DICE Using Photogrammetry For Star Wars Battlefront

Mark Lee 9 Comments

We all know what photogrammetry is right? Me neither, but it’s something we may hear more of in the future as DICE have been using this technology on the new Battlefront game. The developer has been travelling around the world capturing images of iconic Star Wars locations, such as the trees from the forest moon of Endor, to help create super-realistic 3D models.

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“Photogrammetry is essentially the technique of processing still images to produce a high resolution 3D mesh,” explains Andrew Hamilton, Lead Environment Artist. “There are a number approaches to this, but they all involve taking photos of a subject in real-life and running it through photogrammetry software.”

When fed with images, this software creates reference points based on the angles and ‘connects the dots’ in order to create a highly detailed foundation of a model. As well as using the locations from the films, the developer was granted access to the Lucasfilm Cultural Arts Museum to take images of the characters, ships and other items from the Star Wars Universe. The development team are putting a lot of effort into trying to give fans the most realistic Star Wars experience to date.

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“Our ambition is that players will get the same feeling as we got from our trips: to really feel like they’re inside the movies when playing these iconic locations. Also, we want to open their eyes to new experiences and new planets.” explains Hamilton.

November is beginning to feel like an eternity away. From what you have seen so far, do you think this will be the most beautiful game released yet? I’m saying it’s looking pretty likely!

Source: EA

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9 Comments

  1. It definitely looks impressive from the earlier “game engine” footage.

    Of course, it being a Star Wars game, if it suffers launch problems similar to BF4, at least DICE can use a Vader voiceover to say “the Force is strong in this one” as you fail miserably to kill an enemy due to rubber-banding!

    • I doubt it will suffer from the problems BF4 did, Hardline never did so I cannot see Battlefront suffering.

  2. Basically they’re just using aerial photography to create a DEM/3D Model (I did a whole module in this at Uni), I doubt it will have any different in the game at all.

  3. So it’s basically a budget alternative to laser-scanning? Or perhaps closer to the facial mapping tech used for LA.Noir?

    I think Gran Turismo and Forza have been doing it for a while. Still, good on Dice for trying new things I guess.

  4. So like, photorealistic…?

    Whatever, I’m all for new technology in games (if it is new, not sure after reading above comments).

  5. I’d rather have slightly less accurate maps/models but have a singleplayer campaign, galactic conquest mode & space battles

  6. The trailers do look beautiful and this helps explain why. I’m really impressed that they’ve been all the way to Endor to photograph some trees, presumably it wasn’t actually that long ago that they were used to film Return of the Jedi and good solid preservation orders have been discernibly upheld by jobsworth Scout Troopers.

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