Dragon Age: The Veilguard has brought about some notable visual transformations to the world of Thedas. While the new art style has garnered mixed reactions, one aspect of the game's aesthetics has generally been praised: the hair looks exceptionally well-rendered. EA and BioWare seem to concur, as they have disclosed the secret behind these high-quality hair animations in a recent blog post. The post delves into the intricate details of The Veilguard's impressive hair, revealing that each of the game's over 100 hairstyles contains 50,000 individually rendered strands. The Frostbite engine is credited for these high-quality results.
Frostbite has been refining its hair technology for some time, and its advancements are particularly evident in The Veilguard. The realism isn't just due to the variety of hairstyles or the sheer number of hairs; hair length also plays a significant role. The game features several waist-length hair options (both curly and straight) that move dynamically in combat, responding to factors like momentum, wind, magic blasts, changes in direction, and other variables. Achieving this level of detail was no small feat.
"With hair attachments that move seamlessly and the decoupling of simulation and render tessellation, this is the first EA game to offer such detailed, physics-driven long hairstyles," the blog post explains. "The Frostbite team increased maximum hair length from 63 points to 255, and implemented a new system for complex hair structures like braids." Changes to the Frostbite engine's lighting also contributed significantly to mastering The Veilguard's hair physics, but the journey wasn't without its challenges. BioWare encountered various obstacles, with horns being a primary issue.
"While Strand Hair is present in other EA games, the BioWare team had to push the limits even further for Dragon Age: The Veilguard," the post continues. "For example, implementing Strand Hair technology for characters who have waist-length hair with horns on their head presented some unique challenges." The meticulously rendered hair options in The Veilguard have not gone unnoticed by players, many of whom have spent considerable time perfecting their characters in the game's character creator. In a medium where "long hair" often means "shoulder-length at best," Dragon Age: The Veilguard appears to be a significant step forward in achieving realistic, complex hair structures in games. This is particularly good news for Mass Effect fans, who can likely expect similarly realistic hair options in the next installment of the franchise.
Source link: https://www.gamespot.com
