All comments

Wow. Digging that theme song.


I believe the next cutscene right after this is where Dante crashes into that same theatre and goes apeshit and kills the priest?

Not watching ... until I get the game. DMC is all about its cut scenes so Im keeping the surprise till I get the game!

What the hell is up with developers these days, giving away all the plot details, going behind the scenes... all before the game even releases. It's really fucking annoying. I hate being tempted.

Lost planet engine <3, the realtime cutscenes are sooooo pretty.

Give us the demo *cries*

While I'm sure the in-game cutscenes in DMC 4 will look great, this particular one probably isn't in-game. There are too many transitions and multiple locations at once. It's a pre-rendered video, just like the prologue video for DMC3.

It looks to me like they're using in-game models with touch-up'd effects, similar to Heavenly Sword.

No, it's real-time.

I believe at TGS 07, Capcom did a demonstration of their engine by pausing and manipulating the cutscenes. You can't do this with pre-rendered videos since it's more or less a video recording.

Here it is:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/14076.html

Whoa bad voice acting, its like the VA guy for Nero is trying to come off tough or something, and it just doesn't work.. :S

Nice cutscsne though, is this using same engine as RE5 ?

The prologue looks touched up. The lighting and shadowing on the buildings look nothing like how it does in the real-time cutscene.

When you're doing an in-game cutscene, you don't have to worry about things such as behavioral routines, animation sets, etc.,

With this means is that the engine has more room to flex it's muscles during cutscenes, than during gameplay. This applies to nearly everything.

Take NG2 for instance, during cutscenes -- there appears to be self-shadowing. During gameplay...not so much. But they are both real-time.

And yes, this is Capcom's gold mine-engine, which sets them above and beyond every other Japanese developer. MGS4 is cute n' all, but its only one game from Konami. Capcom has consistantly shown gorgeous looking games from all types, 30 fps to 60 fps etc.,

RE5 also uses this engine, though it doesn't run at 60 fps like DMC4 does.

So you agree with what I originally said. "In-game models with touched-up effects."

[quote=vspectra06]

Well, not really. The engine is the engine. Nothing is being touched-up. It's simply being designed to the best of what the in-game graphics engine can handle.

Saying touched-up, usually in art-'cana' -- is an implication of post processing. And in video game lingo, that implies pre-rendered. (such as Heavenly Sword).

Lost Planet had a feature where you could pause and manipulate the cutscenes, DMC4 also has this. So, ultimately -- the 360 and PS3 is generating those images. Saying it's touched up, would imply the gameplay is 'touched down' or something. No. The engine does what it can during certain circumstances. That is all, nothing is being touched up or downgraded or the like.

Some engines perform better doing interior environments than external, which typically require higher polygon counts, larger range of lighting and more detailed textures. So its no surprise the prologue vid looks slightly better.

What's being touched up is the gameplay graphics. The cutscene graphics look better than the gameplay ones from what I'm seeing, so I consider it to be "touched up" compared to the gameplay assets. Both might be real-time but it doesn't mean they look equally as great. The term "touch-up" doesn't apply exclusively to pre-rendered videos.

Just look at the lighting and shadowing in the prologue; I haven't seen any gameplay buildings that look like that. So yes, the graphics look to be upgraded in the cutscenes since the devs have more room for improvements without having to consider A.I, "animation sets, and behavioral routines" as you stated. It's also very noticeable in the character lighting and shadowing.

http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/5947/97...
http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/6921/97...

http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/7166/97...
http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/5947/97...

I'm not saying all of the cutscenes are like this, but there's a selected few where I can see this level of difference.Compare the outdoor environments in the prologue to the outdoor environments in the second video. There's a clear difference between the two.

yeh first video is a hell of alot darker, is only a narrow street, and only features Dante and the enemies.

Whilst the second features a much larger area, full skyline, two other high detailed characters aswell as bunch of human drones running around being slaughtered.

cutscenes are 30fps, gameplay is 60fps right?

I think it's all 60 fps.

The only reason why (all video games) have better in-game looking cutscenes than gameplay is as I said before, you don't need to worry about animations in memory, A.I, behavior for things both on screen and off etc., more of "power of the engine" free for straight polys and textures.

Saying touched up, is implying that something is being made, and you go in afterwards and artifically enhance it. No, simply put, there is a cutscene model, and there is a gameplay model. Both are being generated real-time by the 360, it's just one of the models is more detailed because the graphics engine doesn't have to worry about the subtle details involved during actual gameplay.


Also, a lot of you are giving way too much credit to the visuals in the prologue video. The only reason why that 'alleyway' looks so good is more due to so to intelligent art design. Using the bright dusk lighting, it creates a dark, shadow too drop down. If you look at the building sides, they are mostly flat textures, but it's covered because it's darkened, and our eyes are fixated at the "beatiful sunset." This is how Capcom can make DMC4 such a good looking game, despite it running at a taxing 60 frames.

I really hope this game is better than the original trilogy. I HATED those games. Clunky controls, poor save system, repetitive, boring combat, a story I didn't care about, and just poor game design through and through... God of War was just so much better, and I don't think anyone can disagree with that.

yes somebody that understands.

Not just Capcom, every developer uses this tactic, buts as the graphic engines and processing powers improve this becomes less and less noticable. For example just go back to the PS2 play GT and compare it to the replays, theres a huge difference! But now look at PGR4 gameplay and replays, the difference is almost non existant.

actually, i think everyone would disagree with that.

GOW = nice boss fights, nice story (if you care about it in action games anyway), great graphics (with rampant tearing), nice magic.

and violence of course, other than that i see nothing great about it.

There's really no argument here whether the scenes are realtime or not. It's quite obvious they are real time. The first Xbox rendered realtime cutscenes with ease. Were just seeing some seriously clean graphics here with an awesome art style that exemplifies that the developers aren't as lazy as some. Polygons don't tax the hardware as much this gen; it's when you start going crazy with the dynamic lighting, crazy textures, self shadowing, NPCS, at 60 fps that can cause a performance drop. I don't see a whole lot of that going on at all in these cutscenes. The artists are just that good.

Exactly.

As detailed as Kyrie (the chick that sings) is, the cutscene is well contained, not -too- many characters on screen etc.

I'm surprised people don't expect more out of next-gen hardware. Yes, it's very impressive, but nothing impossible.