Hey all,
First off, my apologies to the Sony fans who I may have offended by the discussion points I brought up in the Uncharted thread... but I would like to clearly outline something for all of you which is a "dirty secret" in the games industry. Sony does it, Microsoft does it, and I Think Nintendo *might* do it, but I can't recall a time in recent memory when they did.
To start, you need to understand some basic terms:
1. "real-time". When rendering something, "real-time" means all the elements that comprise the image you're seeing are being calculated, drawn, and output to the screen dynamically, as you're seeing it.
Examples include 3D gameplay for most games, the majority of Halo cinematics, the majority of Gears cinematics, etc... but the key here is that if something is running at 30fps, the system is capable of calculating and drawing that imagery 30-times a second in real-time, on the fly, dynamically.
2. "pre-rendered". When a rendering process is used to generate an image, and that rendering process cannot render the imagery in "real-time" (because it would take too long) at the desired frame rate, imagery can be rendered in advanced, and then each frame that's rendered can be stitched together, and then played back at the target frame rate.
Examples include anything that's CGI, and anything which was rendered "in-engine", but at a low frame rate and then stitched together to make a movie that runs at the desired frame rate.
3. "CGI". This simply stands for "computer generated imagery". It's kind of silly that it's become the term which means "pre-rendered with high-end rendering hardware and software", as technically, everything you see in any game is "computer generated imagery", but generally when people use this term, they're referring to imagery that was PRE-RENDERED, and imagery which was produced with high-end graphics rendering hardware, not hardware typically used for "real-time" rendering.
Examples include the Blur cinematics in the Halo 2 remake, all of the Pixar movies, and most cinematics which are rendered at a quality which far surpasses anything you'd see rendered in "real-time".
4. "In-game". This is a very squishy term, and not everyone agrees on it. If you see it used, you know you're likely hearing from someone who's not clear on proper terminology, or you're hearing from someone who's *very* clear on terminology, and they're intentionally being squishy with you. It's used mostly to refer to whatever happens "in the game". So, you could say, "the Uncharted pre-rendered cinematics are in-game, because they're part of the game... so they are therefore, in-game"... but that has no bearing on whether or not the imagery was generated in real-time or not. When discussing rendering, "in-game" is a term that just shouldn't be used. I tend to not use this term/phrase. I think it's too squishy, and inspecific.
5. "in-engine". This term simply means that the engine which is being used to power the product was also used in generating said imagery. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not something is real-time or pre-rendered.
Examples include the pre-rendered RYSE sequences which look better than the real-time rendered sequences, it includes the Forza 5 launch trailer, it includes nearly every cinematic in the Uncharted series, it includes nearly every cinematic in TLOU, it even includes a couple cinematics in the Gears franchise; for example, the intro to Gears 1 (emergence day), that's pre-rendered, but it's in-engine.
That said, "in-engine" also includes imagery that *IS* rendered in real-time. For example, the Gears cut scenes. Those are rendered in real-time, using the Unreal engine. The Halo cutscenes are rendered in real-time, using the Halo engine.
======================================================
If you hear someone say, "in-engine" (like with the Forza 5 release trailer, or the UC4 trailer) - you can almost immediately assume quite comfortably that it's not "real-time". This is a the dirty secret of the industry. Every does it, and I hate it. It's deceitful, plain and simple.
The first known example of this (TMK) was the Halo 2 reveal teaser:
In-engine, pre-rendered:
Go to 0:49 for pic of Master Chief
In-engine, real-time:
Go to 0:49 for pic of Master Chief
The difference is very obvious.
======================================================
So now when you see "in-engine", you'll know. Be skeptical.
First off, my apologies to the Sony fans who I may have offended by the discussion points I brought up in the Uncharted thread... but I would like to clearly outline something for all of you which is a "dirty secret" in the games industry. Sony does it, Microsoft does it, and I Think Nintendo *might* do it, but I can't recall a time in recent memory when they did.
To start, you need to understand some basic terms:
1. "real-time". When rendering something, "real-time" means all the elements that comprise the image you're seeing are being calculated, drawn, and output to the screen dynamically, as you're seeing it.
Examples include 3D gameplay for most games, the majority of Halo cinematics, the majority of Gears cinematics, etc... but the key here is that if something is running at 30fps, the system is capable of calculating and drawing that imagery 30-times a second in real-time, on the fly, dynamically.
2. "pre-rendered". When a rendering process is used to generate an image, and that rendering process cannot render the imagery in "real-time" (because it would take too long) at the desired frame rate, imagery can be rendered in advanced, and then each frame that's rendered can be stitched together, and then played back at the target frame rate.
Examples include anything that's CGI, and anything which was rendered "in-engine", but at a low frame rate and then stitched together to make a movie that runs at the desired frame rate.
3. "CGI". This simply stands for "computer generated imagery". It's kind of silly that it's become the term which means "pre-rendered with high-end rendering hardware and software", as technically, everything you see in any game is "computer generated imagery", but generally when people use this term, they're referring to imagery that was PRE-RENDERED, and imagery which was produced with high-end graphics rendering hardware, not hardware typically used for "real-time" rendering.
Examples include the Blur cinematics in the Halo 2 remake, all of the Pixar movies, and most cinematics which are rendered at a quality which far surpasses anything you'd see rendered in "real-time".
4. "In-game". This is a very squishy term, and not everyone agrees on it. If you see it used, you know you're likely hearing from someone who's not clear on proper terminology, or you're hearing from someone who's *very* clear on terminology, and they're intentionally being squishy with you. It's used mostly to refer to whatever happens "in the game". So, you could say, "the Uncharted pre-rendered cinematics are in-game, because they're part of the game... so they are therefore, in-game"... but that has no bearing on whether or not the imagery was generated in real-time or not. When discussing rendering, "in-game" is a term that just shouldn't be used. I tend to not use this term/phrase. I think it's too squishy, and inspecific.
5. "in-engine". This term simply means that the engine which is being used to power the product was also used in generating said imagery. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not something is real-time or pre-rendered.
Examples include the pre-rendered RYSE sequences which look better than the real-time rendered sequences, it includes the Forza 5 launch trailer, it includes nearly every cinematic in the Uncharted series, it includes nearly every cinematic in TLOU, it even includes a couple cinematics in the Gears franchise; for example, the intro to Gears 1 (emergence day), that's pre-rendered, but it's in-engine.
That said, "in-engine" also includes imagery that *IS* rendered in real-time. For example, the Gears cut scenes. Those are rendered in real-time, using the Unreal engine. The Halo cutscenes are rendered in real-time, using the Halo engine.
======================================================
If you hear someone say, "in-engine" (like with the Forza 5 release trailer, or the UC4 trailer) - you can almost immediately assume quite comfortably that it's not "real-time". This is a the dirty secret of the industry. Every does it, and I hate it. It's deceitful, plain and simple.
The first known example of this (TMK) was the Halo 2 reveal teaser:
In-engine, pre-rendered:
Go to 0:49 for pic of Master Chief
In-engine, real-time:
Go to 0:49 for pic of Master Chief
The difference is very obvious.
======================================================
So now when you see "in-engine", you'll know. Be skeptical.
