Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Community Summit Preview

TECH DEMO/ART SHOWCASE & GRAPHICS

Here’s where the IW folks were able to show off a lot of the graphic capabilities of this game using some dev tools to quickly zip around some maps and zoom in on player models.



When you first look at COD4, your eyes almost pop absorbing what they see, as the virtual world jumps out at you. Lighting is one of the big differences in the look of this game over previous versions. They have done a lot with various kinds of lighting to really make different surfaces stand out. As the commentary in the Lighting & Effects Interview states, when making a movie, many different light sources are used. The same can be said for photography, producing some amazing effects and looks to both people and objects/scenery. COD4 has made some big steps forward in adding and simulating more and better light sources.

Along with light comes shadow, which also helps our eyes/brain determine what looks “real” and what doesn’t. COD4 uses self-shadowing to help achieve this realistic look as well, where part of a character’s body or gear can cast a shadow on itself.



Rim lighting - is another addition to this game, where a strong light source behind you (ie. a fire burning at night) will make surfaces in front of it really “pop” and stand out. Having this strong light source behind you will also cast strong shadows. This can both help you “see” an enemy coming by the shadow they cast before they can see you, or give away your position to an opponent if you’re not careful. So much has been done with shadows that some of the discussion in the room was that disabling them in multi-player to save some frame-rate could be a disadvantage, as you wouldn’t realize you were casting them, and/or be able to see the shadows of others.

Time of Day lighting - was also demonstrated. They were able to move the “sun” (light source) across the sky, and we could see how the shadows on the ground would move along with it. Different filters were also shown, which could quickly change lighting/hues to simulate cloud, sun, seasons, and mood. It was a quick demonstration, but very powerful. Some of these things could possibly be available to users with enough technical know-how once the game is released, resulting in some amazing maps being created.

Very high resolution textures - on the player models is another of the big differences in COD4, resulting in increased detail on characters’ gear and clothing, as well as more realistic looking skin (in conjunction with the lighting). Several different player models were shown to us, in a variety of light/shadow conditions, and they zoomed right in very close to demonstrate these textures.

“Glint tape” - used to differentiate friend from foe when using NV was shown to us, and can be seen quite prominently on the shoulders of the Marines in the “Bog Rescue” video (01:30 sec & onward: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20756.html ).


Friendlies also have a device attached to their combat vests that emit infra-red pulses or strobes visible through a proper filter. This is one of the things players will use in the “Death From Above” video to help discern their own forces from the enemy, as the strobing IR can been seen on the AC130’s screen.

Player models - themselves are the most realistic-looking yet, with more true-to-life animations. Some of this comes from an increased amount of motion-capture. Stunt-men were actually used to mo-cap things like explosions propelling a body away from the force of the blast for better-looking animations. Player models were shown in a variety of actions such as walking, running, running up an incline, fighting gravity coming down an incline, etc, and they looked much more realistic than in previous games. When a flash-bang goes off, we were actually able to see enemies cover their eyes with their arm in response to the light.

Depth of Field - of the environment/terrain was demonstrated as the camera zoomed in and out on a section of the landscape (water tower and mountains). This was done very smoothly, with level of detail slowly increasing and decreasing with distance. No popping or fake blur effects were seen.

DX9 effects - were demonstrated while the player was standing still holding a sniper rifle. In the scope of the rifle, the area behind the player was accurately shown as a mirror image reflection on the lens of the scope. As the player moved, so did the reflected image. Some very cool running water/stream effects were shown, along with butterflies in a grassy field

When asked if COD4 would be DX10 or 9, the answer was something along the lines of “It’s going to be a kick-ass looking DX9 game”. They certainly seemed to have been able to squeeze quite a bit out of it, without the need to jump to DX10 yet.

Steam and smoke - look particularly good in this game, as can be seen here (Lighting & Effects, 01:08-01:45 sec - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20797.html ). Rocket trails dissipate, and the large plume of smoke slowly billows. Lots of this was also seen in the “Crew Expendable” mission on board the cargo ship.

Fire effects - along with visual distortion due to hot air coming off of the fire, and off the back of a tank’s engine, can also be seen (Lighting & Effects, 00:25 sec & 00:10 sec - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20797.html ).

Exploding Cars - finally, we were shown the destruction of a car with an M249 SAW, as described in the Vehicles & Weaponry interview. Little things like the side mirrors could be shot/destroyed, then shooting out the tires would indeed cause them to burst and the car to sink lower to the ground. As the car took more and more damage, it would begin smoking heavily & catch on fire. Besides looking pretty cool, this is actually a timer of sorts…a car on fire will eventually blow up after a certain number of seconds, and thus can be used as a multi-player strategy (ie. do not hide behind a burning car until after it explodes; shoot up a car to make it explode to injure/kill opponents using it for cover; etc).

Demonstration PC – this was a high-end Dell machine…some said it was an XPS with an Nvidia 8800 GTX 768MB card. I can’t confirm or deny that, but whatever it was, the game ran smooth as silk on it. The game was still pre-Alpha (although getting close), so it was not yet optimized, and no minimum spec had been assessed/decided yet.

By Whiskey
Planet CoD