A week ago today, I wrote about Participate, a new creation technology designed by Evolve Games. At the time, I still wasn’t entirely sure what Participate was capable of, and neither were a few people who emailed me. Thankfully, Emote Games’’ Technical Director Gavin Rummery took some time out of his schedule to answer some questions about Participate, and help clarify what it is just a little better.
GC: Thanks for answering some questions, Gavin. First off, I’m curious: why create a product like this? What was the inspiration which led to Participate being realized?
Gavin Rummery: The aim was to allow Emote to provide high quality imagery for its games even if they were being accessed via web or mobile applications that didn’t have the power to create such images themselves. We also wanted our games to centre on players having a character they could relate to and use as an avatar when communicating with other players.
GC: Could you explain in a little more detail how Participate works?
In other words, how much freedom will people get when designing their avatars/characters? Can they change the model’s dimensions, or do they work from pre-established shapes in terms of heads and such?
GR: For the Emote titles in production like in our current title, The Hunter, characters are randomly generated and the user gets to choose one they like the look of. Once they’ve selected a character, it can be customized over time with new hairstyles, clothing, makeup, etc, but still stays recognizably the same person.
However, the technology can allow full character customization to be exposed if that is what a particular title requires.
GC: Is it purely for avatars (IE heads), or will there be the capability of creating a full-body? If not, is that something you’re aiming for down the road?
GR: Each character is a whole person, not just a head. For example in The Hunter you can customize your character in branded and non branded hunting gear from jackets right down to boots and accessories.
GC: in a slightly related note, will the avatars created by Participate feature any possible movement? Or are they primarily made for use in an environment where the avatar is static?
GR: The characters can be animated, and are designed to be compatible with high end consoles like the Xbox 360 or PS3. On the web we are initially just serving up static shots, but at a later date are planning video sequences too.
GC: Will people who use the Participate technology in their products be able to modify what’s available? Say I’m making an online social networking site or game, and decide to save time by using Participate. Could I decide which elements are available for users to utilize? And could I create my own modifications for models which would integrate with the already-available Participate features? (Like a hat with my game’s logo.)
GR: The technology allows people to specify the character definition they want to use, so the application that is talking to Participate could decide which elements it wanted to expose. Additional clothing and textures can be authored and added to the system as required.
GC: In terms of customizing avatars, will using Participate be fairly intuitive? Will people with little to no experience in modeling be able to jump right in?
GR: No one has to do any modeling to create avatars in Participate - it is all based on combining lots of pre-authored models to get the look you want.
GC: Are the creations possible with it purely realistic? Or could a twisted person like me make some really demented looking avatars?
GR: There is nothing about the technology itself that stops you creating freaky looking characters, but at the moment for our games we are concentrating on making the system produce generally “good looking” characters.
GC: How will programmers and developers utilize the engine? Do they pay a one-time fee for the rights, or, given the fact that Participate is a self-hosted creation tool; will they pay an ongoing fee?
GR: Any developers interested in utilizing Participate should contact us. Participate is a suite, each part of which can be used alone or with others, so costing is very flexible.
GC: I’ve got one more question for you, and you need to be completely honest on this one: who was the first famous person you tried to recreate with it?
GR: Zhang Ziyi – the stunning actress who appears in one of many films including House of the flying daggers and memoirs of a Geisha
GC: Thanks for taking a break from development to answer some stuff, Gavin. I think people have a much better idea of what Participate’s character creation can do now.
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