Quantic Dream’s PS3 exclusive gets advanced motion capture tech

“There is simply no alternative system out there today if your objective is to obtain the highest possible quality.” This is the answer by Quantic Dream‘s Co-CEO about their acquisition of Vicon‘s motion capture technology. See, the same guys who did Omikron and Fahrenheit are going to use it for their upcoming PS3-exclusive title. They didn’t mention which game, but chances are it could be Heavy Rain. More details about the motion capture tech in the full article. And if you haven’t read much about that tight-lipped title, let us refresh your mind with a video…

Recent developments in the world of motion capturing have paved the way for games like Heavenly Sword (care of Andy Serkis) and movies like Beowulf (care of *ahem* Angelina Jolie). And Quantic Dream, the studio responsible for Omikron and Fahrenheit, will be taking full advantage of this technology for an upcoming PS3-exclusive.

The studio has bought the latest F-Series system motion-capture camera technology from Vicon, and they’ll be using it for the game. Quantic Dream won’t say which game it is specifically (we’re betting it could be Heavy Rain), but they did mention that the game – which emphasizes the characters above all else – will require about four months of motion capturing.

With the technology, Guillaume de Fondaumiere once again comments on their commitment in creating a new genre called “Interactive Cinema” and how the only way to achieve it is through realistic animation via motion capture:

We needed a system that could be used with ambient light, as it is less tiresome for the actors who sometimes spend days and days in our studio. High speed (for more accurate capture of fast movements) and high resolution, in particular for the facial motion capture, were also very important. The F-Series cameras are the only cameras that offer all of these attributes within the same system. There is simply no alternative system out there today if your objective is to obtain the highest possible quality.

Is this motion capture technology all that it’s hyped up to be? Hopefully, we get to find out soon. Below, we’ve re-posted the tech demo video of Heavy Rain from last year’s E3 just so you can get a clear picture of what to expect.

If this is the kind of graphics they already had back then (note the deep, alive-looking eyes towards the first part!), then seeing it rendered with the latest technology will surely have graphics to make our eyes bleed.

Oh, slight warning, some strong language is used in the monologue: