Ray Gin
ClioSport Club Member
Cupra Leon & Impreza
Catching up with me to the ball, not with.
ClioSport.net
Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.
[Current/Next Gen] FIFA 14
- Thread starter Scutch
- Start date
UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
Where are you at currently with the development of next-gen FIFA?
We made a big deal about announcing EA Sports Ignite [at E3], which is sort of like EA Sports' answer to Frostbite and allows us to do numerous things around physics animation across FIFA, UFC, NBA and Madden. It allows our teams to be much closer together and share a lot, which means our architecture can stop worrying about base level technology and create better games.
We've got FIFA running at 60fps on Xbox One - right now. It runs to a level that is playable and fun already, and we're months away from releasing it. So we're exceptionally excited about having that base architecture to share and being able to actually show our fans the living worlds, 3D crowds and ball boys running off the pitch because it's a home game and their team is 1-0 down...
Our players now turn and move so much more realistically, based on a new Locomotion system. It feels so much more responsive and human-like... using new AI systems players can now anticipate collisions and move out of the way. We're so excited and our fans are going to love it. As football fans and gaming fans, it's our dream come true to be able to release and talk about this.
The only thing I would warn you against is when you go and play next-gen FIFA and go back to playing gen-3... you will notice it.
"WE ACTUALLY PUT TOGETHER THE SOFTWARE TOOLS TO ENHANCE [SKY'S] BROADCASTS. WE DID SOMETHING FOR THE INSTANT REPLAY TOOL THAT GARY NEVILLE USES... THAT'S THE FIFA GAME"
How crucial is it that EA invested in that new engine technology in preparation for the new consoles?
It's unbelievably crucial. A lot of us worked on that last console transition and... it didn't go well for EA. We decided to rewrite everything and it didn't go well - we played catch up for the first four or five years of the console cycle.
Now we have positive paranoia to a certain degree. When we rebuilt the FIFA engine from scratch about five years ago, we were thinking about building it off of a technology base that was broad enough that we could keep on building on it, rather than having to keep on throwing everything away.
It's been crucial and it's put us in a position where we've got the game playable right now. Part of the reason that the team pushed to get it running was because we wanted people to get their hands on it, give us feedback and allow us to tweak and tune. If we hadn't made that tech investment, we wouldn't be in that position now.
So the new FIFA clearly looks better, but how does it feel to play compared to current-gen?
It's not a fundamental difference in control and feel. The difference is in the atmosphere and the environment; having 3D crowds stand up and sit down based on the intensity of what's happening on the pitch brings you so much closer to the action... that immersion when you see the way the players react and anticipate the opposition.
We've added over a thousand new animations to the game. A lot of people don't realise this, but when you go up for a header in gen-3 FIFA... only two players ever go up for a header. In gen-4, there are now four or five players going up for a header at once.
You need to put that on the back of the box! You could call it 'Headering AI' as your feature buzz word.
(Laughs) That's my job!
Once you get in to it and start playing it, you start to understand that by having real, believable characters - going from robots to humans with intelligence - means that your responsiveness improves because of that. When a player goes from standing to defending or attacking... historically if we were aiming for responsiveness we'd actually cut animations out, but now with the Locomotion and physics you actually see the player lean down and burst into a sprint.
Does the new engine mean that you can now be more dynamic with your presentation? We noticed camera shots that were actually in the crowd, for example.
It does, and you'll see a lot of that over the next few months. We base it a lot on watching sports on TV and Sky Sports. With a lot of our instant replays historically we've asked, 'should we do what they do on TV, or do what TV would love to do?' And I think what we're going to end up with is a middle ground - use the TV cameras to set the scene, but then use the ability to get in close to show new angles that TV couldn't show.
What the new consoles allow us to do is remember key moments that happened during the 90 minutes, like a skill move, and actually start cutting them in to the instant replays as well. We've referred to the overall package as 'beyond broadcast' - it will give you what you sense from watching Sky at the moment, but it will also get you closer to places where the TV crews can't go.
In January we actually had one of our art guys spend two days with Sky at two different matches to get reference photos and understand how they shoot the match. It helped us understand not just the camera angles but why they were there, what perspective they were looking at, what parts of the action they were looking to capture and stuff. He brought all of that home.
We didn't realise your relationship with Sky went that far...
We refer to it as a 'technology partnership'. Via the Premier League we work with pretty much all of the clubs in England and broadcasters like Sky. We actually put together the software tools to enhance their broadcast. We did something for the instant replay tool that Gary Neville uses... that's the FIFA game. We actually developed that tool for them, but no money exchanged hands.
For the clubs... when people are playing our FIFA game, we know where they are around the world and we know their favourite team. So we can actually say to Manchester City for example, 'here's a spread of your fans around the world' and then they use that in their marketing campaigns.
We also use a lot of our game assets and create videos for most of the clubs. We've only been doing this for two years now but all of the clubs have a lot of interest. Manchester City use our game as a training tool for their youth team. Ole Gunnar Suskiar has gone on record as saying that he prepares for his matches by using FIFA, because the database is so accurate and he then knows which players to watch out for.
I think as we go in to the next generation of consoles our game is going to be even more intelligent and accurate, so the use that teams around the world will have for the game is going to be much more than gameplay, such as practice and education.
At the same time, with the huge amount of teams and players you have in the game, does that pose a challenge for your teams in terms of bringing the assets up to next-gen standard?
It creates unique challenges but we're about a year and half ahead of where we were during the last cycle, so we've taken some teams and captured them, plus developed new techniques that make that quicker and easier to do. That actually came from sharing something that the NBA team was able to do.
It's created challenges that our team has quickly overcome and we've found a scalable solution that we feel pretty good about. We may not get to the Nicaraguan third division any time soon, but certainly the Premier League, Bundesliga, the Italian clubs and the big teams in the world... we'll get them.
What about the number of stadiums in the next-gen version? Do you have ambitions to be more comprehensive than you have been in the past?
What we've actually done is develop all of the stadiums and art assets in the highest resolution, and then both generations can benefit from it. So if we design something based on the highest spec hardware, we can then downscale it to the lowest spec.
For example, a lot of the assets we currently use in FIFA we also use in our mobile game - they're just scaled down based on the resolution. A lot of clever people have come up with the ability and tech to do that which means that we're not throwing away assets but continuing to build on them.
How do you prioritise which stadiums you're going to add or teams you're going to scan for the next instalment?
There had been an issue of storage capacity [on current-gen]. What we're prioritising now is consumer demand and the favourite teams of the people who make the decisions... so Tottenham will be in there because I'm a Tottenham fan (laughs). I'm joking!
The biggest ones that everyone dreams about playing in such as the Nou Camp go to the top of the list. But it's all driven on fan feedback and that's something that the team prides itself on - we always listen to the fans. With this new technology there's also the opportunity to add more content over time. I think people will be pretty happy with who's going in.
http://www.computerandvideogames.co...iew-ea-sports-on-the-next-gen-fifa-challenge/
We made a big deal about announcing EA Sports Ignite [at E3], which is sort of like EA Sports' answer to Frostbite and allows us to do numerous things around physics animation across FIFA, UFC, NBA and Madden. It allows our teams to be much closer together and share a lot, which means our architecture can stop worrying about base level technology and create better games.
We've got FIFA running at 60fps on Xbox One - right now. It runs to a level that is playable and fun already, and we're months away from releasing it. So we're exceptionally excited about having that base architecture to share and being able to actually show our fans the living worlds, 3D crowds and ball boys running off the pitch because it's a home game and their team is 1-0 down...
Our players now turn and move so much more realistically, based on a new Locomotion system. It feels so much more responsive and human-like... using new AI systems players can now anticipate collisions and move out of the way. We're so excited and our fans are going to love it. As football fans and gaming fans, it's our dream come true to be able to release and talk about this.
The only thing I would warn you against is when you go and play next-gen FIFA and go back to playing gen-3... you will notice it.
"WE ACTUALLY PUT TOGETHER THE SOFTWARE TOOLS TO ENHANCE [SKY'S] BROADCASTS. WE DID SOMETHING FOR THE INSTANT REPLAY TOOL THAT GARY NEVILLE USES... THAT'S THE FIFA GAME"
How crucial is it that EA invested in that new engine technology in preparation for the new consoles?
It's unbelievably crucial. A lot of us worked on that last console transition and... it didn't go well for EA. We decided to rewrite everything and it didn't go well - we played catch up for the first four or five years of the console cycle.
Now we have positive paranoia to a certain degree. When we rebuilt the FIFA engine from scratch about five years ago, we were thinking about building it off of a technology base that was broad enough that we could keep on building on it, rather than having to keep on throwing everything away.
It's been crucial and it's put us in a position where we've got the game playable right now. Part of the reason that the team pushed to get it running was because we wanted people to get their hands on it, give us feedback and allow us to tweak and tune. If we hadn't made that tech investment, we wouldn't be in that position now.
So the new FIFA clearly looks better, but how does it feel to play compared to current-gen?
It's not a fundamental difference in control and feel. The difference is in the atmosphere and the environment; having 3D crowds stand up and sit down based on the intensity of what's happening on the pitch brings you so much closer to the action... that immersion when you see the way the players react and anticipate the opposition.
We've added over a thousand new animations to the game. A lot of people don't realise this, but when you go up for a header in gen-3 FIFA... only two players ever go up for a header. In gen-4, there are now four or five players going up for a header at once.
You need to put that on the back of the box! You could call it 'Headering AI' as your feature buzz word.
(Laughs) That's my job!
Once you get in to it and start playing it, you start to understand that by having real, believable characters - going from robots to humans with intelligence - means that your responsiveness improves because of that. When a player goes from standing to defending or attacking... historically if we were aiming for responsiveness we'd actually cut animations out, but now with the Locomotion and physics you actually see the player lean down and burst into a sprint.
Does the new engine mean that you can now be more dynamic with your presentation? We noticed camera shots that were actually in the crowd, for example.
It does, and you'll see a lot of that over the next few months. We base it a lot on watching sports on TV and Sky Sports. With a lot of our instant replays historically we've asked, 'should we do what they do on TV, or do what TV would love to do?' And I think what we're going to end up with is a middle ground - use the TV cameras to set the scene, but then use the ability to get in close to show new angles that TV couldn't show.
What the new consoles allow us to do is remember key moments that happened during the 90 minutes, like a skill move, and actually start cutting them in to the instant replays as well. We've referred to the overall package as 'beyond broadcast' - it will give you what you sense from watching Sky at the moment, but it will also get you closer to places where the TV crews can't go.
In January we actually had one of our art guys spend two days with Sky at two different matches to get reference photos and understand how they shoot the match. It helped us understand not just the camera angles but why they were there, what perspective they were looking at, what parts of the action they were looking to capture and stuff. He brought all of that home.
We didn't realise your relationship with Sky went that far...
We refer to it as a 'technology partnership'. Via the Premier League we work with pretty much all of the clubs in England and broadcasters like Sky. We actually put together the software tools to enhance their broadcast. We did something for the instant replay tool that Gary Neville uses... that's the FIFA game. We actually developed that tool for them, but no money exchanged hands.
For the clubs... when people are playing our FIFA game, we know where they are around the world and we know their favourite team. So we can actually say to Manchester City for example, 'here's a spread of your fans around the world' and then they use that in their marketing campaigns.
We also use a lot of our game assets and create videos for most of the clubs. We've only been doing this for two years now but all of the clubs have a lot of interest. Manchester City use our game as a training tool for their youth team. Ole Gunnar Suskiar has gone on record as saying that he prepares for his matches by using FIFA, because the database is so accurate and he then knows which players to watch out for.
I think as we go in to the next generation of consoles our game is going to be even more intelligent and accurate, so the use that teams around the world will have for the game is going to be much more than gameplay, such as practice and education.
At the same time, with the huge amount of teams and players you have in the game, does that pose a challenge for your teams in terms of bringing the assets up to next-gen standard?
It creates unique challenges but we're about a year and half ahead of where we were during the last cycle, so we've taken some teams and captured them, plus developed new techniques that make that quicker and easier to do. That actually came from sharing something that the NBA team was able to do.
It's created challenges that our team has quickly overcome and we've found a scalable solution that we feel pretty good about. We may not get to the Nicaraguan third division any time soon, but certainly the Premier League, Bundesliga, the Italian clubs and the big teams in the world... we'll get them.
What about the number of stadiums in the next-gen version? Do you have ambitions to be more comprehensive than you have been in the past?
What we've actually done is develop all of the stadiums and art assets in the highest resolution, and then both generations can benefit from it. So if we design something based on the highest spec hardware, we can then downscale it to the lowest spec.
For example, a lot of the assets we currently use in FIFA we also use in our mobile game - they're just scaled down based on the resolution. A lot of clever people have come up with the ability and tech to do that which means that we're not throwing away assets but continuing to build on them.
How do you prioritise which stadiums you're going to add or teams you're going to scan for the next instalment?
There had been an issue of storage capacity [on current-gen]. What we're prioritising now is consumer demand and the favourite teams of the people who make the decisions... so Tottenham will be in there because I'm a Tottenham fan (laughs). I'm joking!
The biggest ones that everyone dreams about playing in such as the Nou Camp go to the top of the list. But it's all driven on fan feedback and that's something that the team prides itself on - we always listen to the fans. With this new technology there's also the opportunity to add more content over time. I think people will be pretty happy with who's going in.
http://www.computerandvideogames.co...iew-ea-sports-on-the-next-gen-fifa-challenge/
banther
ClioSport Club Member
Nice update.
http://news.futhead.com/posts/fifa-14/25518-fifa-14-career-mode-preview
I like that they are hiding OVR now unless you scout properly
I like that they are hiding OVR now unless you scout properly
none :(
Will people be buying this on the 360/ps3, then buying it again for xbone/ps4.
I know all your data, stats and ultimate team info moves over with you but dunno If I'd buy the same game twice.
I know all your data, stats and ultimate team info moves over with you but dunno If I'd buy the same game twice.
Fiesta ST-3
Demos out today! Not on XBL yet though.
UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
I like how he says Next Gen is just insane compared to Current Gen too.
All good.
Will get the CG Demo when I get home later.
Gavin.
ClioSport Club Member
Us PS3'ers have to wait until tomorrow for the demo
And you'll have to wait another week for it to download :rasp:
UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
Gonna fire up the PC demo now (because I can't be arsed to change rooms whilst I'm working)
Can't remember if they said it was going to look any different from last year
Bale is still at Spurs on the demo Scutch
So is Dempsey... no Eriksen, Lamela or Chiriches yet either.
Last edited by a moderator:
Yea, they said the demo build didn't have the team updates yet
Will have to wait until PS3 demo arrives to test this out
Will have to wait until PS3 demo arrives to test this out
Have scored some awesome goals so far.
The momentum in this CG version is amazing, can't wait for the NG.
Just gave away a free kick after running into Thiago Motta with Aguero. I also like how the players can't run full pelt then stop on a dime anymore, not even Messi (though I think he's close)
The momentum in this CG version is amazing, can't wait for the NG.
Just gave away a free kick after running into Thiago Motta with Aguero. I also like how the players can't run full pelt then stop on a dime anymore, not even Messi (though I think he's close)
ph2 172
I'm playing it on Xbox atm. Go to the Bing bar and search football game 14
Ray Gin
ClioSport Club Member
Cupra Leon & Impreza
I wonder are the player stats on the demo the same as what they will be in the full game. Neymar rating 85? Thought it would have been a bit higher, free kick accuracy is only 77 for him too.
The change of direction when at full sprint is better, liking the team management screen at HT too.
It still shows players doing weird arm gestures and talking when they are being subbed off. Lol
The change of direction when at full sprint is better, liking the team management screen at HT too.
It still shows players doing weird arm gestures and talking when they are being subbed off. Lol
Last edited:
Top 50 players:
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-50
Neymar isn't there, which means he's 85 or less (so it's probably right)
Top 20 strongest:
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-20-strength
Reason why Akinfenwa is #1
Unit!
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-50
Neymar isn't there, which means he's 85 or less (so it's probably right)
Top 20 strongest:
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-20-strength
Reason why Akinfenwa is #1
Unit!
BMW 440i
T
Top 20 strongest:
http://www.easports.com/fifa/news-updates-gameplay/article/fifa-14-top-20-strength
Reason why Akinfenwa is #1
Unit!
Major bragging rights for him haha!
UR R26R.5, VW Golf R
First info on Pro Clubs:
http://news.futhead.com/posts/fifa-14/25729-fifa-14-pro-clubs-first-details
http://news.futhead.com/posts/fifa-14/25729-fifa-14-pro-clubs-first-details
