Eye candy: Quantic Dream’s PS4 real-time facial demo

Yesterday’s PlayStation 4 announcement prompted the usual speculation as to which of the clips shown were genuine in-game footage, and which were pre-rendered.

Quantic Dream’s tech demo gives a more certain glimpse of what the PS4 will be able to do in real time, including translucency, volumetric lights and 3D depth of field, according to studio founder David Cage.

“When you look at this old man, you can imagine who he is, what he thinks and what happened to him without him saying a word,” Cage told the launch audience. “You can see soul just looking into his eyes.”

The eyes in question do look pretty good, particularly the little deformations of the flesh beneath them – even if the whole “not saying a word” thing means that the rig never has to do anything particularly extreme.