Cinematic scenes featuring your character's look
Blizzard's artists are world class at creating pre-rendered cinematics, and many of us remember being wowed by these scenes in previous Diablo games. Diablo 4 will also feature such cinematics, but add a new type: real-time cutscenes [1] (RTCs). These are scenes that take your character's look (i.e., the appearance that you crafted at the beginning of the game, and your currently equipped items) and puts it within the cinematic scene. Blizzard wants to reserve these scenes for more meaningful parts of the storyline:
"We're developing real-time cutscenes (or RTCs). We grab your camera and treat the storytelling as a movie, so we're reserving the technique for the most important story moments. Having these real-time has great advantages -- we can show your character with their currently equipped armor as part of the scene. But we can also display them at your current resolution using your currently enabled graphics settings, so they feel more seamless and part of the game."Luis Barriga · Former Diablo IV Game Director
Intro cinematic uses real-time cutscenes
On February 19, 2023, Blizzard revealed Diablo 4's opening cinematic [2], which makes use of the new real-time cutscene technology. The character featured, a darker-skinned Barbarian, with long hair and a beard, is shown battling the harsh elements of the frigid Fractured Peaks region and discovering hints of evil that will soon plague Sanctuary. This character was made in the character creation engine, that all players will use to create their characters at the beginning of the game.
Rogue trailer utilized RTC too
According to Blizzard, the Rogue's Announcement Trailer shown during BlizzConline 2021 was created with a real-time cutscene [3] using a playable, unique-looking Rogue character. Although the quality of real-time cutscenes hasn't reached parity with pre-rendered ones, Blizzard's artists are impressively getting close.
"We also have cinematic moments that feature your character close up, rendered in our game engine. We've been working closely with the legendary Blizzard Animation team to bring as much of their knowledge into our process as possible. The Rogue Announce trailer was a fantastic collaboration where we were able to push the limits of our tech and tools."
Xiphoid has been playing Diablo since the original's release in 1997. He made one of the largest Age of Empires sites in the late-'90s and early-'00s. Now, he runs MythicDrop.com, a premier Diablo 4 fansite.
Sources
| Article | Source | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Diablo IV Quarterly Update 2020 Q2 | Blizzard | |
| 2. | Diablo IV intro cinematic with real-time cutscenes | Blizzard | |
| 3. | Diablo IV Quarterly Update 2021 Q2 | Blizzard |
Changelog
| Ver | Change | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Beta | Added section on the opening in-game cinematic | |
 |
Alpha | Published original |
