Will TT Engine be capable to render photorealistic graphic?

[Bloody Eugene]

I'm worried that the TT Engine will not be able to deliver high-end graphic that fully respect the high visual standard that the Jurassic Park brand needs. The movie was a milestone about this, but will the TT graphic engine be capable to render lights effects, enough polygons and detailed textures that the project needs?
When JP will be out, another game will be realeased and, although it's a different genre, it will set the graphic standard: i'm talking of Crysis 2.
How will it compare to JP?

The last photorealistic game TT did was CSI: Hard Evidence and although it has clean and nice graphic, it cannot compete with nowadays standards:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/9407/744449-csi4_2008_10_12_22_54_48_65_super.jpg
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/medium/2007/12/Crysis_Faces_36.jpg
One of the two is Crysis 2... ;)

Of course all I've said is completely unnuseful if the plan is to release JP for Wii given its old hardware and its crappy and anachronistic 40mb limit...

[corruptbiggins]

Probably not and I don't really think they should try. It's not really what they do.

[Bloody Eugene]

Probably not and I don't really think they should try. It's not really what they do.

Ok, but do you think that the game will not look old with graphics like this in 2010/2011? Or even market appealing?
http://www.justadventure.com/Upcoming_Releases/CSI_DeadlyIntent/SS03.jpg

[MusicallyInspired]

CSI was an old game. Old old. Don't you guys get that? They can totally pull off realistic Crysis-like graphics with the TTG tool if they wanted to. It's absolutely possible. Game engines are modular. They aren't stuck in a certain set of restrictions. You can add till your heart's content.

[SHODANFreeman]

The last photorealistic game TT did was CSI: Hard Evidence and although it has clean and nice graphic, it cannot compete with nowadays standards

Incorrect. The last one they did was CSI: Deadly Intent this past October.

http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/2336/full-res/1247872130.jpg

PS: I'm pretty sure that JA screenshot posted above was either taken on a bad PC or from a really early version of the game, because the game looks much better than that.

[LuigiHann]

None of these screenshots have dinosaurs in them

[Little Writer]

I've always wondered about this: how much does graphic quality rely on the engine used, and how much on the artists' design? Because I would say, if you fail to create a detailed realistic looking model, no amount of 3D processing power or whatever it's called will be able to make it look good. Or am I looking at it wrong?

[Secret Fawful]

Hey guys I found a photorealistic screenshot. It looks amazing!

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/t-rex-jurassic-park.jpg

[Little Writer]

I don't know, the models look a bit waxy to me.

[jp-30]

Lighting is crap.

[Haggis]

That looks terrible. Only games can get away with washed-out graphics like that; if this was in a Hollywood film, it would flop at the box office.

[Little Writer]

Then again, I like the idea of an FMV-Renaissance ...

[taumel]

CSI was an old game. Old old. Don't you guys get that? They can totally pull off realistic Crysis-like graphics with the TTG tool if they wanted to. It's absolutely possible. Game engines are modular. They aren't stuck in a certain set of restrictions. You can add till your heart's content.
You know that this isn't true, right?

All GameEngines i at least have seen have their very own featuresets and limitations. Depending on the aspects you want to replace this either works or isn't supported at all.

Is Crysis looking realistic? Are we talking about CryEngine 1, 2 or 3? Is the TTT able of deferred lightning? ...

It's safe to assume that the new games will look a lot better than CSI but it's also safe to assume that they won't play in the same league like a well done CryEngine 3 game. But less advanced technology doesn't automatically result into bad looking games, not as long as you have a concept/scenes which take this into account. You can always tweak things, at least to a certain degree.

[Bloody Eugene]

ok, but do you agree with me that they have to drop Wii version? The 40mb limit is too...limiting!

[SHODANFreeman]

ok, but do you agree with me that they have to drop Wii version? The 40mb limit is too...limiting!

The CSI and Sam and Max Wii ports were disc releases, they could do the same with these.

[taumel]

Yeah, get yourself a disk! :O)

http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/56/8-inch_floppy_disk.jpg

[Marty]

My God! That disk is HUGE!
...
I think ulitmately, art direction is more important than the engine itself. Thanks to Ryan Jones, MI and S&M (prior to s3) looked fantastic even when the graphics seem a little dated. I'm just hoping these aren't just cheaply made licensed games pooped out for the naive audience.. "oh look, a Jurassic Park game! Little Jimmy likes dinosaurs!" x every mother in the world = easy buck.
Worse case scenario, really.

[Friar]

I hear they are going to use Extremely photo realistic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShmtGHgkz0) graphics.

Maybe even like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QgjdRqr3Ik).

[Haggis]

I'm just hoping these aren't just cheaply made licensed games pooped out for the naive audience.. "oh look, a Jurassic Park game! Little Jimmy likes dinosaurs!" x every mother in the world = easy buck.
Worse case scenario, really.
Nah, Jurassic Park is really a 90s thing. The kids that watched the movies then have now grown up, so the market for these games has grown up as well. Sure, kids might enjoy these games too, but it'd be a mistake to cater only to kids with this, and that's not a mistake I expect Telltale to make. They know what they're doing. :)

[Marty]

I hear they are going to use Extremely photo realistic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShmtGHgkz0) graphics.

Maybe even like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QgjdRqr3Ik).

ahh we can only hope
*fingers crossed*

[MusicallyInspired]

You know that this isn't true, right?

All GameEngines i at least have seen have their very own featuresets and limitations. Depending on the aspects you want to replace this either works or isn't supported at all.

So all the most popular engines nowadays (Quake, Unreal, Source, CryEngine, even TTG's own engine) that have made significant advances since they were initially created means....nothing? For Duke Nukem Forever, they even took the Unreal engine and modified it to create a completely new rendering engine with its own look. My point is anything can be be modified and added to. Especially the Tell Tale Tool, since they've said they're always working on it and adding to it. They can make it do anything they want it to.

[taumel]

You can't generalise this, it depends on the licence, the engine, on what you want to enhance and so on. Therefore the statement that it's no problem enhancing engine A so that it's able to perform like engine B just doesn't work out.

Whilst theoretically you might could enhance an engine which grants you the rights to do so, it easily could be a complete waste of ressources because you don't have the knowhow/time/manpower and so on to do it correctly, it might be a drag due to the design of the engine or messes up the workflow somewhere else, to shorten it up whilst your idea could be right for a specific case, it doesn't work as a generalization.

There are engine designs which work in a open modular way where you can exchange certain elements and write it on your own or make usage of some middleware you licence but again, you can't generalise this and say oh it's no problem enhancing the TTT so that it works/looks like theCryEngine for instance.

Sometimes it can be quite a pain listening to gamers, some horrible examples exist on certain game magazine sites, and their very special kind of views of what all should be no problem and those lazy incapable programmers who just have to, well, i guess you know what i mean.

[thesporkman]

The fact of the matter is Telltale has made improvements to their engine since CSI. You guys have played the new Sam and Max episodes, right? You could take any one of those CSI models, put them into the new engine with its realtime lighting and shadows and complex textures and whatnot, and you'd have something that would look just as photorealistic as the vast majority of PS3 and 360 shooters to have come out in recent years.

[MusicallyInspired]

Whilst theoretically you might could enhance an engine which grants you the rights to do so, it easily could be a complete waste of ressources because you don't have the knowhow/time/manpower and so on to do it correctly, it might be a drag due to the design of the engine or messes up the workflow somewhere else, to shorten it up whilst your idea could be right for a specific case, it doesn't work as a generalization.

I realize it means extra work, but seriously. The majority of the game developers out there work with the latest rendering technologies*, and gamers expect it. So there's got to be a way to easily streamline it. And if not you can always hire people with the knowhow. And I know that means more money. I'm not saying it won't cost the company more of something, I'm just saying it's more than possible.

There are engine designs which work in a open modular way where you can exchange certain elements and write it on your own or make usage of some middleware you licence but again, you can't generalise this and say oh it's no problem enhancing the TTT so that it works/looks like theCryEngine for instance.

Hold on. Are you saying that if one wants to take advantage of certain rendering technologies* in one's engine that they'd have to license it first? I can't think of anything more ridiculous.

Sometimes it can be quite a pain listening to gamers, some horrible examples exist on certain game magazine sites, and their very special kind of views of what all should be no problem and those lazy incapable programmers who just have to, well, i guess you know what i mean.

Again, I never said it wouldn't be more work (although the methods that graphics are created with nowadays have become more streamlined and efficient), and I even understand if TTG couldn't/wouldn't do it. I'm just saying it is completely possible to add greater rendering technologies* to an existing engine. And you can generalize that. Any engine has the capability to be more than it is if you have the patience and/or money and knowhow to program it in.


*When I say rendering technologies, I'm not referring to engines but they way engines render a 3D image. You can't license normal mapping, phong shading, or dynamic lighting for instance, while you can (and must, if you don't already have an engine) license an engine that utilizes these rendering methods.

[taumel]

But just because something is theoretically possible, doesn't make it automatically likely nor reasonable. As i already suggested, choosing the right way for your GameEngine involes a couple of questions you first have to answer to yourself according to your specific project/situation/strategy.

You can write you own renderengine, you can licence one, you can use the one which comes with the gameengine, ...

What's suprising about that? It's the same like for instance with sound. If you can afford it, you will most probably go with a FMOD licence, if you can't you'll use BASS, openAL, ... write you own audio lib whatever. It's the same thing with a lot of components you need for a game (graphics, sound, ai, physics, ...) as long as your game engine is capable of integrating such components.

Otherwise you might just use such middleware and write the GameEngine on your own or you can't integrate such things because your engine wasn't designed for such purposes or it would mess up your engine's workflow. There are many possibilities why you can and why you can't do such things. But if you don't want to write a certain component on your own due to some of the reasons we have already talked about and can afford the licence, then why not?

a) There does exist a mature crossplatform soundengine? Let's see what it costs.
b) We need some more performance and are in need of some advanced occlusion culling. Let's take a look at Umbra.
And so on...

Theoretically you could enhance a Quake I engine to a cryEngine 3 but it would be more a complete start from scratch. As this is a money driven business you'll want to go the way which serves you the best.

Of course you can licence render engines. With shaders the days of fixed function piepelines are over since years, at least on the desktop. Normal mapping is a concept. You're free to implement it on your own (it's all just shadercode) and it has to wok together with the rest of the lightning system. Beside of this, a renderengine is a bit more than just a pack of shading possibilities.

[moo535]

you can't really bolt on more components until it works. most of those components have interoperability issues. ttg uses their own proprietry engine and fmod sound. they have focused the engine on animation cpabilities rather than fast paced performance. i'm not even sure the majority of the character designs use textures. quite a few look vertex shaded. though that has been improving on the latest releases

frankly i do agree with the original post that both of these new franchises would be better suited to the realistic look as opposed to the cartoon like look they have used of late...but don't be surprised if these titles end up being made on a different engine. especially jurasic park. that is just screaming out for cryengine2.

but before we cry out for awesome visuals how about some idea of how jurasic park would even work? seems like a limited scope for adventuring.

[PariahKing]

You're kidding yourself if you expect to compare anything Telltale produces to Crysis.

That's not what Telltale is about.

[moo535]

not necesarily by choice. crisis has an art team poached straight from movie studio's. hiring standards specifically mention 3+ years at movie special effects places. crytek's budget would probably rival telltales total combined budget and sales from everything they've ever released.

[Bloody Eugene]

You're kidding yourself if you expect to compare anything Telltale produces to Crysis.

That's not what Telltale is about.

If TT will release a shoot'em'up, I'll shoot'em'all.

I'm looking toward a real Adventure Game.
No RPG, no FPS, no RTS.

[taumel]

So you won't be satisfied with the upcoming Dino Chess as well?

[Spadge]

I'm hoping we won't get photorealistic graphics. I want a slightly exaggerated character design, some great puzzles and a good story! Heh, I often find photorealistic characters rather creepy. But that's probably just me. :D

[SHODANFreeman]

Heh, I often find photorealistic characters rather creepy. But that's probably just me. :D

This is known as the uncanny valley. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/02/uncanny_valley.jpg

I think it's because the eyes always look dull and lifeless.

[Secret Fawful]

This is known as the uncanny valley. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)

That's a very interesting concept.

[Tor]

This is known as the uncanny valley. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)
I'm familiar with the effect (the humanoid robot pictured in the article is a good example) but I didn't know the name for it. Thanks for the link!

[Santar]

I think movie licenses like Bttf and Jurassic Park lends themselves to realistic graphics so I really hope they'll try to go with that for those games.
It just wouldn't really be Jurassic Park with cartoony and wacky charactes in it.
Maybe this is what they're going for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyGMiwOGBfM

[Haggis]

Crikey, some of you guys are talking as if there's a cartoony-realistic dichotomy, with nothing in between. I would find a Jurassic Park game with graphics along the lines of Telltale's CSI games perfectly acceptable. I really hope they won't go for some totally unnecessary Crysis overkill, not in the last place because my PC couldn't handle it.

[Santar]

I think Jurassic Park deserves something more than the dated graphics of the CSI games. The movies always looked smashing, with high production values. The efects in the movies were even groundbreaking for it's time.

[SparkTR]

I think Jurassic Park deserves something more than the dated graphics of the CSI games. The movies always looked smashing, with high production values. The efects in the movies were even groundbreaking for it's time.
Agreed. I still think the original Jurassic Park has better visuals than the majority of actions films today. Besides, Telltale's engine features scalable graphics settings so people with low end PC's can play the game and people with high end PCs can have it looking spectacular.

[Santar]

Agreed. I still think the original Jurassic Park has better visuals than the majority of actions films today. Besides, Telltale's engine features scalable graphics settings so people with low end PC's can play the game and people with high end PCs can have it looking spectacular.

Yeah, it's been a while since I last saw them, but I've always thought they look fantastic even by todays standards.
Lets hope they actually surprise us with the graphics of both these new franchises. It would be really awesome if they stepped outside of the cartoony zany graphic styles I think.

[taumel]

Dr. Nucleus's assistent: Finally, we've succeeded and as expected we can confirm that also adventure gamers can be turned into visual dependants!

[Arodin]

Yeah the awesome special effects of Jurassic Park bringing dinosaurs to life on the big screen was what made that movie a classic. Without the jaw-dropping "omg it's a dinosaur staring right at me" effects, there's not much there. This will be a tough one for TT. Personally, I think they would have been better off with Maniac Mansion/Day of the Tentacle.

[Santar]

Dr. Nucleus's assitent: Finally, we've succeeded and as expected we can confirm that also adventure gamers can be turned into visual dependants!

Don't give me that crap, I just played a regular old gameboy game an hour ago for craps sake.
I just want the game to be as good as it can be.
And as I've said I think these new properties lend themselves to a realistic art style. If you want a crappy looking game then by all means wish for that.

[taumel]

I think Jurassic Park deserves something more than the dated graphics of the CSI games.
Maybe there indeed exist people who think it's reasonable beeing kind of afraid of that an upcoming game will have the same gfx like a more than 2 years old product.

Maybe, these people look like, this:

http://www.justadventure.com/Upcoming_Releases/CSI_DeadlyIntent/SS03.jpg

[MusicallyInspired]

You're kidding yourself if you expect to compare anything Telltale produces to Crysis.

That's not what Telltale is about.

I never said that. I was just stating a possibility. I fully expect them to catch up to at least 2006-2007 graphics sometime soon with these games....or at least it's certainly possible for them to attain that level of detail. There's nothing to prevent it.

[RMJ1984]

I somehow doubt the engine is the problem, its rather their target audience, if you look with past release, They target people with mid / low end pc.

I mean afterall if we want photorealistic, i mean Telltale can properly borrow Crysis engine. :) But i think that will someone narrow their target audiences quite a bit xD

[jp-30]

If the episodes are downloadable, which seem almost certain, there are considerations with model polygons and texture compression to keep the file size down.

[taumel]

Also depends, as a) an engine's capabilities don't add much to the filesize and b) generative algorithms for the rescue in terms of tiny media sizes like for instance textures and music. Remembering the meanwhile over six year old .kkrieger?

Reminds me, that i'm still addicted to the .detuned song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-q-GUUAbo). :O)

[MusicallyInspired]

I don't think file size is that big of an issue anymore. Steam games can come to 9GB+ to download them completely. But of course, there's that targeted audience problem. Some of these guys still run on dial-ups, for crying out loud.

[taumel]

I would less count on Steam but all the movie sites. Those Blu-Ray rips in MKV containers aren't this small as well. Anyway with the proper technology it is possible to deliver large content also with a reasonable filesize.

[RMJ1984]

Hopefully they will do Maniac mansion someday if its possible to get a hold of the licens well or make a deal with Lucas Arts over whoever holds it.

[MusicallyInspired]

Actually, I kind of think it'd be more fitting for LucasArts to make a new Maniac Mansion game themselves. As a way to reintroduce the genre to fans (and reintroduce themselves as well), seeing as Maniac Mansion was LucasArts' first adventure hit. This would also work out with my theory more that it would be better to have a Maniac Mansion 3 than a Day of the Tentacle 2.

[jp-30]

Marketing a title called "Day of the Tentacle 2" would be a whole lot easier / more effective than with "Maniac Mansion 3".

[Spadge]

Marketing a title called "Day of the Tentacle 2" would be a whole lot easier / more effective than with "Maniac Mansion 3".

Oh, numbers in the title are bad. People don't like sequels. I'd say keep the brand name "Maniac Mansion", but add another title for each game: "Day of the Tentacle", etc. Sort of what they did with "Star Wars". But I don't want them to make a new game before they make special editons of the first two and introduce them to the younger audience.

[jp-30]

Oh, numbers in the title are bad. People don't like sequels.

Hollywood would tend to disagree. And the gaming community for that matter.

Though I see your point with this many years between DOTT and a potential new game. Still, if there was a DOTT Special Edition first, that would work in the favour of a new game in that franchise.

[Tor]

Oh, numbers in the title are bad.
That's what Hollywood seems to think... I prefer numbers in the title to the alternatives however. Consider:

Rambo (the fourth Rambo film)
Rocky Balboa (the sixth Rocky film)
Fast & Furious (a sequel to The Fast and the Furious)
The Final Destination (a sequel to Final Destination)
Life Free or Die Hard (fourth Die Hard movie)
Alien/Aliens and Predator/Predators

That shit gets confusing! Bring back the numbers I say.

[Lena_P]

I still think "Live Free or Die Hard" is a hilarious title, especially since the movie had nothing to do with New Hampshire. (New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die" for the six billion of you who had no idea that each state in the US has its own motto.)

[Icedhope]

I still think "Live Free or Die Hard" is a hilarious title, especially since the movie had nothing to do with New Hampshire. (New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die" for the six billion of you who had no idea that each state in the US has its own motto.)

Yep, Illinois is Grow corn, and commit crime.

[MusicallyInspired]

Err....there was never a Predators plural movie title. Ever.

[Tor]

Err....there was never a Predators plural movie title. Ever.
Not yet, but there will be (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424381/).

[MusicallyInspired]

.......

*facepalm*

EDIT: Laurence Fishburne is involved in this???

[sintarsis]

i hope the visuals are Jurassic Park qualified and Jurassic Park deserves Halo reach graphics x100

[LuigiHann]

Did you know that Riven: The Sequel to Myst was actually rendered on the computers used for Jurassic Park?

To be honest I don't know if it just means they were the same kind of computers, but I like to assume that they actually bought those very computers (I mean really, how many computers like that were around in the 1990s?). Either way it was definitely the same software.

[Wapcaplet]

To be honest I don't know if it just means they were the same kind of computers, but I like to assume that they actually bought those very computers (I mean really, how many computers like that were around in the 1990s?). Either way it was definitely the same software.
SGI Indigo workstations debuted in 1991 at only $8,000 each (http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/22/business/silicon-graphics-to-offer-a-cheaper-work-station.html). I'm pretty sure Cyan bought their own. :D

[Philski]

I hope they at least match the beautifully rendered jungles found in that other Crichton spin off Congo: Descent into Zinj (http://www.mobygames.com/game/congo-the-movie-descent-into-zinj/screenshots).

Personally I've always wanted to play a Jurassic Park game with these sorts of graphics, with gameplay similar to that of the Sega/Mega CD (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-cd/jurassic-park_/screenshots) JP adventure game as these are two of the very few games based on movies I can think of that feel as though they share the same locations as that of the movies. Playing both these titles felt like being on the same set/location that the films did in a way that so few others have, before or since.

I think there is interesting things to look at from the past games even though some/all of them are questionable in quality.

For instance with what has been said by Telltale about the time-based puzzles I could imagine something in a shell similar to that of the 3DO version (http://www.mobygames.com/game/3do/jurassic-park-interactive/screenshots), but rather than the stupid/random mini-games, if you had tasks perhaps something akin to Trauma Centre and Pokemon Snap as such tasks could link into both the novels and the movies.

[keeperxiii]

I realize it means extra work, but seriously. The majority of the game developers out there work with the latest rendering technologies*, and gamers expect it.

That`s, in my opinion, the problem with games today, graphic whores and whatnot... That`s why it`s more often called an industry than art or entertainment

It`s an incredibly shallow portrayal of videogames that originates opinions(reviews) based solely on technical aspects, spawns endless crysis and gears of war lookalikes and because of that, suggests videogames are just gadgets or toys.

Telltale brings the story before the graphics and that`s the important part.

You're kidding yourself if you expect to compare anything Telltale produces to Crysis.

That's not what Telltale is about.

^^

As long as the dinosaurs have good animations, I don`t care about realistic foliage in trees, I just want a good story, and that`s what TellTale is about.

Telltale said it was going to make something different from their past efforts but if someone`s especting Crysis, you`re missing the point.

I think it`ll be realistic but not really graphically demanding like most games.

(Man, I sound like a smart-ass)

Anyway, peace

[DaVince]

Are people forgetting that TellTale is always improving their tool with each new game they develop? So they'll develop any capabilities they'll need for the next version. This kind of thing is also explained during the Tales of Monkey Island commentary, where they praise, for example, the new lighting system that illuminates stuff.

It's kind of like Blender (http://blender.org) - improving the engine with each major movie/game project.

[keeperxiii]

That`s, in my opinion, the problem with games today, graphic whores and whatnot... That`s why it`s more often called an industry than art or entertainment

Oh, and sorry MusicallyInspired, I didn`t really meant to call you a graphicwhore :p, I just think Telltale will have a engine that`s more than adequate for the new game but not really Crysis.

[PainDealer]

I believe most of Telltale's "regulars" aren't graphic whores. If photorealistic scenes amused me at all by just being photorealistic scenes I'd just spend my days looking at stuff.

[keeperxiii]

I believe most of Telltale's "regulars" aren't graphic whores.

I was speaking in a general sense about most gamers today and I apologized because it seemed like I was saying that you guys are graphic whores :o but I was really just speaking in a general sense, no worries.

Anyway, I`m just curious to see how the dinos act in the engine.

If photorealistic scenes amused me at all by just being photorealistic scenes I'd just spend my days looking at stuff.

Makes sense I guess XD

[Armakuni]

Will be very interesting to see, I've always had an interest in Jurassic Park stuff ever since I saw the first movie as a kid... was amazing :D

The last JP game I finished was this -

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c274/laffer/jp1.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c274/laffer/jp20.jpg

In any case, I hope the graphics are at least decent - normally I don't care very much about graphics in Telltale games as games based on humor doesn't need the same level of atmosphere as something that is meant to be tense. And part of the point in the Jurassic Park license is to see awesome looking dinosaurs and all that :p

[Javi-Wan Kenobi]

That's the ONLY Jurassic Park game I've ever played. I didn't liked it at all. Anithing Telltale could do will be better than this.

[Little Writer]

That looks like "Alan Grant and his Desktop Adventures" :D

[Icedhope]

That looks like "Alan Grant and his Desktop Adventures" :D

it was from the commadore 64

[Armakuni]

it was from the commadore 64
That would make it the best looking C64 game in existence :D
But it's really for the PC and Amiga computers. I played the Amiga version.

That's the ONLY Jurassic Park game I've ever played. I didn't liked it at all. Anithing Telltale could do will be better than this.
I actually think it was quite decent, I enjoyed it. But I think the SNES version might be slightly better as it presents a higher challenge and the environments aren't as sparsely populated.

Anyway, I'm really curious as to how this one will turn out - I really hope they will manage to make it atmospheric. I disagree with the people saying story is the absolutely most important aspect in this game (I would agree in many cases but not with this game)... in a Jurassic Park game, I think the atmosphere is just as important.

[zwollie]

Off course they can pull of realistic graphics...they just don't have the time or the budget to do so...

[Irishmile]

i remember thinking a jp game on the first playstation had amazing graphics.

[leon101]

Graphics be damned! I need gameplay!

[DaVince]

They can do it. Have you seen Max at the end of season 3, episode 4?!

[Trenchfoot]

They can do it. Have you seen Max at the end of season 3, episode 4?!

I've only played the demo so far (which gives you the opening part of the game), and I kept thinking to myself "Man, this would be so awesome in the JP game!". Just imagine... The Raptors trying to enter a place where you are locked in, and the time is running out. It would be so perfect.

[DaVince]

True! But I would like a bit better sound directing if they do that, the gunshots at the start of episode 4 were simply dull/unhearable. It's weird to see someone shoot and not actually hear a blam.

But, er, this is a comment about Sam and Max. I guess it was me who laid the comparison in the first place. :P

[taumel]

@Armakuni
Wow, i've never seen this Amiga game before, at least i can't remember it, which somehow is the same, at least for me. These rectangle placed rock platforms kind of remind me of The Chaos Engine.

I almost forgot about the dino in it...

http://www.guardiansofthepast.co.uk/shots/screen/c/chao/chaos_engine_0.gif

[taumel]

http://www.Bildermonster24.de/images/551_jpGBp.png

Quick hack (http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1280120925) (OSX x86) for JP audiophiles...now even a slightly bit pimped..:...hoppla, nicht stolpern!

[Toothless Gibbon]

No real-time renderer created to date is "photorealistic"

Whatever example you can show is always distinguishable from photos.

[taumel]

http://www.Bildermonster24.de/images/843_jpGBp2.png

Quick hack 2 (http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1280244007), just had to do it in the nur-mal-kurz-nach-Luft-schnappen-Pause.

Obviously with advanced and approved photorealistic rendering, just for your very own stimuli. No need for porn sites anymore!

[LikaLaruku]

If Jurassic Park had high standards, they wouldn;t have royally messed up on their palentology fact checks.

My rig is old & overheats, so if it's realistic it will naturally hammer on my rig. I wouln't be able to buy it until I could get a new CPU, graphics card, & an extra fan (cheaper than getting a whole new rig).

Stop demanding state of the art graphics & start demanding better stories & gameplay. Most of the developers (& even animators) are putting too much of their budget into how it looks & pointless celebrity voice acting & not enough into how it works or how fun it is. Do like Bathesda & leave the improved graphics to the modding commuunity.

If some other company was doing JP, then I would expect realistic graphics, but when I think of TellTale or Spicey Horse/American McGee, I think of "interactive cartoons" & I like it to look like a cartoon. I'm expecting JP & BttF to look like the rest of their games do.

[waroftheworlds01]

I'm not worried about photorealistic graphics. I've never been picky about graphics. As long as the story and gameplay was fun the graphics didn't have to be over realistic.

As long as there no major bugs. It's one to thing to complain that the characters don't look real. It's another to complain about pop-ins or framerates. The look of the characters doesn't effect the gameplay as much as pop-ins.

[Javi-Wan Kenobi]

Well, the in-game images from the new CSI game trailer give me hopes for the look of the Jurassic Park game. It seems they have hugely improved their "photorealistic" rendering since the last CSI game.

[mightypiratetm]

Well, the in-game images from the new CSI game trailer give me hopes for the look of the Jurassic Park game. It seems they have hugely improved their "photorealistic" rendering since the last CSI game.
The graphics are awesome but telltale tool still needs some work on the rendering to reach the photorealistic graphics

[phaedon]

The graphics are quite decent, but the cast models...yuck. All the other character models are good though.

[thesporkman]

The graphics are quite decent, but the cast models...yuck. All the other character models are good though.

Yeah, it looks like they're reusing the models from their earlier CSI games, which looks a little jarring in their new engine. That angry-looking looking guy who appears in the trailer after the caption "Work with the FBI" I think is a new model, and he looks pretty good.

[phaedon]

Nah, it's not that. I have been playing the CSI series since the very first games (the ones that weren't developed by TTG), and these models are from CSI: Deadly Intent, the previous game in the series.

It's that it's difficult to make a real person's 3D model look like the real person. But still, the 3DoM or the HE models were better, compare this guy: http://images.teamsugar.com/files/users/1/18863/25_2007/Nick%20Stokes%20(George%20Eads).JPG

To this guy (Hard Evidence/3 Dimensions of Murder): http://www.games32.com/web4/games_catalog/games/CSI-4-Hard-Evidence-PC/images/md_25463.jpg
And this guy (Fatal Conspiracy/Deadly Intent): http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/100/1005208/csi-deadly-intent-20090717051350325_640w.jpg

Over on YouTube people will scream, 'ololol bad graphix suk rainbow 6 vegas 3 ftw'
Appart from failing to distinguish the difference between "graphics" and "models" or "textures", they have obviously not played an adventure game lately.

Here are a few pics from some of the best lately (imo):

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/953/953761/sherlock-holmes-vs-jack-the-ripper-20090212081318664_640w.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/995/995834/still-life-2-20090617032904071-000.jpg

To sum up, the CSI:FC graphic engine (Sam and Max's engine) is very good for a adventure game, and most models (apart from the cast and the SWAT models) are very nice. Now, you should start worrying for the animation which looks a bit awkward in the trailer :D

[Trenchfoot]

It's not that much about the graphics. It's the lighting that does the trick.
Just look at the original JP scenes. Most of the scenes that featured dinosaurs are at night. Why? Because it looks so damn better. If those scenes would have been shot with day light the T-Rex would have looked fake.

[waroftheworlds01]

I have to dissagree with you on that. I'll admit that lighting goes a long way when dealing with special effects but the scene where the T-Rex attacks a gallimimus in daylight looks very convincing.

Infact, it's amazing how well the special effects still hold up even today. A lot of movies that come out now look less convincing than Jurassic park.

Anywho, I'm sure Telltale will go all out when making the dinosaurs and other character modles for this game.

[jp-30]

Yeah, all the flocking, running dinosaurs and the big sauropods look amazing from when Dr Grant first explores the island, and they're all in bright daylight.

[Trenchfoot]

Yes, I agree that practically every scene looks perfect, but I was just saying that if Telltale can't afford better graphics, they can always trick the lights to make it look better :)

[waroftheworlds01]

Ah, okay. You're right.

A bit off topic but one of the current games I'm playing is Doom 3 on my computer. That game is crazy dark but it really adds to the atmosphere to the game and it also hides some of the imperfections in the character modles.

Telltale could take the same approach if need be.

[jannar85]

Do remember that they work on their engine and improves it for every release. Like with Sam & Max: Season 3.. Have you looked at the detail level everywhere??

Links: http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/06/53/65334_orig.jpg
http://buttonbasher.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/header.jpg

compared to the first one:
http://images.gfx.no/366/366402/SamMax1.jpg

At least I put my faith in Telltale. They are known not to disappoint fans :)

[russell19831983]

that disk would never fit in a computer

[keeperxiii]

that disk would never fit in a computer

I think I'm lost here...

As for the graphics, they will be awesome in every sense.

[Trenchfoot]

I think they'll do just fine (check the 1:35 mark)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHFZ-Ecd_ek

;)

[bubbledncr]

I think ya'll will be psyched when you see the first screenshots from the game. Not that I have any idea when that will be.

[Crispy Onion]

I think ya'll will be psyched when you see the first screenshots from the game. Not that I have any idea when that will be.

Better show em' soon! :cool:

[BishounenTaurus]

After watching that "Create a Scene" video, i'm hyped!

As much as I love TT for reviving the adventure game genre (specifically Monkey Island), I always felt a bit let down by the graphics.

I don't mean that in a "everything must look like Crysis" way. One of the things adventure games such as MI have always been known for is brilliant artwork (especially scenery), and although a lot of the modelling and animation from TT have been great, I felt the lack of modern day shaders let some of those games down.

One example is the earlier mentioned CSI games. For a long while I actually preferred the older pre-rendered games over the newer ones as they were a lot more detailed, and the characters looked a lot closer to their live action counterparts. The latest CSI screenshots however look bloody good!

Then there was ToMI. Although I loved the art direction, I felt the plastic-like shading made a lot of the characters look a bit awkward, especially when compared to MI2:SE (and by extension, the fully animated CGI teaser). With that said, the model for Tycho looks amazing! The cel-shading was done really well. Here's hoping ToMI2 take advantage of that and go for a more toony/painterly route.

In short, i'm a lot more hopeful about the upcoming JP games. It's quite obvious by now that the TT engine is maturing at an alarming rate, so I feel there's no need to worry about the art direction. :D