Lauren Brady, Author at REALTIME

The age of the car ‘startup’ – the exciting road ahead

We recently talked about new, up-and-coming car manufacturers like Rivian, NIO, and Rimac. It’s such a huge topic that I wanted to talk about it again. It’s an exciting time for the automotive industry and these new names are set to shake up the market.

It’s easy to be sceptical – after all, how can they take on the goliaths? We’re at a turning point and I believe the strong competition from the startups can turn the tide.

Let’s define “startup”

“Startup” is a bit of a dirty word in this context. It conjures an image of a handful of people working in a garage. Most of the newcomers are well beyond that point in their journey. Rivian has over 750 employees. NIO has already seen strong sales. Everyone has been recruiting industry veterans.

Startup is meant in the literal sense – that they are just getting started. Most of them only have one model in the market if that – plenty aren’t launching for another couple of years. That’s what makes the whole scenario so exciting. These are fresh ideas coming from people who know and love cars. They aren’t beholden to corporate oversight or a money-hungry board of investors. The passion runs through the entire team, not just a select few.

They could define the future of the industry, joining in on the success of Tesla. And, in some ways, I think what they deliver could be even better.

A bit of competition

Competition is always good for the consumer. Companies challenge each other to be better. Would we be seeing this mass adoption of electric vehicles by manufacturers if it weren’t for the ones who dipped their toes in first?

These startups are bringing a new dimension to the competition. People aren’t as brand loyal these days. There’s more of a focus on the new “it” car if anything. These new cars are appealing to the mid-range market in a number of ways; they’re better for the environment while also being a fashion statement.

Look at the fervour over Tesla. This puts pressure on the big-name manufacturers to try to appeal to that same market. Whether they do this in their environmental-friendliness, looks, or technology – probably a mix of all three.

The drive toward EVs

These cars are also pushing us further down the path of electric vehicles. I’ve talked before about where I think the market will go, and I see a greater push towards EVs while combustion engines take a back seat. It won’t happen tomorrow, but it’s coming, and the startups are leading the charge.

We can already see the effect; every manufacturer has laid out its EV strategy. Plenty have released a car already. It’s a necessary change as we see the public look favourably on the tech. For younger generations, EVs will be the norm. And if they keep it up, the startups will be too.

New (and old) blood

Another great thing about the startups is the voice it gives to a new generation of designers. They don’t necessarily have to be young; they could be industry veterans who finally have the means to make themselves heard. Rivian’s intro video to who they are sums it up – they’re making cars that they would want to see.

Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO at Lucid, is an industry veteran who has already done his part for the car startup. He was the chief engineer of the Tesla Model S and has now set out on a new venture with the luxurious looking Lucid Air.

It’s an environment that promotes new ideas and that can never be a bad thing. It can only lead to greater innovation in this industry. That’s what makes it such an exciting one – it is ever-evolving. I personally cannot wait to see where these companies go. When they have more financial backing and have their first project out of the way, where will they go? That question is what puts me on the edge of my seat. And I can’t wait to see what happens.

Paul’s passion for all things cars isn’t unique at REALTIME. Our automotive team loves cars – see for yourself. If you have a project then we want to hear about it. Get in touch at [email protected].

BAFTA Game Awards 2020

The big winners of the night

Everything is up in the air at the moment, it’s fair to say. That might be a slight understatement. Despite the cancellation or postponement of every event for at least the next few months (including E3 – as we know it, at least), the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards still went ahead.

Long-time host and fan of video games Dara O’Briain took to the metaphorical stage again, though this time it was at his actual house. The show was pre-recorded and nominees were required to submit an acceptance speech ahead of time – whether they were winners or not.

It’s great to see the BAFTA Games Awards go ahead as they serve as a much-needed distraction in these times. What makes them so important to the industry is their focus on the artistry of games. They are (mostly) voted on by their peers and that categories acknowledge the best of what this unique creative output has to offer, eschewing typical categories you might see, such as “best shooter” or “best RPG”. Let’s take a look at some of the notable winners this year.

Games, geese, and ghosts

One of the more higher-budget winners of the night was Luigi’s Mansion 3, which won the award for animation. It’s no surprise when you look at the detail in Luigi’s poor, terrified face. It was also one of many awards lost by Remedy Entertainment’s Control which, despite being nominated for 11 awards, only managed to come away with one for performer in a supporting role – thanks to Martti Suosalo’s efforts as Ahti the Janitor.

Untitled Goose Game – which already might have been the internet’s favourite game – won for best family game. It might not have won the best game of the year (though it was nominated) but it’s great to see such a unique game do so well. When a game has a button dedicated to honking at people, it better get some sort of award.

Closer to home, mystery-sci-fi-thriller-puzzler Observation won best British game, a recognition of what the UK has to offer the gaming community. And Apex Legends won best multiplayer, highlighting it as a worthy competitor in the battle royale scene. But throughout the night, it felt like the race for best game came down to two worthy titans…

The best of the best

Both Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds had a fantastic night, each winning three awards. It’s refreshing to see so much attention put onto smaller games such as these, especially Disco Elysium, which won developer ZA/UM best debut game. It also took home the prize for best narrative, not surprising for a game that’s so dialogue heavy and whose RPG mechanics come through in conversations rather than battles.

Outer Wilds, meanwhile, won for best game design and best original property. What’s particularly funny is both games went head to head for most of the night; they competed with each other five times throughout the night. But only one could be the best. And the award ultimately went to Outer Wilds. It’s a well-deserved win for such a unique game.

In Outer Wilds, you play an astronaut looking for the answers of the universe. Mainly, why is the sun going supernova in 22 minutes and killing us all? You play through this 22-minute loop multiple times, trying to explore the solar system and solve the mystery. If you’ve not played it yet, definitely give it a go.

The best of the rest

In total, 18 awards were handed out on the night – congratulations to all the winners, who we’ll list in full below. Thanks has to be given to BAFTA for giving us this distraction right now; if you want to watch the ceremony for yourself, the link is right here.

Animation: Luigi’s Mansion 3

Artistic achievement: Sayonara Wild Hearts

Audio achievement: Ape Out

British game: Observation

Debut game: Disco Elysium

Evolving game: Path of Exile

Family: Untitled Goose Game

Games beyond entertainment: Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to)

Game design: Outer Wilds

Multiplayer: Apex Legends

Music: Disco Elysium

Narrative: Disco Elysium

Original property: Outer Wilds

Performer in a leading role: Gonzalo Martin (Sean Diaz in Life is Strange 2)

Performer in a supporting role: Martti Suosalo (Ahti the Janitor in Control)

Technical achievement: Death Stranding

EE mobile game of the year (voted for by the public): Call of Duty: Mobile

Best game: Outer Wilds

2019 was a great year for games and 2020 was off to a good start, though given certain recent announcements, we’re not yet sure how the rest of the year will shake out. No doubt various smaller developers will give us plenty to love and next year’s ceremony should hopefully be just as tough a competition!

Congratulations to all of the winners from us here at REALTIME. We love to see creativity thrive in this industry and are always open to working on any upcoming project. If you have something you would like to discuss, feel free to get in touch at [email protected].

From concept to comp: a guide through the VFX process

If you happened to catch the BBC’s recent adaptation of War of the Worlds towards the end of 2019, you would have seen some of our team’s amazing VFX work. The three-part series was an adaptation of HG Wells’ classic, the first to be set when it was written in the Edwardian era.

The process of creating VFX for a TV series – which meets or even exceeds the clients brief and also has the power to impress audiences alike – is a lengthy one and is not without its challenges and issues. That doesn’t mean it can’t be an enjoyable process. Using War of the Worlds as a frame of reference, let’s journey through the VFX process, from concept to final comp.

The brief

If the first part of the process is the pitch, then step zero is addressing the brief. Clients lay out their expectations and a rough idea of what they are looking for and ask for you to contribute your ideas. It’s a level playing field, with everyone receiving the same brief. Most often you will receive a script or if the work contains creatures or assets that need to be built in 3D, you may receive some mood boards or concept sketches. If you are building a world for the story there may already be some concept work or reference imagery. What matters at this point is how you interpret it.

You need to dive into the headspace of the client and discern what they want. But at the same time, it’s an opportunity to have some creative input and give it your unique spin. It’s the perfect time to astound the client and give it 110%.

For the War of the Worlds, our pitch had the usual you might expect: the 2D artwork, concept designs for the aliens, tripods, and environments – the red weed from the story. But then we also created an actual shot.

We used some high-quality 4K footage and comped in some CG elements, like a tripod. Then we had a contemporary audio track over the top of it. The contrast of the Edwardian imagery with this more modern music really chimed with the director. That’s how he was feeling at the time and how he was going to approach the project. That’s key to any pitch – understanding what’s in the client’s head and showing we’re here to support the narrative they’re trying to convey.

Developing the tripods

In the pitch, you get a sense of how well the two parties will work together. The vibe between you will make the entire process that much more exciting and fruitful. Now, communication is key as you bounce ideas back and forth, and as concept art begins to take shape and the artistic direction takes form.

It’s at this point you start to figure out the finer details of the VFX; the texture, the ‘feel’, the way a creature you are designing moves and emotes. The more detail the better – some of it won’t make it to the final production but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. That richness in the design will only improve it, even if it is only on a subliminal level.

With War of the Worlds, we paid particular attention to the movement of the tripods. Not just how they walked, but the impact of their legs as they crunched into the ground. Our team envisioned a more earthy, mineralistic design, as if the machines were built from the resources in the ground on Mars. The legs had tectonic plates that shifted and scraped, sinking into the floor as they moved menacingly along. This idea was never properly seen on screen, but it helped characterise them as bulky, weighty, and deadly, aspects that definitely did come across in the end.

The same could be said for the martians themselves which we paid an equal amount of attention to. We explored the personality of these aliens, creating multiple character studies to realise their movement, how their muscles worked, how their skin looked, and how their face and proboscis probed. Detailed animation tests allowed us to see them in different modes – hunting, attacking, pouncing, and even mourning.

Collaborating with the creative team

What matters most throughout the entire process is working collaboratively with the Producer, Director,Writer and other Heads of Department (Production Design, Directors Of Photography etc). You can’t have a successful production without this collaboration as everyone’s voices and opinions matter.

You shouldn’t let your ideas run away with you and ignore the creative team on the client side, and they shouldn’t force you into working in a specific way. It’s about providing creative solutions, something we love to do – we aren’t just a work-for-hire outfit. Some of the best ideas throughout this project came from the freedom to let our team explore options and take them to the director and other key creatives on the series with an open mind to this creativity.

Every new client and project is a chance to better yourself. But our approach is always the same – make everything the best it can be and inspire belief. That’s what we always strive to do and something we’re proud to have accomplished with War of the Worlds.

If you want to see more of our work, have a look at our showreel. At REALTIME, we’re always looking for that next challenge, so if you think you have a project for us we’d love to hear it. Feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected].

The next-generation console battle begins: Xbox Series X vs PS5

The war has begun. From their camps, both Sony and Microsoft have blown the horns of war, and now the battle begins for the next half-decade or so. Following Mark Cerny’s deep dive into the architecture of the PS5, we now have an idea of what both consoles are packing under the hood.

We have yet to see any practical gameplay from Sony – the recent breakdown was very tech heavy and we may have to wait until June to see gameplay from both companies (with the ghost of E3 looming over them). But that doesn’t mean we can’t feast on what information we have, sharpen our blades, and argue over which console is better. Let’s jump into it.

Raw power

With each new video game console cycle, everyone is interested in one thing: how strong are they? After years of development, consumers are hungry to know how they compare not just to one another, but the consoles that came before them. At face value, going on pure power, it looks as if the Xbox Series X wins.

Don’t leave just yet though! It’s not so simple. Here are the details, courtesy of Eurogamer:

The first number most look at is the teraflops from the GPU. The Series X’s is higher, ergo it’s better. Not quite. The PS5’s CPU and GPU are variable, meaning they can adjust how much they use depending on requirements. It can adjust on the fly, so if a game is using too much power, making the console noisier or hotter, it can adjust and bring it back to a normal level. In simple terms, the Series X is going for straight up power and muscle, whereas the PS5 is trying to stay nimble and versatile. The bulky warrior versus the sly rogue, to use RPG nomenclature.

Both consoles are pushing the envelope on next-gen features, with ray tracing being the big buzzword. Microsoft have already shown off the gorgeous feature in Minecraft on the Series X and Mark Cerny let us know just how important it is to the PS5 as well. Ray tracing is a way of implementing realistic lighting into games. It renders paths of light that interact with the world in very real ways. The PS5 showcase also touted its use for audio, allowing it to bounce around the environment, and other elements such as shadows and reflections.

So far, so even, but there is one area that is shaping up to set the two consoles apart.

The solid state of play

Both consoles were proud to show off their solid state drives (SSD). Mark Cerny talked of how he regularly visits game developers to gauge their opinion of what they want from next-gen consoles. The majority said SSDs due to their capability to load resources much faster than regular HDDs.

Looking back at the table above, it would again appear that the Series X is winning, with its 1TB SSD compared to the PS5’s odd 825GB SDD. But we want to pay attention to the IO throughput row as this tells us how fast the SDDs are. As you can see, the PS5’s is much faster – pretty much double. Mark Cerny put it into actual figures: the PS5 can load 2GB of data in 0.27 seconds (that is their target, at least), which makes it 100 times faster than the PS4.

It’s made some developers incredibly excited as it gives them the freedom to design how they wish. It would mean fewer tricks would be needed to hide load screens and remove the need to design levels with tight corridors or elevators, things used to reduce the amount of quick loading the console needs to do. So if there is an aspect that will truly make the next-gen an advance, it’s something like loading times.

But Microsoft may still have the last laugh; many third-party developers will want to develop for both consoles and will develop to the lowest common denominator. In this case, the Series X. The only ones really able to make the most of the PS5’s SSD will be first-party developers.

Also worth noting is storage expansion. Both have said you can add to the storage, but the Series X will require a proprietary SSD and, while yes you can use standard PC SSDs with the PS5, only certain ones will be compatible and will require further testing by Sony.

An even playing field?

If your question is which is better, then the answer is: neither. Both have their pluses and minuses, as is the norm for console wars. It will ultimately come down to your personal preference: which first-party titles will you prefer? We should hopefully find out more about that soon.

Of course, the console you currently have might affect that decision. Both consoles will have some form of backward compatibility, though the Series X seems to be much more substantial in that regard. Anything that is backward compatible with the Xbox One will also work on the Series X and some Xbox One games will even have enhancements on the new console. Conversely, Sony is starting from scratch, though they say most of the top 100 most popular PS4 games will work at launch. As for PS3, PS2, and PS1 games, maybe don’t hold your breath.

Whichever you prefer, you can’t deny this is an exciting time for gaming as we approach the cusp of a new generation. This autumn/winter – current events willing – we should all have our hands on a shiny new console. And if that doesn’t fill you with childish glee, I don’t know what will.

At REALTIME, we can’t wait to see what the next generation will bring. Our love of games bleeds into our work, so if you have an exciting next-gen game you want to talk about, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected].

COVID-19 Update

We understand that communication is key at a time like this and we wanted to reach out and let you all know what measures REALTIME are taking and how COVID-19 is affecting our day to day operations.

Over the past few weeks, we have been monitoring the situation and gradually rolling out preventative measures across the entire organization. We have also been upgrading equipment and infrastructure, working towards enabling our employees to work remotely from the safety of their homes.

As it stands REALTIME have asked approximately 80% of staff to work from home, with a 20% skeleton staff working across our two sites to cover key tasks (eg IT / Network / Render farm etc). We’re very fortunate that we have two studios quite some distance apart so are able to keep social distance and ensure staff safety.

Because working remotely across the two studios is standard practice for us everything seems to be running smoothly and production is continuing as scheduled. It’s really important that we’re able to keep a ‘business as usual’ mentality as much as possible for our employees and our clients.

We will continue to monitor the situation as it progresses and will be taking the advice from the UK Government, public health and the WHO.

This is a really challenging time but if we all work together and support each other we will be stronger, and we have already seen such an inspirational and positive spirit from our team and clients.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you need anything, remember we’re in this together!

Take care of yourself and your loved ones.
From everyone at REALTIME