video games. The PS3 was released as a powerful console capable of doing things that of course the PS2 cannot. In this article we list out some video games along with some videos of the games released and to be released on Sony’s next gen console. Also please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
1. Heavenly Sword
Released on the PS3 back in 2007, Heavenly Sword was perhaps one of the first few games that implemented motion capture technology to its fullest. The game truly redefined on how motion capture should be done in Video games, The game was developed using Havok Complete, an engine which was a combination of Havok Physics and Havok Animation. Overall the game felt real when played and portrayed top notch cinema value productions. See the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAgXJWGV4s
2. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune
Released in the same year as Heavenly Sword, Nathan Drakes first entry in to video games proved to be a good one. Not only the game got high praises for its game play but the amount of work that Naughty Dog had done in their motion capture was just astounding. Characters felt alive, their lip sync was was just as good as the real thing and of course with the power of cell processor the game easily went a step ahead from what Heavenly Sword had achieved. See the video below:
Update: This video is no longer available.
3. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Its amazing that even after a year since its release, MGS4 still gets mentioned so often on the Internet and we at GB just cant keep this game away from the list. The unique thing about the game was that all the characters in the game were based on some real person and all of them had undergone motion capture so that game gets their movements right. The main enemy unit in the game, The Beauty and the Beast unit were all real lovely women who had undergone motion capture so that they can have the required impact in the video game.
Watch the video below:
4. Heavy Rain
If Quantic Dreams standard of game development is to be considered that this game might blow all other games mentioned in the list above. I wont go in to the details about this game , since its scheduled to be released in 2010. In the mean time watch the video below and just see for yourself how the developers at Quantic Dream are hard at work in blurring the line between reality and video games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhV17s947lM
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