PC facial expressions

[wynterknight]

Is there any way that you can change the expression on your main character's face? In every cutscene, he's got this awful grimace on his face... It's something to do with the way the mouth turns down, but so far all of my male PCs look like this. It's especially jarring during lovemaking cutscenes--apparently none of the companions are any good in bed. I'd love a cocky grin, a small smile, or hell, even a neutral expression, so long as it doesn't look like he just smelled what Dog rolled in.

 

I don't have any idea how hard this would be to implement, but it would make a world of difference.

[freemanphd]

I was just about to make a thread requesting something similar, but my problem is different. My PC's just look so lifeless compared to the situation, it always annoys me.

 

"Oh my mom just died...well, ain't that somethin'." =_=

 

And I know there are the little "shocked" face expressions when the PC sees something odd, and of course the *ahem* "sexy time" faces, but other than that it always looks like the PC doesn't care about what's happening. And yes, there is the ultra-rare "sad face" (like when you get exiled as a Dwarf Noble).

 

It's too bad Bioware didn't go the Jade Empire route and do face expressions depending on what you said. I always felt that was a cool touch.

[DarkeWolf]

There's actually a lot of stuff that bioware tried to do with the scenes. A lot of them ended up having to get toned down, or left alone, because they couldnt get them looking the way that they wanted them to, in the amount of time that they were given once EA got hold of the company. And some of the scenes got outright removed from the game, because they couldnt get them to measure up.

We see... maybe half the work they did, or tried to do.

 

Also keep in mind, that when they made this, they also had to make it able to be played on the gamedecks with as little work possible for cross-platform compatibility.

And the decks don't have the resources now, that some of hte home computers do.

 

NOT that I'm trying to chew on anybody, or anything like that. I'm only saying that they had limits that were put on them. Both from a technical standpoint, and from EA's "roll 'em out fast" policy for releasing games.

(Not to mention that some of these folks probably make twice as much as we do, and those hours of work can rack up a bill).

 

I could see some of the small stuff being done, like the facial animations during some of the more... private scenes. However... theres a big issue. Unless you've got the source files, you cant edit somebody else's custom made cutscenes. You just can't, its not possible to do. The toolset doesnt export them in an editable format.

So like, with the scenes that are already custom made, this kind of request needs to go to the author of those scenes.

The vanilla stuff we can (try to) mod as we see fit, but custom made stuff, no.

[freemanphd]

There's actually a lot of stuff that bioware tried to do with the scenes. A lot of them ended up having to get toned down, or left alone, because they couldnt get them looking the way that they wanted them to, in the amount of time that they were given once EA got hold of the company. And some of the scenes got outright removed from the game, because they couldnt get them to measure up.

We see... maybe half the work they did, or tried to do....

...

 

Man, when you say it like that, ya make me start to harbor a grudge against EA. I was always under the impression that Bioware had some kind of "Don't rush us" clause in their contract.

[DarkeWolf]

I didnt really mean to. I mean... I myself DO harbor a stiff grudge against EA, but I dont intend to push that off on anybody else. All I'm really gonna say... is BW is known for making really immersive, very interesting games, and very intruiging characters. Dragon Age was in the works for 4 years.

Then EA buys them out.... and Dragon Age 2- January 2011. Doesnt seem like long enough to get really serious work done, on a video game...

 

Even when you've got a core already established. Especially not when its a core that still needs work.

[freemanphd]

I used to have that line of thinking, but then I see a game like Left 4 Dead 2 and I say "Hey, anything's possible."

 

Of course Left 4 Dead is a FPS whereas Dragon Age is a huge RPG, so yeah, that does give one pause.

[DarkeWolf]

I'm not really sure about Left 4 Dead, but I know that they built the ME2 off of the UNREAL engine so that saved them a considerable amount of work (and kind of gave it a more stable base). Its too bad that Bethseda couldnt be convinced tor release their Morrowind/Oblivion core, that would be AWESOME for RPG gamers everywhere.

 

Anyway, back on topic.... I havent seen the full range of facial animations that are available for the game. It would be really interesting to see some more of the unused anims.

[freemanphd]

Doesn't the toolset have the list of facial animations that are available? Or are those just the animations that were used in-game?

[DarkeWolf]

Interesting question. Honestly, I'm not sure.

I would think that it would if you were in the cutscene editor. But I dont know if you can actually see the scene as it would be in the game. I've only been able to see the dummies (over glorified stick figures). There's an option there to view the scene thru the game, but it always crashes on me when I try it.

[charsen]

With my kisses mod that i am currently extending, i try to add more facial expressions to the PC for each kiss. I take my last final tomorrow and one of the things i want to do is add more facial expressions especially for particularly important scenes. i have to figure out a full list of scenes (i have a partial list of ones i want to do) but this will come after i do more of my new kisses mod probably this weekend.

 

But you are right, BW did not make it easy to add dynamic facial expressions. Some can be added but it's clunky, especially when supporting other mods for compatibility, but it's not impossible at all.. anyway, just saying... it's something i've got my eye on and something i work on with my cutscenes too.