10 Video Games With An Insane Level Of Detail (That No One Noticed)
4. L.A. Noire's Research Team Used 180,000 Photos & Captured Faces With 32 Cameras Each
LA Noire received a lot of attention for its authentic 1940's smoky atmospheric tone, the fitting jazz soundtrack and the innovations in video-game storytelling. But what garnered the most attention was the accurate rendering of 1940's Los Angeles and the fact that Cole Phelps seemed to have no way of interrogating murder suspects or witnesses without yelling like a psychopath.
Still, what you don't realise is just how much work went into making that virtual L.A., and what had to be done to properly capture Mr. Phelps' craziness.
Developers Team Bondi ended up spending a year researching 1940's LA using over 180,000 photos, over 1000 newspapers and numerous field trips. This resulted in stupendously detailed buildings and interiors that were accurately modelled after real hotels still standing in LA.
As you may know, it was the face-modelling and motion-capture technology-basket that the team put most of their eggs in. Called MotionScan, Team Bondi were able to capture incredibly life-like moving human faces by filming the actors reading their lines over a period of a year and a half using 32 cameras going at over 1000 frames per second.
All in all, development of LA Noire took seven years, $50 million dollars and a heap of staff complaints- all before gamers finally got to see a supporting character in Mad Men yell at a bunch of video game suspects.