I played through TMA on my PS5 last night when it became available. I had a number of reactions, in no particular order: It's great to return to the world of the Matrix! I was hugely into these...
I played through TMA on my PS5 last night when it became available. I had a number of reactions, in no particular order:
It's great to return to the world of the Matrix! I was hugely into these movies in their heyday, and on some level I've missed them. Makes me want to rewatch the trilogy. I don't really "do" movie hype these days but I did enjoy the trailer for the new one and I'll definitely check it out too.
At first, I thought the opening was FMV, particularly because it seemed to be using clips from the first movie. I'm still not clear on if some FMV clips were blended with the virtual scene, or if those bits were wholly recreated in Unreal.
It fooled me at first, but it wasn't perfect. Present-day Virtual Keanu is slightly uncanny, 1999 Virtual Keanu is worse, and both Virtual Carrie-Annes look downright plastic. I felt like the stiffness of the animation was partially to blame, they might appear more real if their movement was more natural. Once my brain identified the weirdnesses I couldn't ignore them. Regardless, still some of the best character visuals I've seen rendered in realtime, on par with the (also impressive but very flawed) CGI de-aging Hollywood has been producing. But, you know, in realtime which is a Big Deal. I feel like we are getting close to emerging from the other side of the valley, but the last mile is the longest.
It goes without saying that the visuals in this look 10x better than the painstakingly rendered, expensive blockbuster CGI in the two sequel movies. On one hand, that's just progress... but considering the themes of the Matrix also fairly unnerving.
I haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 but it bears mentioning that it's also notable for having a hyper-realistic Virtual Keanu. I'm very interested to hear the two compared/contrasted from someone who has played both.
When Keanu first spoke he sounded completely unlike himself, to my ears. For a few seconds I thought they had cast some other voice actor in the role. I guess it's just age, but I legit didn't realize it was him until he introduced himself by name.
The city is technically impressive. It looks great and loads fast on the PS5. When Spider-Man: Miles Morales came out (I also haven't played that one) I read about a technique it uses to show detailed, furnished interiors inside building windows. Looks like TMA is doing something similar, it's jaw-dropping at first but does fall apart in funny ways under close scrutiny.
I'm interested to know more about how the building geometry is generated. I found some improbable "crannies" between buildings that met at odd angles. Seems a lot of the city is procedural?
Does anybody know if this tech demo is meant to preview an actual upcoming game? Seems like a lot of wasted effort if this is the only product.
I've been getting pretty heavy into classic Mac emulation lately, so the faux '90s era pause-screen UI put a big grin on my face.
The map indicates the locations of a bunch of "plaque" markers around the city. I hunted down seven or eight of them before getting bored. Does anybody know if anything happens if you visit them all? A couple of the ones I found were duplicates, suggesting they're not meant to be collected.
Any secrets? I found a "jump" area with a bunch of ramps you can drive cars off. There was a plaque there that said "have fun!" I wonder if there are other things like that that I missed.
Some of the plaques have switches to toggle (experimental) nighttime lighting. This is actually a cool effect! Looking across the city and seeing all of the building windows acting as independent light sources is impressive. It is pretty glitchy if you spin the camera too fast though, not ready for primetime yet. Generally speaking though all the light effects in TMA are fantastic.
While there may be a Matrix game in the works that I'm unaware of, there's none announced that I've heard of. This seems mostly to be a tech demo for UE5, which is in preview right now, and set to...
Does anybody know if this tech demo is meant to preview an actual upcoming game? Seems like a lot of wasted effort if this is the only product.
While there may be a Matrix game in the works that I'm unaware of, there's none announced that I've heard of. This seems mostly to be a tech demo for UE5, which is in preview right now, and set to full release in 2022. This demo showcases all their headline tech features, which are all insanely impressive IMO. I've been keeping a close eye on it as I work with UE for my job, and Nanite (advanced LOD) and Lumen (real time lighting) techs are mind-blowing to watch operate in real time.
Unreal/Epic are leaning really hard into the film and tv production space, which may surprise a lot of people who only know Epic as "that company that makes Fortnite". They're going heavy into virtual production, of which there are a number of different aspects that all benefit from real-time high-quality rendering.
After seeing Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced with fully path traced GI, I found the lighting on display here to actually be a little underwhelming.
After seeing Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced with fully path traced GI, I found the lighting on display here to actually be a little underwhelming.
I think a lot of this was procedural. Everything from the people walking around to the buildings to the cars to the streets. While there may have been artists going in and tweaking things after...
Seems a lot of the city is procedural?
I think a lot of this was procedural. Everything from the people walking around to the buildings to the cars to the streets. While there may have been artists going in and tweaking things after the fact, it looks to me like part of what will make next-gen engines better is giving artists the freedom to build things up procedurally rather quickly and then fine-tune after.
Keanu's comments on digital privacy and the bit about "collecting data ...... to make products better" while wearing a shit-eating grin where just..... loved it. Also the bit on VR Porn at 16:50...
Keanu's comments on digital privacy and the bit about "collecting data ...... to make products better" while wearing a shit-eating grin where just..... loved it.
Also the bit on VR Porn at 16:50 where Keanu is just like "hell yea, I'm a sex icon", hilarious.
I thought this interview was interesting, esp. Reeves and Moss talking about digital likenesses and having creative control/approval over their digital likenesses. His description of the creative...
I thought this interview was interesting, esp. Reeves and Moss talking about digital likenesses and having creative control/approval over their digital likenesses. His description of the creative process with digital performances being kind of like puppetry was especially interesting to me.
I played through TMA on my PS5 last night when it became available. I had a number of reactions, in no particular order:
I got the same impression just from the video.
While there may be a Matrix game in the works that I'm unaware of, there's none announced that I've heard of. This seems mostly to be a tech demo for UE5, which is in preview right now, and set to full release in 2022. This demo showcases all their headline tech features, which are all insanely impressive IMO. I've been keeping a close eye on it as I work with UE for my job, and Nanite (advanced LOD) and Lumen (real time lighting) techs are mind-blowing to watch operate in real time.
Unreal/Epic are leaning really hard into the film and tv production space, which may surprise a lot of people who only know Epic as "that company that makes Fortnite". They're going heavy into virtual production, of which there are a number of different aspects that all benefit from real-time high-quality rendering.
After seeing Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced with fully path traced GI, I found the lighting on display here to actually be a little underwhelming.
I think a lot of this was procedural. Everything from the people walking around to the buildings to the cars to the streets. While there may have been artists going in and tweaking things after the fact, it looks to me like part of what will make next-gen engines better is giving artists the freedom to build things up procedurally rather quickly and then fine-tune after.
Keanu's comments on digital privacy and the bit about "collecting data ...... to make products better" while wearing a shit-eating grin where just..... loved it.
Also the bit on VR Porn at 16:50 where Keanu is just like "hell yea, I'm a sex icon", hilarious.
I thought this interview was interesting, esp. Reeves and Moss talking about digital likenesses and having creative control/approval over their digital likenesses. His description of the creative process with digital performances being kind of like puppetry was especially interesting to me.
As a PC gamer I have an opinion on this, but as a polite member of society I'll withhold it. I will say I envy the hell out of console players.