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Are CGI trailers meant to represent an idealized version of the game?

Somni

Somni

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
942
I've always wondered why so many companies often choose to promote their games with pre-rendered CGI animations. Often outsourced to other animation and visual effects production studios. Why not just show the games as they are?

I imagine this practice will gradually fall out of favor after next gen, assuming the visual fidelity of most games will have reached a point where even the mediocre games will have amazing graphics.
 
Admiral Woofington

Admiral Woofington

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,892
Ever since the Dead Island trailer I won't ever trust a CGI trailer to tell me what the game will actually play like. But for early marketing for cinematic purposes? It's fine. The Witcher 3 'Killing Monsters' trailer was fucking hype. And the way it was mocked in-game was even better.
 
Nintendo

Nintendo

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,367
Because CGI trailers are so cool. They're mostly to convey the tone and atmosphere of the game rather than how it plays.
 
vestan

vestan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Dec 28, 2017
24,611
Hailinel said:
How do I get Kevin Spacey out of my Call of Duty
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cursed image

waOZykY.jpg
 
shinobi602

shinobi602

Verified
Oct 24, 2017
8,329
Many times they're meant to convey mechanics, tone, enemies, atmosphere etc that you'll find in the actual game but in a flashy manner to grab your interest.

You might see a character wall running or using a grappling hook or some power or something that will end up being a mechanic in the game and look amazing in the CGI trailer.
 
VallenValiant

VallenValiant

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,598
Somni said:
I've always wondered why so many companies often choose to promote their games with pre-rendered CGI animations. Often outsourced to other animation and visual effects production studios. Why not just show the games as they are?

I imagine this practice will gradually fall out of favor after next gen, assuming the visual fidelity of most games will have reached a point where even the mediocre games will have amazing graphics.
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Well with many early trailers, the game isn't close to ready to be seen.
But I know what you mean. One thing the Elder Scrolls used to be known for, was to use in game engine footage in their trailers. That trend was broken with TES Online, which automatically told me that the game sucked.
 
Hey Please

Hey Please

Avenger
Oct 31, 2017
22,824
Not America
I think so. In the past it (in the days of PS1,2 and even 3) it made sense but now, I question this myself and the one thing is that they encapsulate story beats and compress gameplay moments in a cohesive fashion as trailers are supposed to.

And so people may ask why don't they do that in-engine. To that I'd say, they have for certain occasions but it mostly comes down to expenses and time management as game development are marketing often run parallel.
 
Zhukov

Zhukov

Banned
Dec 6, 2017
2,641
Idealized? Phhhhht.

They represent a marketable version of the game.

They don't show the game as it is because watching xXxPussysmasher bunny-hop across the map while a nearby enemy gets stuck in a wall just doesn't compare to a flashy, scripted CGI mini-movie.

I enjoy CGI trailers, but I am suspicious as fuck of them.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,598
here
Somni said:
I know that's more or less the basic reason from a marketing point of view. I'm curious as to why pre-rendered CGI representations of a game is so common.
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because moment to moment gameplay is usually optimized to how it feels to play more so than how it looks while being played
 
Gentlemen

Gentlemen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,506
Somni said:
I've always wondered why so many companies often choose to promote their games with pre-rendered CGI animations. Often outsourced to other animation and visual effects production studios. Why not just show the games as they are?

I imagine this practice will gradually fall out of favor after next gen, assuming the visual fidelity of most games will have reached a point where even the mediocre games will have amazing graphics.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Large studios are often polishing games right up until the very last second.

Marketing pushes have to be planned months in advance.

"Target render" or fully cinematic trailers can bridge the gap between what audiences can expect in terms of a game's theme or visual experience and the actual state of current stable or bleeding edge internal builds. Most people shouldn't come to expect them as a guarantee of image quality or mechanics and by and large such trailers come with "footage of a game under development" disclaimers baked in unless they're actually meant to be a cutscene in the finished game.
 
Calvarok

Calvarok

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,218
I think originally it was to showcase the specific details of the world and characters in a way they couldn't with in-game assets. Not as a way to fool the player, but to give them a glimpse of what the game would look like if it was "real". It then transitioned into the kind of fakeout stuff that was trying to look like an idealized version of the actual gameplay, and now its become more about highly specific story and mood pieces, often relying on facial capture and environments/verbs that wont be in the actual game.

I reached a point with Assassin's Creed Origins, where the first trailer they showed was entirely in-game and looked amazing (i still think it looks better than Oddessy) and it was baffling to me when they also did a cg trailer later, since it already felt like there was nothing they could do fidelity-wise in cg that they couldnt do in the game. Big budget story-based singleplayer games feel like they're at the point where cg isn't needed.
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,070
Pre-rendered will probably never go away because even when the visual fidelity of games is "good enough" there will still be compromises made for actual gameplay that can be done pre-rendered. They are mostly done for advertising for the most part to "trick" people into thinking the game always looks that good. Were boxarts during the SNES era really representative of the games they advertised.
 
hamptonjack

hamptonjack

Banned
Apr 15, 2018
61
I hate CGI trailers with no exceptions. I don't even like """in-engine""" trailers. Show the actual game or don't bother
 
Crossing Eden

Crossing Eden

Member
Oct 26, 2017
53,300
DiipuSurotu said:
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Fun fact, Digic Pictures, the studio that made this short, also handled some of the shots in Kingsglaive.

........

They have a very distinct editing style where during the action scenes in their trailers. They do a lot of quick cuts with the occasional slowmo:
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So their specific shots are very very noticeable in the movie. It also shows that their style fits much better in short films than feature length movies
 
Hokey

Hokey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,164
Thats a good way of putting it OP, I always felt it was a way of fleshing the world out by making it more detailed and atmospheric. Ever since I started seeing CGI in games it has remained my fave feature bar none and still hope to see it for any future games, was super happy to see it in Sekiro.
 
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