Square Enix’s upcoming Final Fantasy XV gave us some new screenshots showcasing how their engine handles hair and eyes. The screenshots are certainly impressive but staring at women’s disembodied eyeballs is a little unsettling. Particularly impressive is the hair, which you can see the model the artist used side by side with the image from the game and it’s downright stunning, especially for a console release. Square Enix modeled their hair lighting after Stephen R. Marschner’s essay on how light travels through human hair which you can find here, if you want to read up on science.
The characters will also have about 20,000 to 30,000 polygons a piece. The eye screenshots has shown mostly the focus on reflected light especially around the curved areas of the sclera. From what we’ve seen Final Fantasy XV is shaping up to be groundbreaking not only in terms of gameplay, but treading completely new settings for Final Fantasy and the new lighting and rendering technologies we’ve just seen. One thing is clear, if this game is as much an artistic marvel as it is a technological one, we’re in for a real treat.
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Written by Guest Contributor: Reagan Cox