Ben-DutkaSome of you tech buffs are always interested in exactly how a game gets made; the ins and outs of development; the behind-the-scenes information that few can even begin to understand. We won't get too complex here, but we figure many of our readers will be interested in a recent interview with Insomniac's senior character artist, Sam Sharit.
In speaking to AutoDesk (developers of Maya), Sharit spoke about the recently launched Resistance 2 and his roles involving modeling, texturing and scripting. Interestingly enough, it seems those amazing-looking bosses in the game underwent painstaking efforts in order to become a virtual reality. Sharit said they "hovered around 5-10 thousand triangles" for the average, but they ramped it up to as many as "60,000 tris" for the bosses, like the Kraken and Leviathan. He also said that how many "tris" are used depends a lot on the game, and used the example of Grand Theft Auto IV , which didn't use anywhere near as many triangles but the lower counts were "due to the sheer number of assets in the game." Sharit also spoke about Insomniac using its very own engine, and his words are quite intriguing.
"Insomniac uses its own in house engine. The PlayStation 3 engine was developed for Resistance: Fall of Man, then iterated on for Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and even further iterated on for Resistance 2. Insomniac has been my first experience working with an in-house engine and I really like the level of control of working with one. One major reason is that it is made to take full advantage of the PS3 hardware, and I have been able to really push some key assets, like the 300-foot tall Leviathan, much further than I would have been able to using some of the other commercial engines on the market. It also allows the artists to dictate to the tech and tools programmers what tools and interfaces we want, and how we want to use them. I find with most commercially available engines the tools are dictated by the company creating the engine, and this may or may not be good for what type of game you're making or your company's established pipeline."
As many have said in the past, if a developer focuses entirely on the PS3, they can do some amazing things with its potential. And in truth, something like Resistance 2 is just the beginning; the sky's the limit for devs who want to continue to unlock more of the system's capability. If you'd like to read the full interview , feel free to do so. Good stuff.
Related Game(s): Resistance 2
