Face-capturing tech to be "in-game soon" for Age of Conan [UPDATED]

by William Dobson Apr 21st 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items

Lopping off heads in Age of Conan might soon be taken very personally, as ShackNews has reported that some fancy face-importing technology is being prepared for use in-game -- you're bound to be just a tad more put out when you see your actual face rolling away on a decapitated noggin. The above picture is a somewhat terrifying example of what might be seen when walking around Funcom's Hyboria in the near future. The technology itself comes from a company called Big Stage Entertainment, and you can already get a feel for how it works at their website by registering an account and creating your own 3D "@ctor".

For now, the @ctors can only be used with videos and pictures on the web, but Funcom is working with Big Stage to bring both real-life faces and voices to in-game avatars. The Global Gaming League is running a competition called the "Big Stage Crown Yourself King Conan Contest" to promote the whole operation. Entrants must generate AoC-related Big Stage creations, and then share them around with as many people as possible for a chance to win some game time and in-game items. ShackNews has a video demonstrating the use of the technology in its current implementation.

[Edit: Now we're hearing that this technology will NOT be used on AoC after all, despite the information (and contest!) from Big Stage. "While Big Stage may be planning to implement the technology in games soon, it is not currently slated for implementation into Age of Conan," said a Funcom spokesperson when asked by MMORPG.com.]

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, big-stage, big-stage-entertainment, face-capture, face-importing, funcom, ggl, global-gaming-league

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

postman said on 10:29AM 4-21-2009

im not sure about this. one of the reasons i play MMOGs is for the chance to (on some level, and i'm not an RPer) play a character that is not myself, experience a virtual world where i can be pretty much whatever i want within the mechanics of the game. This kind of defeats the purpose of the anonymous nature of these games that so many people enjoy. Its neat dont get me wrong, but me face would look strange on the stygian female ranger that i used to play in AoC. chics with beards?

JP said on 10:42AM 4-21-2009

I don't think it'll be required to use. Just an option.

That said, it's a gimmicky way to pull in subs. AoC is actually improved ten fold and is now pretty stable and damn fun game, but this just comes off as cheesy and immersive breaking to me.

Oh well.... if it's anything like "ported to 360" soon, I'm not worried :)

THAC0 said on 10:41AM 4-21-2009

you can find some one elses face and use that as long as you can find the correct angles. I plan on using Yamila Diaz for my avatar.. very nice!

Herb said on 10:41AM 4-21-2009

This is a terrible idea. Instead of fixing the game in other ways they decide to create some awful way to stick fat gamer faces on muscular figures of opposite sex BRILLIANT.

jdmc said on 11:22AM 4-21-2009

I have a feeling its not just for conan. Funcom has a team dedicated to working on nothing but the engine they use for Conan which will also be used for the Secret world and soon Anarchy Online. If they make a feature like this available to one it most likely goes to all which I could see this feature being more used in a Game such as Secret world where you will play a human in Semi present times.

THAC0 said on 11:40AM 4-21-2009

Where did you find out that they are going to somehow switch the engine and rebuild Anarchy Online? I'd be truly interested in Anarchy Online if they did that. Can you link?

sami m said on 12:49PM 4-21-2009

sweeeet

borgy78 said on 2:01PM 4-21-2009

haha how long do you think it will take for people to use a p*n*s picture for a face etc or porn star faces... this will be seriously abused. though it will be funny stuff. sorry rp'ers this must suck for you

jdmc said on 2:22PM 4-21-2009

@Thaco

They've been working on rolling it up to the new engine since late 2007 but I guess have fallen behind. You can find a thread here on the AO forums talking about it but havent seen any word since. http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=518850

Wjowski said on 7:11PM 4-21-2009

I've often worried that the bad taste left in everyone's mouth by AoC's launch'd end up adversely affecting AO. In the case of graphic engine revamp it seems my fears might very well be confirmed. I suspect whatever resources were being put into it were long ago diverted towards pulling AoC's fat out of the fire.