Prior to the launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity today (here’s our review), Creative Director Alex Amancio appeared in the latest episode of Major Nelson Radio, where he revealed that “we really harnessed every ounce of power from both these consoles [PlayStation 4 and Xbox One] as much as we could.”
To help explain how much the new consoles were used, Amancio mentioned how, while previous Assassin’s Creed games featured 200 NPCs on-screen, Unity has up to 5,000 or more. In fact, one scene includes 10,000 NPCs, which Amancio says “aren’t just decorative – you can actually run up to them, interact with them. These are real AI NPCs.”
Also for Unity, Ubisoft rewrote the lighting model, which brings a “completely new layer of realism” to Paris. Shader materials are now physically based, so they look “much more realistic” and not like “polygons with pictures on them. They look and react to light like real materials.”
As you’re traveling through Paris, Amancio pointed out how there’s no loading and it’s “all seamless,” with one in every four buildings having decorated interiors.
All in all, Amancio says, “We could not have made this game [for] previous-generation consoles.”
[Source: Major Nelson Radio via GameSpot, Worlds Factory]
