Brutally honest as ever, Hideo Kojima commented on the recently unveiled screenshots for Metal Gear Solid 5. Kojima thinks the game retains its realism up until Snake himself shows up.
Of course, Kojima refers here to the uncanny valley, a problem that remains unresolved, not just in video games, but also movies, television, any media that tries to depict humans using computer graphics.
We do know that computer graphics have reached the level where it matches the photorealism needed to depict real world environments. Even older games on current gen, such as Gran Turismo 5, and arguably Gran Turismo 4, readily demonstrated the capability to match and even exceed images and video generated using high definition cameras in real life.
Kojima’s honesty is a break from the overt optimism about broaching that uncanny valley from others in the industry, typified by Nvidia and Quantic Dreams when they showed off their demos that apparently demonstrated photorealistic depictions of people.
I don’t want to push Nvidia or Quantic Dreams personally, but it’s no secret both were soundly criticized for making these claims, which may have energized their respective fanbases, but did not actually match up with reality.
In its essence, the uncanny valley, as it applies to computer generated imagery, is not about matching the surface appearance of real life people, but about eliminating the elements that make it apparent that these images are not real. CGI that fails to pass this test comes across as plain creepy, and as a result many animators avoid the issue entirely.
Whether Kojima can match up to his own expectations, or exceed what Nvidia and Quantic Dreams have demonstrated, we can only hope. For the moment, enjoy the image gallery from 4Gamer that prompted this comment from Kojima below.
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