To Preface-
This thread does not seek to deride Caucasian folks. The impetus for this thread lies with long time personal observations on the (average) visual disparity between the rendition of skin types, specifically between those with and those without notable melanin count.
However, there is a rather poignant poem, "And You Call Me Colored" by poet, Agra Gra (nominated by The United Nations as the Best Poem of 2006) that I would like to share:
Since the dawn on 7th generation of consoles, when "Shaders" became the "thing", real time 3D technology strived towards ever more realistic renditions of the real world. And in the 8th, with help of physically based rendering/lighting, photogrammetry and 3D scanning of people, technologically we are that much closer to the threshold of photo realism in real time.
Photo-realism has essentially been achieved (unless folks pixel peep for low res textures) for many inorganic objects in real time and courtesy of libraries like Quixel, deploying them is becoming ever more cost effective.
Of course, the kick is human beings and that pesky thing called, 'Uncanny Valley' effect. However, in all the justifiable noise generated by it, an amazing occurrence has seemingly escaped some folks (given I have not seen anyone else make a thread with this topic or akin to it, I assume that number is quite high)- Current rendering pipeline, specifically sub surface scattering, really favours melanin rich skin tones-
I would like to share the following few examples (screenshots) in support-
Halo 5's in-engine cutscenes:
Agent Locke essentially looks utterly life-like compared to very good-looking digital characters.
Gameplay:
Gears 5's in-engine cutscenes:
While not as pronounced as Halo 5, both Kait and especially Del look notably closer to the photo realism threshold in terms of fidelity, albeit the overall aesthetic is closer to Uncharted's 'stylized' aesthetic.
Horizon Zero Dawn's in-dialogue (LoD 0 models with added lighting for elevated fidelity) shots. Aloy is featured as point of comparison:
Note that HZD does not go for outright photorealism as well- there is a layer of sheen like Uncharted, Gears, probably to stave off incursion of uncanny valley effect.
Jedi Fallen Order's gameplay screens:
Death Stranding and Detroit Become Human are two other games that illustrate this point superbly well but I am afraid I do not have the appropriate screenshots.
Below is an example of Squadron 42's work with skin rendering and animation that illustrates things like blend shapes that deal with muscle movement and corresponding creases (incl. affecting wrinkles) and especially blood flow:
Full video
Depending on the melanin count, at least one of these aspects is far more forgiving (pssst…. It's the blood flow which results in colour variations).
The current form of sub surface scattering makes the darker skin tones look more natural compared to paler tones of caucasians. It is weird that in the race to attain more and more realistic CGI human (i.e. white folks being the benchmark and the complexity of rendering the pale skin type has very little margin for error before diving head first into uncanny valley), graphics engineers have already ensured that the darker skinned folks are represented very favourably, even if it is incidental.
So, why do I bring this up now?
Things are changing in terms of representation but there is a notable dearth of brown and black folks, especially, ESPECIALLY, women of (darker) colour in AA and AAA story driven SP games. Given where the technology is at when it comes to rendering folks with more melanin, the time has never been better.
This thread does not seek to deride Caucasian folks. The impetus for this thread lies with long time personal observations on the (average) visual disparity between the rendition of skin types, specifically between those with and those without notable melanin count.
However, there is a rather poignant poem, "And You Call Me Colored" by poet, Agra Gra (nominated by The United Nations as the Best Poem of 2006) that I would like to share:
Since the dawn on 7th generation of consoles, when "Shaders" became the "thing", real time 3D technology strived towards ever more realistic renditions of the real world. And in the 8th, with help of physically based rendering/lighting, photogrammetry and 3D scanning of people, technologically we are that much closer to the threshold of photo realism in real time.
Photo-realism has essentially been achieved (unless folks pixel peep for low res textures) for many inorganic objects in real time and courtesy of libraries like Quixel, deploying them is becoming ever more cost effective.
Of course, the kick is human beings and that pesky thing called, 'Uncanny Valley' effect. However, in all the justifiable noise generated by it, an amazing occurrence has seemingly escaped some folks (given I have not seen anyone else make a thread with this topic or akin to it, I assume that number is quite high)- Current rendering pipeline, specifically sub surface scattering, really favours melanin rich skin tones-
- They can have seemingly more uniform oiliness across the surface area unlike paler skin types where stretching and squeezing of skin around specific facial features more notably alters light scattering pattern.
- Said skin profile also produces small differences in colouration that darker skin tones may be able to obfuscate better.
I would like to share the following few examples (screenshots) in support-
Halo 5's in-engine cutscenes:
Agent Locke essentially looks utterly life-like compared to very good-looking digital characters.
Gameplay:
Gears 5's in-engine cutscenes:
While not as pronounced as Halo 5, both Kait and especially Del look notably closer to the photo realism threshold in terms of fidelity, albeit the overall aesthetic is closer to Uncharted's 'stylized' aesthetic.
Horizon Zero Dawn's in-dialogue (LoD 0 models with added lighting for elevated fidelity) shots. Aloy is featured as point of comparison:
Note that HZD does not go for outright photorealism as well- there is a layer of sheen like Uncharted, Gears, probably to stave off incursion of uncanny valley effect.
Jedi Fallen Order's gameplay screens:
Below is an example of Squadron 42's work with skin rendering and animation that illustrates things like blend shapes that deal with muscle movement and corresponding creases (incl. affecting wrinkles) and especially blood flow:
Watch in HDFull video
Depending on the melanin count, at least one of these aspects is far more forgiving (pssst…. It's the blood flow which results in colour variations).
The current form of sub surface scattering makes the darker skin tones look more natural compared to paler tones of caucasians. It is weird that in the race to attain more and more realistic CGI human (i.e. white folks being the benchmark and the complexity of rendering the pale skin type has very little margin for error before diving head first into uncanny valley), graphics engineers have already ensured that the darker skinned folks are represented very favourably, even if it is incidental.
So, why do I bring this up now?
Things are changing in terms of representation but there is a notable dearth of brown and black folks, especially, ESPECIALLY, women of (darker) colour in AA and AAA story driven SP games. Given where the technology is at when it comes to rendering folks with more melanin, the time has never been better.
