Dear Steemit friends,

unbelievable was my first impression today as i followed a video recommendation to a Unreal Engine 4 presentation for virtual characters.

Unreal Engine 4 - (2018) - Ridiculous Realistic Looking Characters! - video by PredCaliber

We reached a point where virtual characters are super realistic.. but are we beyond the uncanny valley?

What is the uncanny valley?

The diagram above describes the progress to simulate a human being. In the beginning we make great progress to build something human like but still so artificial that there is a clear difference between a real human and a simulated or artificial human. At this stage we feel comfortable with the reproduction because we exactly know that it's not real! But if we get more realistic and copy many of the properties of a real human we have just small differences in the end.. BUT they have a much bigger impact if we like this reproduction or not!

We like a more abstract model of a human more than almost perfect reproduction of a human

Emphasis is placed on almost perfect because we have good sensors to detect minor flaws in the model (wrong mimic expression, wrong contraction of a tiny face muscle for example) and are a way more disgusted by the betrayal compared to a stupid model of a human being which looks obviously like a robot.

The strange thing is that we are looking at a much more sophisticated reproduction but have a very bad feeling about. We put a lot more efforts and technology into this model but are far more away from credibility. We even feel threatened by such quite realistic reproductions as you can read and look here

Have we passed the uncanny valley with Unreal Engine 4?

I would say no, not completely but we are now on the way up in the valley. If you look at the first video and the eastern style girl there are moments of pure credibility and some moments where i was distracted by minor flaws. But there is nothing like disgust or feeling of threat. It is already a very good state of realism and make me believe that such character can already substitute human actors for Advertisement, TV Game Shows.. not for a really great movie where every expression of emotion counts but for things with less demand for realism it could work perfectly, especially in games.

Experiences with great game characters

The most impressive game characters i met personally were until now:

2009

The old man from Uncharted 2 - Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Commentary Playthrough - Part 15 - Schafer & Tenzin - video by dansg08

The game is about 9 years old but at the time i said "Wow!" to myself and caught my breath for a second because i thought if this is a rendered video sequence or realtime action! Even now it's amazing!

2010

Heavy Rain for PS3 had also a great character, the most credible in my point of view was Scott Shelby as you can see in the following video:

Heavy Rain - Origami Killer - Gameplay - video by IGN Walkthroughs

Although very good face modeling the uncanny valley is much more present than with the old man from Uncharted 2 above. The reason for that are a bit static face animations in my point of view.

2013

A third great example is Ellie from the Last of Us:

The Last of Us - Ellie Swearing - video by Flanzaman

Honestly it's a shame i have the game now for many years at my disposal and played just about 45% through.. but i continued recently! 😁 Ellie does an excellent job to transfer emotions with here face expressions and makes the wonderful cutscenes much more credible than in other similar games. Last of Us is a true milestone in storytelling and overall a great game! Uncharted and The Last of Us wurde as well were developed by Naughty Dog.

Ashley Johnson was the voice actor and model for motion capturing of the face

The Last Of Us - Ashley Johnson (Ellie) EXCLUSIVE Interview - Eurogamer - video by Eurogamer

2018

The following game was recently published and i had not the chance to play it. Detroit: Become Human is also developed by Quantic Dream like Heavy Rain. Facial expressions feel a bit cooler in comparison to the Naughty Dog games, the uncanny valley is more present. But to be fair the character modeling is overall great and much better than in Heavy Rain and i'm excited to see it live on my screen.

Detroit: Become Human - INSANE Single Player Game | 15 Minutes of Gameplay Trailer (PlayStation 4) video by GAMEOST

What do you think have we passed the Uncanny Valley?

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