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StaceyPowers

Why isn’t FMV more common?

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Why isn’t FMV (full motion video) more popular? This was huge in the 90s, and then just faded away. I realize that there were always some issues with it like it not being easy to seamlessly blend into compelling gameplay. But you’d almost think that solutions would have been innovated by now.

 

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I liked FMV games. I think the biggest reason is thta, It costs more to get screen actors in costume and film something real instead of just using the in game characters in the cutscenes.

Edited by m76
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10 minutes ago, m76 said:

I liked FMV games. I think the biggest reason is thta, It costs more to get screen actors in costume and film something real instead of just using the in game characters in the cutscenes.

Quite possibly. It's becoming increasingly common that, with the advent of motion capture, voice actors are having to do the motion capture as well, thinning the line between VA and 'full-on' acting. Matt Mercer and a few other VAs from Critical Role had talked briefly about this during the intro to one of their D&D sessions, but then that was for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, which was a fantasy setting and they were playing Uruks, so it made sense in that case. But for a lot of games I'd rather just have live action as opposed to CG.

The good news is FMV is coming back in the indie scene, mostly in the form of adventure games.

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2 minutes ago, Withywarlock said:

Quite possibly. It's becoming increasingly common that, with the advent of motion capture, voice actors are having to do the motion capture as well, thinning the line between VA and 'full-on' acting. Matt Mercer and a few other VAs from Critical Role had talked briefly about this during the intro to one of their D&D sessions, but then that was for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, which was a fantasy setting and they were playing Uruks, so it made sense in that case. But for a lot of games I'd rather just have live action as opposed to CG.

The good news is FMV is coming back in the indie scene, mostly in the form of adventure games.

I'm actually fine with that, I think graphics quality is at the level where we don't really need FMV anymore. And using only motion capture frees up creativity, and you are not constricted by how the actor looks like, of course you still have to get someone who matches your character in  broad strokes, but if necessary you can use different actors for animating for the face and the body.

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On 1/1/2022 at 6:44 AM, Kane99 said:

I don't think it's really all that needed. I mean, we have great graphics these days. Using fmvs instead of the games graphics, sometimes takes me more out of the game. Like, it doesn't make sense to me why we'd still use it today. 

This is exactly my thoughts because things have gotten better with game's graphics lately which puts the use of FMV out of line of high importance. 

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FMV games tend to integrate video with overlays that generally dont map at the same scal as originally intended, when video is not decoded natively at the same resolution. Think of the example of the user interface not being overlayed properly on top of the graphics when you force a widescreen resolution, or navigation paths not matching the visual cues of the video.

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On 12/31/2021 at 9:15 PM, StaceyPowers said:

Why isn’t FMV (full motion video) more popular? This was huge in the 90s, and then just faded away. I realize that there were always some issues with it like it not being easy to seamlessly blend into compelling gameplay. But you’d almost think that solutions would have been innovated by now.

 

What trends in the 90s, isn't really a big deal now which is basically why I believe that it's faded off now and never to get back up to that spot it used to have. 

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47 minutes ago, Boblee said:

FMV (full motion video)is a thing of the past when it comes to what what's obtainable in games now especially with how good game's graphics are now. 

It's just like asking why CDs aren't that popular in games now. It's obviously the same thing with what's happening with FMV (full motion video). 

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Fmvs were done because it was an easy way to get a story across. Graphics back then weren't on par with what devs wanted, so fmvs were a way to get what they wanted. Then graphics gradually got better with each new generation and fmvs became kinda obsolete of pointless.  

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2 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Fmvs were done because it was an easy way to get a story across. Graphics back then weren't on par with what devs wanted, so fmvs were a way to get what they wanted. Then graphics gradually got better with each new generation and fmvs became kinda obsolete of pointless.  

Yeah, FMV have already served its purpose when it was the only resort for devs and now, they have moved on. FMV can now only be appreciated for its impact in the gaming industry then. 

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On 1/3/2022 at 12:38 PM, Empire said:

FMV games tend to integrate video with overlays that generally dont map at the same scal as originally intended, when video is not decoded natively at the same resolution. Think of the example of the user interface not being overlayed properly on top of the graphics when you force a widescreen resolution, or navigation paths not matching the visual cues of the video.

When FMV was a big hit back in the days, games where quite impressive at the time. The graphics was something to ponder on then. 

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