Chapter 8. Cinematics and In-Game Cutscenes

Cinematics, what a wonderful thing we have in games nowadays. Regardless as to whether the game is based on a story or not, games usually have cutscenes. If it is not to tell a story, then it is to direct the player correctly through the game.

While some companies prefer to create their cutscenes within a third-party animation software such as 3dsMax or Maya, and pretender it, in order to get the best quality, other companies prefer to do the cutscenes in the engine itself, in order to get the smoothest experience. Both are fine, but the last one is the best. But why?

Well, creating cinematics and prerendering them outside the engine, will give an unexpected level of quality that is not consistent in the game, so the player experience will be like a zigzag; a player will enjoy a certain level of quality while playing, but a totally different quality while watching the cutscenes.

But using the in-engine solutions in order to create the cinematics will...