[Joeiss]

SOCOM continued....

Visuals

The world of SOCOM is an interesting one, because it takes place offline and online, making texture work and things like lighting and camera work more challenging. The game is filled with sophisticated lighting techniques, detailed textures, motion captured work, and solid CG work.

Zipper aims to be very realistic with SOCOM, and has prepared the game with a phenomenal amount of authentic detail. Soldiers faces, their weapons, and their clothing have all been scanned in and texture mapped. Using Sony's motion capture studio in Foster City, Zipper has captured soldiers in numerous positions, such as walking, running, rolling, ducking, crawling, aiming, and many others.

The level of detail should be excellent in the final version, with small incidental items, such as belt loops, belt buckles and canteens have been paid attention to. Zipper claims there is three times the amount of typical textures in SOCOM than in the average game of this kind. The Seal camouflage outfits are also totally authentic, realistic and accurate.

The art and design team has constructed the game with full screen anti-aliasing and a texture- paging system that enables many kinds of textures to be used, but efficiently without causing slowdown or glitching. What's normally called LOD, or Level of Detail, Zipper calls DLD, dynamic level of detail. What it means is that, simplistically, the level of detail that's required is called up when needed. So, the engine is calling up every last little for an enemy that's on the other side of the screen, but if you use a sniper rifle to zoom in on him, the detail will appear.

Zipper plans to lock the framerate to 30 fps, in single player and in multiplayer modes, and the versions we played generally stayed in the 30 fps area, give or take. All in all, SOCOM should challenge hardcore online and entice regular console gamers with a whole new third-person shooter, which at this point in the game, looks like a huge undertaking that should be well worth the effort. Zipper has done an excellent job with the visuals and the gameplay looks to engage gamers in a stealthy, authentic military set of missions, online with up to 15 other players, or in a single mission against the computer. SOCOM should be a breakthrough game for SCEA and its online campaign, and we're hoping the game reaches Zipper's high goals in the end.