Sonic Forces | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC "The Next Generations"

[Cyrus]

Too bad those guys are super vocal and everywhere, even on this very message board

[FriendBot]

I mean it is true that announcing games a year before it comes out is a norm in the industry, I guess this is just the case where most fans are so used to hearing game announcements and getting the game a few months after that having to waiting another year is gonna be torture. I mean, I'm more than happy to wait for that long, knowing in good faith that Sonic Team are working hard to make this game be the best game they ever made.

I don't know, it's way too soon to be all doom and gloom just yet (though I guess it's also the case to feel the opposite as well). I'll wait it out some more until we get some details though it does fill me with some confidence that Sonic Team have been working on "Resistance" for 3 years at this point, and 4 when it comes out. That's longer than Unleashed's development, ho boi this game better be great.

[Sami]

I mean I'm not going to be stunned if the trailer itself isn't proven to be in-engine, although I would be very curious why their CGI budget took such an enormous hit for no reason. 

I would be disappointed if the final game doesn't look (close to) that good because frankly I don't think it looks that unbelievably incredible. It looks like what I would expect from a generational leap over Unleashed, which already looked great. I mean hell I played some absolutely stunning stuff like Star Wars Battlefront and Uncharted 4 with my own hands on my PS4, this doesn't even look as good as those games. 

But hey whatever floats your boat, I can't make you believe it lol. If you're gonna be like "hey they're just setting themselves up for disappointment" we'll talk about it again when we get in-game cutscene footage.

[TheLaw34]

I suppose the CGI for lost world was in engine too right? It's clearly not as high fidelity as unleashed. Project 2017s trailer was boring and didn't have as good direction as this but I don't really see it being anywhere close to real time and It being inengine doesn't mean much if they can take 10 minutes per frame.

[FriendBot]

Lost World's intro may not be as amazing as Unleashed's but its animation is just as fluid and stretchy, if that makes sense. 

[TheLaw34]

1 minute ago, Kabalni said:

Lost World's intro may not be as amazing as Unleashed's but its animation is just as fluid and stretchy, if that makes sense. 

Having weaker animation doesn't really equal being in engine. It just equals weaker animators/less budget/time constraints..

[Nepenthe]

Just look at the grass in Lost World's opening.

That's not in-engine rendering.

[Hiki]

Didn't SEGA spend a fortune on the Boom games? Maybe that's what struck a blow to their budget.

Nonetheless, I hope both this and Sonic Mania do really well!

[TheLaw34]

2 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Just look at the grass in Lost World's opening.

That's not in-engine rendering.

Yeah I was going to mention that the grass is the only thing that really makes it obvious. However where lost world had grass this has smoke.

[FriendBot]

1 minute ago, SonicEkkusu said:

Didn't SEGA spend a fortune on the Boom games? Maybe that's what struck a blow to their budget.

Nonetheless, I hope both this and Sonic Mania do really well!

I think that was just BRB spending that much money developing the game, I think? Either that or it was the budget for the entire Boom subfranchise at first. 

Even in its early stages, Rise of Lyric did not look like a 10 million dollar game.

[Hiki]

Just now, Kabalni said:

I think that was just BRB spending that much money developing the game, I think? Either that or it was the budget for the entire Boom subfranchise at first. 

Even in its early stages, Rise of Lyric did not look like a 10 million dollar game.

I looked on TSSZ, and it was almost 20 million.

http://www.tssznews.com/2014/02/21/sonic-boom-game-near-a-20-million-budget/

 

I also think that SEGA might want to see how this does before investing alot of money into CGI.

By the way, did the restructuring and layoffs in 2015 affect their budget at all?

I ment anything, I can't edit posts on the Android.

[FriendBot]

I doubt the restructure affected Marza in a big way, they are owned by SEGA but I don't think they qualify as core SEGA employees.

[Clewis]

On 7/28/2016 at 9:17 PM, Sami said:

That's actually pretty convincing, especially since Sonic appears more "rigid" in the new trailer compared to the Unleashed example. Re-watching the trailer for Project 2017, there are definitely some portions that I could see being in-game. The part where Sonic is sliding and dodging rubble in particular doesn't look nearly as flashy or dynamic as it probably would have been in any previous trailer produced by Marza Planet.

On the other hand, there are other moments in the trailer that look too nice to not be CG, like when classic Sonic appears:

So maybe the trailer primarily uses in-game visuals and saves CG for the most important bits? Maybe the CG in this trailer doesn't look up to par because Sega irregularly decided that they wanted to have a teaser thrown together for the party even though the game's release is over a year away? Who knows? Aaron probably does.

The cynical side of me actually wishes that they hadn't shown off anything regarding this game yet. Not only do I expect us to not get any new info on the game until early next year, but I actually have more questions regarding Project 2017 now than when I knew absolutely nothing about it. Welp.

[SonicFreak94]

There is no way that was in game. You can tell by the animations. Plus the game engine is probably unfinished since we still have a whole year before the game is complete.  It was just an ugly cg trailer. 

[Sega DogTagz]

30 minutes ago, reflection_of said:

There is no way that was in game. You can tell by the animations. Plus the game engine is probably unfinished since we still have a whole year before the game is complete.  It was just an ugly cg trailer. 

Well, if they've been working on this game as long as we think they have been working on this game, then being a year out from release means a whole lot less in this context.

If this sucker already has 3 years under its belt, then there should be enough coding there to have something "functional".

 

That being said, I'm 100% jumping on the CG angle. I see too many little flourishes and nuances in that trailer that make it a dead ringer Marza CG trailer. The main giveaway being Sonic's running animation.

As far back as Unleashed, Marza has has the same trend with how they animate Sonic running. It is distinctly different than any of Sonic Team's animations of the blue blur. He leans much farther forward and has minimal forward leg extension - in favor of excessive backwards extension.

Compare the side angle running animations from the 2017 trailer to the side angle CG we got from Unleashed's opening cut scene, Unleashed's Holoaska comedy skit, Color's Intro (where he's running and the wisps fly past) or Generations original teaser (with Sonic running alongside Classic). All of them show Sonic running from the side angle and all of them have Marza written all over it.

You can see it from a mile away. There is absolutely no debate here. Marza likely wouldn't waste their time making a cut scene in Engine. They just ran through their trove of assets and made a quick sizzle reel. Much like they did in the hyping up for Gens. There was quite a bit of slap-dashed not-up-to-Marza-standards trailer bait CG work that never made it into the game itself. 

Gah. That Generations 2 bug doesn't die easy.

[Blacklightning]

I actually compared the Unleashed CG model and this one side by side a day or two ago, and among things I noticed the fabric textures (gloves and socks specifically) have exactly the same weave. There's very similar grooves on Sonic's quills and fur too, though they're a bit harder to make out.

[VolatileMike]

Side note, always found the fabric a bit distracting. Why did they make the threads look so rough to the touch? You look at real train conductor's gloves and those things are much smoother. Just a nitpick. 

[TheLaw34]

Just now, VolatileMike said:

Side note, always found the fabric a bit distracting. Why did they make the threads look so rough to the touch? You look at real train conductor's gloves and those things are much smoother. Just a nitpick. 

Realism is irrelevant. They thought it looked good which is what actually matters to them.

[VolatileMike]

But I don't think it looks good. 

[TheLaw34]

Was just answering since you asked why they decided to do it. I'm guessing they probably did some testing to see how the majority felt about it.

[Nepenthe]

Different fabrics have different tensions and sizes of knits that's going to affect how the fabric looks, and it doesn't necessarily indicate softness either. Not ever pair of white fabric gloves necessarily has to be made out of something visually smooth like silk or spandex. Sonic's gloves are probably just cotton or jersey instead. The most distracting thing about them- particularly in the trailer- is that the texture causes a bit of artifacts and jaggies to appear here and there. But I don't think a visual indication of a knit is all that unreasonable.

[Guest]

Maybe they just had low budget lol

[Marcello]

I wish SEGA would give Gamersyde or someone a better quality version of the video. Youtube hurts the video quality.

I can't see this being anything but CGI. If it's not, then this would be the best looking game for consoles out there. And this is a game that needs solid framerate, preferably 60fps.

[Hyp3hat]

Yeah, if the trailer was in-engine, you'd best believe they would mention that - it's marketing gold. 'Hey, this slick af trailer is actually what the game's going to look like!' is a great hook.

It's not in-engine, though, it just looks too good. 

[Scar]

Whether its in-engine is not really relevant. The issue is whether its running in real-time or if its pre-rendered. In-engine footage can look close to CGI if its pre-rendered, but will likely have no bearing on what the game will actually look like in motion.

At least that's how I understand it.