CGI Foundations

Fable Report Essay

 

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The game Fable has been around since 2004, while it not being very influential in the industry in terms of Visual Effects (VFX) it is still a very rich and atmospheric. It spawned an expansion (Fable: The Lost Chapters, 2005), a remaster (Fable Anniversary, 2014), two direct sequels (Fable II, 2008; Fable III, 2010) and various spin offs. Each sequel improving substantially the VFX elements like lightning and spells.

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Fable is a fantasy RPG (Role Playing Game) with real time combat, it is set on the fictional land of Albion where the player takes control of a Hero protagonist who can use various combat styles. The combat styles consist of melee, skill (ranged) and will (magic), with will style being the use of magic during combat. Fable has a wide variety of magic spells and as such a wide variety of visual effects for each of them, including large scale effects which could occupy a large portion of the screen and real time rendering these effects was no small feat for a game released in 2004.

The term visual effects (VFX) is used to describe any imagery created, enhanced or manipulated for any type of visual media that does not physically exist in the real world. In the case of a film any visual elements added over the footage taken in live action can be described as VFX, a notable example would be beam of a lightsaber in Star Wars (1977). VFX allows us to create creatures, environments, and objects, although this VFX has been pioneered by the film industry it has been adopted in the video game industry and evolved greatly with it (Francisco, 2020).
As video game engines process three dimensional data to produce in real time dynamic images, it has greatly benefited the film industry. Some scenes of films can be built in game engines and have for example lighting settings prepared and adjusted to best fit the scene making the process of preparing a scene for real time shooting more efficient and quicker (Francisco, 2020).
In video games, game designers are able to simulate numerous real life experiences,  in this manner there are virtually unlimited visual effects that can created for games (Yang, Yip, & Xu, 2009).

 

Fable is very rich in visual effects as they serve more than just to make the game look good. VFX are used as cues as well. When in melee combat if the player is using their weapon to defend, once an opponent strikes, there are visual particles from metal clashing indicating the defence was successful, there is also a visual effect of the weapon swing and an effect when the weapon successfully damages the enemy.
Some other visual effects Fable also has, is dynamic lightning and shadows, these are mainly affected by the in game time of the day as this game has a day and night cycle. Depending on the time of day the in game lightning source would change position and tint in real time, this then would also affect the shadows cast by players, non player characters and some of the assets in the environment. All the lightning and shadow effects really make the game atmospheric while also giving the player a sense of passage of time.

Perhaps one of the biggest things that the game provided, as it was something that had been done before was Character Morphing. This is a rather different concept than character customisation. The idea behind it is that the player character undergoes visual changes throughout the game.
There is quite a lot of factors that affect how the player character would looks like. The most unpopular being the character visually aging as players use their experience points by buying skills and skills levels as well as investing points in specific skill trees.
Investing on skills of the melee combat tree would make the character more muscular, buying points on the skill (ranged) combat would make the character taller and points in the will tree would make the character’s hair turn white faster and eventually bright blue “will lines” would start showing up on their body.
The character also morphs according to moral alignment, on a good alignment the character’s hair gets a lighter in colour and a glowing halo with fluttering butterflies starts showing over the player character’s head. Meanwhile on evil alignment the player character’s hair gets darker, starts balding on top of the head, certain parts of the skin start cracking, horns start to grow on the player character’s forehead, the eyes get darker and gain a red glow.
Other visual morphing present in the game would be battle scaring, if the player character is damaged there is a chance that will leave a permanent scar, which would appear very bold if was a recent scar and would fade slightly over time.
All the visual morphing the character undergoes through the game happens gradually, so there are various stages and opacities in the process.

It is fair to say that Fable and consequent sequels created this formula of character morphing never seen before in games, and all stages of the morphing being visible to the player as they play the game. It might have not created a big impact on the industry itself however it created a very lasting impression on the player base.
Character morphing is a huge deal and all part of the capabilities of how visual effects can really affect the player experience, not just fancy lighting, and spell effects. Although these effects during combat do also play a big part in that experience, to quote Dane and Simon Carter: “Every single attack must be covered up with so many big bastard sparkly, spangly effects that the player is too busy having an epileptic fit to see anything else, leaving you free to ignore all the other rules.” (2003). Even though they were commenting on the difficulty of making real time combat, the quote seems relevant as to how combat visual effects can be impactful on player experience.

Fable really played a lot with visuals to make something that people today still remember, and some remember it as better than what it actually looked like at the time. The visuals effects were well crafted with emphasis on the player character morphing. It made a much more relevant impact on the player base than the industry itself making it still a special game like no other that players are likely to come back to as the way they play the game will have direct visual representation on their the character they are playing.

 

 

 

 

 

References

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Carter, D. and Carter, S. (2003) Fable Developer Diary #11 Fighting. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20100102112823/http://lionhead.com/Fable/fable_devdiary_11.aspx (Accessed: 31 March 2022)

Fable (2004). Microsoft Windows [Game]. Microsoft Game Studios.

Fable Anniversary (2014). Xbox 360 [Game]. Microsoft Studios

Fable: The Lost Chapters (2005). Microsoft Windows [Game]. Microsoft Game Studios.

Fable II (2008). Xbox 360 [Game]. Microsoft Game Studios.

Fable III (2010). Xbox 360 [Game]. Microsoft Game Studios

Francisco, E. (2020) Video Games are getting Hollywood VFX to level up. Available at: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/hollywoods-greatest-vfx-tool-in-the-2020s-video-games (Accessed: 27 March 2022)

Star Wars (1977) Directed by George Lucas [Film]. 20th Century Fox.

Yang, X., Yip, M. and Xu, X., 2009. Visual effects in computer games. Computer, 42(7), pp.48-56.

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