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RE Engine

The RE Engine was the engine used to create Devil May Cry 5. It was developed by Capcom specifically for the making of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Games made with the RE Engine[]

Usage in Devil May Cry 5[]

Devil May Cry 5 uses photorealistic graphics thanks to the RE Engine, all models in the game were taken from real actors who were scanned via a 3D photoshoot. The clothing the characters wear in the game were also scanned from real clothing which were made in London and scanned in Serbia, then had the data sent to the development staff in Osaka. Nero's jacket in Devil May Cry 5 costed as much as a small car to make, the jacket was carefully selected so it would reflect well in-game[1] however his accessories were not scanned.[2]

The developers worked with Madeleine Jenkins, an experienced costumier, in order to bring the costumes to life. They were inspired by Carol Christian Poell's work when brainstorming how the costumes should look, but prioritized the character's personalities over it. According to Koki Kinoshita, the art director for Devil May Cry 5, Nero had about eight different versions during the design phase, six for Dante and twenty four for V. When the design was finally chosen, there were two times where the costumes were seen in intermediate states, the developers would then "nitpick" the details and make small changes. After the costumes were finished, they still made one small change to Nero's, as small as one centimeter, which was deemed critical so that "the lines flowed correctly".[3]

CGWORLD vol

Nero's outfit after the scanning process, with around 130 million polygons. (Image credit: CGWORLD magazine)[4]

According to Volume 249 of the CGWORLD magazine, when Nero's outfit was scanned and then ported onto ZBrush, it had around 130 million polygons, when the outfit was then "taken care of" and ported onto the game itself, it had around 34,000 polygons. And finally, the entire model of Nero in the final game has around 190,000 polygons.[4] Koki Kinoshita stated in a separate interview that the coats of the characters alone (not just Nero's, but Dante's and V's as well) have each around 35,000 polygons.[3]

The Devil May Cry van took more than an year to make, the developers would even joke at the van feeling like a character due to how much time they spent on it, additionally, the writing on the van is the artist's own handwriting, including the neon sign.[2]

For character expressions, Capcom used the latest facial technology developed by the Serbian company called 3Lateral, the movement in the game uses motion capture and after that's done, the voice actors record their lines based on the existing video, which makes it easier for them to understand the character's emotions.[5] The same was done with the facial motions, they were also recorded separately from the body motion capture, so the developers had to sync everything together, which proved to be much harder than ever according to audio director Kakunoshin Atsumi.[6]

Since the character models are very realistic, Capcom had to take special care of the animations in the game so they don't fall into the "uncanny valley of character movements", the new updated models would look unnatural performing the over-the-top animations, so Capcom had to tweak the animations to make them less "anime-like", because of this, some animations would end up having too much preparatory motions for some movements and again they had to go back and re-do the whole thing until the controls felt responsive.[7]

In addition, the character's faces themselves were planned to be a complete digital double, meaning the character would look exactly like the model it was scanned from. However, Capcom then decided that in order to make the characters look more like their original looks, they needed to change them. This was done after the facial rig was built, so not only did they change the models, but also had to re-do some of the rigging.[8]

Devil May Cry 5 art director Koki Kinoshita believes the scanning process was a great benefit because they didn't need to create realistic models and textures one by one and then align the two together, but instead used that time on things that would "help improve immersion for the players" such as "shaders, hair, damage, aging or progressive dirtying of the costumes.". However, he noted that some things that can be done with this new technology may not be noticed by players, since it's replicating something that happens naturally in real life.[3]

Trivia[]

  • The engine's full name is "Reach for the moon", which is referenced by its logo and name, with "RE" taken from the first two letters of the word "reach".
  • Jun Takeuchi directed Hideaki Itsuno to use the RE Engine in order for Devil May Cry 5 to scream quality just by looking at it. Takeuchi wanted the game to be relevant for the present and not just rely on its past glory.[9]
Nero's "V" zippers

Nero's zippers on his coat were angled in a way to shape a "V".[3]

  • While the costumes were designed with realism as a priority, one example where that wasn't the case are Nero's zippers on the front of his blue jacket (chest area), in an interview, Koki Kinoshita mentioned the following: "That angle isn’t optimal for durability, but for that element we put priority on giving the costume a silhouette shaped like a “V”, which may or may not be a somewhat Japanese-centric preference".[3]
  • Kinoshita's favorite piece of clothing in Devil May Cry 5 is Nero's coat.[3]
  • Nero's ripped sweater took about a month to be crafted, but the design process behind it and decision on the look took four to five months.[3]

Gallery[]

Images[]

Videos[]

References[]

  1. カプコンTV!第85回 E3特集『バイオハザード RE 2』『デビル メイ クライ 5』『ロックマン11 運命の歯車!!』
  2. 2.0 2.1 CAPCOM CONFIDENTIAL: THE DEV 1 PODCAST Episode 5
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 How Capcom Crafted Signature Fashion Styles for 'Defil May Cry 5'
  4. 4.0 4.1 フォトグラメトリーでつくる『デビル メイ クライ 5』のキャラクターモデル〜書籍『ゲームグラフィックス 2019』 先行公開(1) | 特集 | CGWORLD.jp
  5. Capcom 2018 Annual Report - "The Heart of Value Creation"
  6. Devil May Cry 5 - Design Philosophy
  7. 『デビル メイ クライ 5』は平成最後にして最高のアクションゲームになる! 岡部P&ウォーカーPが語る【E3 2018】 | Famitsu
  8. Capcom Confidential Episode 17 - YouTube
  9. DMC5's Matt Walker talks Crew Cut, Turbo Mode, inertia and Dante dance
  10. 『デビル メイ クライ 5』のキーマンに直撃。RE ENGINEで復活するスタイリッシュアクションの魅力とは? - Dengeki Online
  11. devilmaycry_jp on Twitter: "【DMC5】E3の会場より、カプコンTV!に出演予定の岡部プロデューサー、伊津野ディレクター、マットプロデューサーのスリーショットをお届け!20日の生放送はお見逃しなく! https://www.capcom.co.jp/cptv/ #DMC5"
  12. PAX West 2018 | Twitch Town Hall - PAX3
  13. V_Jump - Twitter
  14. hirokichi_kanji - Twitter
  15. カプコンTV!東京ゲームショウ2018<9/23>特番
  16. PlayStation®4/Xbox ONE『デビル メイ クライ 5』|イーカプコン
  17. CGWORLD vol.249(2019年5月号)、4月10日(水)発売! メイン特集は進化するゲームグラフィックス&VRミステリーアドベンチャーゲーム『東京クロノス』! | CG・映像の専門情報サイト | CGWORLD.jp
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