A new developer diary video for NHL 15 shows off the improvements to the series' graphics and physics, and how those two combine to improve the look and realism of EA's hockey sim.
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Player jerseys in sports games are always difficult to recreate realistically--bulky hockey sweaters in particular are tough to emulate. This latest video focuses on the developers' efforts on that front, showing how they tackled the challenge and what improvements were made.
Players are created in three different layers, NHL series producer Sean Ramjagsingh tells us in the video, which makes the overall model more realistic. It starts with the body, then the equipment (the gear and pads under the jersey), and then the sweater itself. The jerseys are remade with "dynamic cloth", which is meant to move and ripple realistically depending on outside stimuli like the pink and air.
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The video shows game footage of this in action, with clips of the puck brushing past a sweater or hitting the goalie, causing the correct movement or ripple in the process. The new cloth physics come into play during hits two, responding as they should when players collide at speed. Though it's not the focus of this video, player faces continue to look great and much more realistic than before, another smaller detail that will please fans.
All of this is possible due to the increased power of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Ramjagsingh says, so the footage we're seeing is presumably from those versions of NHL 15. It remains to be seen how the last gen editions will stack up without these upgrades and the extra horsepower, but the current generation versions are certainly promising.
