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NCAA Football 13 Interview - Sights and Sounds

We recently had a chance to interview NCAA Football 13 Designer Christian McLeod and Producer Ben Haumiller.

All questions were submitted, but not all of them could be answered at this time, due to coverage in the coming weeks. This interview only focuses on the sights and sounds of NCAA Football 13.



Sights

Have you improved replays and cut scenes? How many cut scenes have been added this year?


Over 50 new vignettes have been added including player interactions, player/coach interactions, celebrations, run outs, etc.

Are there more team-specific celebrations after big plays? What about postgame reactions? Will teams react differently after an upset win, loss or blowout?

We have added a new post play emotion system that will affect how players react in given situations. This system will better identify what the appropriate emotion of the player should be at that moment. While this system will provide a big improvement to the celebration animations, I think the biggest impact will come in the celebrations you don’t see any more as players will no longer celebrate in situations where they shouldn’t.

Will we see the chain gang in the game?

The chain gang will not be present in NCAA Football 13.

Will Dynamic crowd attendance be included, if so, could you give us some more details?

Dynamic crowd attendance will continue to be a part of Dynasty and Road to Glory. As the game progresses during a blowout fans will start to leave the game early, starting from the upper bowl corners and endzones to mimic what you see in real life games. As the season progresses, you will see thinner/fuller crowds at the start of a game based on the home school’s performance/opponent.

Are any of the new stadiums included? What about pro stadiums, which could be used as neutral site games?

FAU and North Texas received brand new stadiums this year using the new scanning technology. Additionally, Georgia, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Michigan, Navy, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Rice, Rutgers, Tulane/Sugar Bowl, UL Monroe, and Wake Forest received stadium renovations.

Will the trophy presentation only feature the Heisman trophy, or will it show all of them? What about trophies for winning bowl or rivalry games? In terms of what we will see during the presentation of the trophies, can you give us some tidbits?

Trophy celebrations will be on the field this year for rivalry, championship, and bowl games.

How many new animations will we see this year? Are there any specific ones that have been removed? What about some of the "Little Things", are there any you would like to mention?

Questions dealing with Gameplay will be reveled in the Gameplay playbook on April 17th.

Will you show starting lineups for both teams at the beginning of the 1st possession, as well as, show the coaches career record?

Starting line-ups and coaching record information did not make it into this year’s title, however we will have some great Dynasty presentation news to share on May 7th.

Texas Tech fans want to know if the Masked Rider is included and New Mexico Lobo fans want to know if their fight song, and/or there mascot Lobo Louie and Lobo Lucy, made the cut. Any other team run-outs and pre-game traditions you'd like to mention?

Unfortunately the Masked Rider and Lobo mascots did not make it in this year. As for fight songs, for any fight song we don’t have in the game, it’s typically an issue where we are not able to secure the rights to use the song from the music publisher that owns the rights.

Sounds

Will NCAA Football 13 feature commentary that's not too repetitive; will we finally hear some ebb and flow between the guys in the booth, sort of like how FIFA handles it? Is it all new commentary, if so how many lines were recorded? 

We have made a concerted effort to record ad libbed commentary to help capture the feel of a true broadcast flow. Additionally we were able to use telemetry to remove old, tired lines that have gotten repetitive over the years and replace them with these all-new ad libbed lines.

Will Brad and Kirk break out of a conversation, if a big play happens while they are talking?

This is something that is possible with our new engine, and we are working to look into implementing something like this in the coming years once we are able to fully harness the tech.

Will we hear crowds reacting correctly in given situations, for example on 3rd downs, crucial plays, TD's, interceptions, fumbles, big hits, etc.?

Yes. The crowd content and system is an area where you will hear some great improvements.  Based on the recordings that were done and the new crowd mix implemented by our Audio Director, Aaron Janzen, you will be hearing the crowd swells react appropriately throughout the game.

What about playing in large stadiums, compared to smaller ones? Adding on to that question, will we hear much of a difference between full stadiums vs. stadiums with smaller crowds?

Yes, you will notice a difference between these stadiums. We made an effort to record assets at small, medium, and large stadiums throughout last season. We even attended a high school game to ensure our crowds sound as authentic as possible depending on where you play.

Will crowds vary as far as regular season games, rivalry games, bowl games, and neutral site games? Speaking of neutral site games, will the crowd react to both teams, instead of recognizing the "home" team exclusively?  

Yes, the crowd behavior is driven contextually, and the type of game being played is part of that.  We have the ability to drive different crowd reactions based on home / neutral / away.

What sort of sounds and commentary upgrades has been made for Dynasty / Online Dynasty mode? Will we hear announcers talking about your current dynasty and what is revolving around it, with other teams and players? With they speak on other games during the week, upsets, conference standings, etc.?

Dynasty details will be announced May 7th.

Any upgrades to "on the field" audio? The cracking of helmets and shoulder pads, for example. 

Our hit system is being fully re-mixed this year. The system and content we have is extensive.  We have the ability to tune every element of the hit, based on force, and it cascades out into pad and helmet collisions, as well as all body collisions, grunts etc.  We've been somewhat conservative in the past with how we handle this system, and this year, and want to ensure we FEEL it.

Can you talk about post-game commentary? Will we see different reactions from the commentators, depending on the "end game" situations? What about post game traditions, for example, the playing of the alma mater at Notre Dame?

Yes, Brad has new ad libbed lines that are general concerning the outcome of the game. Post-game traditions will not be included in this year’s game.

If you could give us an example of a moment in "Sights" and a moment in "Sounds" that you are most proud of, what would it be?

From a sounds perspective it’s the new ad libbed content we got from the talent, specifically the mystery commentator to be named later. I’m very proud that these lines capture the essence of each of our talents, and add personality to our game. This is a very solid first year under our new recording philosophy.


NCAA Football 13 Videos
Member Comments
# 81 Watson @ 04/09/12 12:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big FN Deal
Would you mind elaborating on your problem with this?

I get that people wanted to be able to edit faces and hair separately but the developers seem to have at least addressed the issue of more hair lengths, just not in that way. Also, can you explain what you find so terrible about the faces in NCAA 12 besides the lack of variety, which is said to be expanded in NCAA 13?

It seems like the visuals are handled by the art department and animations along with the improved passing system would be handled by the gameplay team, so why does your opinion of the visuals spill over into every department equaling EA phoned this one in?

If I go to McDonalds to get a chicken sandwich, fries, drink and the fries are cold along with the drink being watered down, that doesn't automatically mean the sandwich is FUBAR too. Different people were responsible for each item, likewise for NCAA 13, I presume.
Don't ask them to rationalize their hate. They can't and will just respond with more flaming
 
# 82 Tdgsport27 @ 04/09/12 05:30 PM
"Unfortunately they didn't make the cut" Listen most people who play this game already have to deal with the fact that they aren't Bama fans.
So don't tell us (the regular/little guys) that our teams aren't good enough, aren't big enough and aren't important enough to get something as simple as a mascot placed in the game.
 
# 83 Spitfirex007 @ 04/09/12 08:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Gaming_Disciple
Just confirmed from yesterdays EA podcast, Haumiller stated, that updating the sidelines during gameplay (dynamic sidelines) will be "difficult" to upgrade this generation. Therefore the question concerning the sidelines for any upcoming iterations can be put to rest...finally...
He is full of ****. 2k all pro football had active sidelines and that game is what, 4 years old?

I liked NCAA 12. It's IMO top 3 sports game out there. But I shake my head at this interview. There are far too many things not added, that should have been in the game years ago.
 
# 84 roadman @ 04/09/12 08:11 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spitfirex007
He is full of ****. 2k all pro football had active sidelines and that game is what, 4 years old?
That's not the point, though. EA's on the field graphics would suffer if they had active sidelines. On the Madden side, a few years ago, there was a big debate about this and the developer at the time said EA wouldn't allow the graphics on the field suffer to have active sidelines.


Pick your poison or EA has already done that for this generation.
 
# 85 Spitfirex007 @ 04/09/12 08:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadman
That's not the point, though. EA's on the field graphics would suffer if they had active sidelines. On the Madden side, a few years ago, there was a big debate about this and the developer at the time said EA wouldn't allow the graphics on the field suffer to have active sidelines.


Pick your poison or EA has already done that for this generation.
Again I call bs. Going back to 2008 and comparing NCAA 08 graphics to all pro, I give a slight advantage to NCAA. But I'll take a slight downgrade everywhere else if it meant the sidelines didn't ruin the experience. As would a ton of others I'm sure
 
# 86 roadman @ 04/09/12 08:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spitfirex007
Again I call bs. Going back to 2008 and comparing NCAA 08 graphics to all pro, I give a slight advantage to NCAA. But I'll take a slight downgrade everywhere else if it meant the sidelines didn't ruin the experience. As would a ton of others I'm sure
You don't need to believe it, he said it would be scaled back and downgraded. APF looked great zoomed in, but further back, not so great vs NCAA.

With Ben saying probably not this generation, it leads me to believe what I heard a few years ago. That was a risk they weren't willing to take then, and it's not a risk they are willing to take the rest of this generation.

Chain gang I'm miffed at.
 
# 87 Rhudey @ 04/09/12 08:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spitfirex007
Again I call bs. Going back to 2008 and comparing NCAA 08 graphics to all pro, I give a slight advantage to NCAA. But I'll take a slight downgrade everywhere else if it meant the sidelines didn't ruin the experience. As would a ton of others I'm sure
I wouldn't, I couldn't give a cr%p what the sidelines look like, I prefer a game that actually plays like football thanks (which this doesn't by the way).
 
# 88 johnnyg713 @ 04/09/12 10:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhudey
I wouldn't, I couldn't give a cr%p what the sidelines look like, I prefer a game that actually plays like football thanks (which this doesn't by the way).
I could say the same thing about all this dynamic lighting and 3d grass cr%p. However, they still make those things a priority. I agree the game needs to play well before worrying about the other stuff, but active sidelines and things like real time presentation are what take emersion in sports games to the next level. I would much rather have things like that in the game over being able to see the stadium's reflection in my players belt buckle.
 
# 89 johnnyg713 @ 04/09/12 11:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultima Weapon
So should those guys not work/do their job? The guys who work on Gameplay aren't the same guys that do art, or the sound, etc. It's called a TEAM for a reason. There aren't 100 guys working on one thing at a time.
Huh? When did I say the art team shouldn't be focusing on graphics?? I said they focus on putting in 3D grass and dynamic lighting. How are those things more important than active sidelines or realtime atmosphere?



First off this is not a nba 2k vs ncaa comparison, nor is it EA vs 2k. Take a look at this image. Quick list of what I see; coaches, refs, 3d fans, foam fingers, fans wearing team jerseys, bench players wearing jump suits (that come off once they go into the game), bench players talking to each other and reacting to the game, camera men (that actually move and pretend to take pics), floor cleaning guy, gatorade jugs, computers or phones (w/e the hell that is) on the scorer's table ( people sitting there during the game are talking to each other and pretending to be doing things), player tattoos, jerseys that move and wrinkle, etc. etc. (Not to mention the bench, fans, the score table, and refs are all interactive with the players). I could think of dozens of other little things that go on behind the scenes, Im just listing what this particular screen is showing.

My point was, I would rather see EA focus more on things going on around the game, instead of focusing to make player models look so highly detailed. Are the players in NBA 2k extremely detailed like the ones in Madden or NCAA? No, but the game sure isnt ugly graphics wise at all. With all that stuff going on, closeups of nba 2k still look like this...


People mention the whole "graphics would take a hit if we had this kind of atmosphere in Madden." I don't buy it, I feel EA could definitely put in the atmosphere without downgrading the graphics in the way most people think.
 
# 90 sportzbro @ 04/10/12 01:28 AM
Still waiting to hear if they fixed the size of the football.
 
# 91 roadman @ 04/10/12 01:46 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg713


People mention the whole "graphics would take a hit if we had this kind of atmosphere in Madden." I don't buy it, I feel EA could definitely put in the atmosphere without downgrading the graphics in the way most people think.
People are mentioning what they heard from the developers. It's up to you if you want to believe the developers, but this is what they told OS a few years ago.

If the graphics were scaled way back and downgraded as mentioned, there would be people screaming about that, too.

I would love active sidelines, too, but EA doesn't want to go down that path and take that risk.
 
# 92 PowerofRed25 @ 04/10/12 02:02 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadman
People are mentioning what they heard from the developers. It's up to you if you want to believe the developers, but this is what they told OS a few years ago.

If the graphics were scaled way back and downgraded as mentioned, there would be people screaming about that, too.

I would love active sidelines, too, but EA doesn't want to go down that path and take that risk.
At some point they have to take that risk though. If they don't on this current generation, fine, but at some point they are going to need to take a leap forward.

I do not believe it is as big of a risk as you think, I do not believe on field graphics will suffer if active sidelines are created because frankly, the on field graphics aren't that great. The lighting is washed out terribly, player models are terrible and what little of the crowd you can see is stale and pointless.

I'd really prefer they get those things right before they work on active sidelines though.
 
# 93 HammerOfGod @ 04/10/12 03:49 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big FN Deal
Would you mind elaborating on your problem with this?

I get that people wanted to be able to edit faces and hair separately but the developers seem to have at least addressed the issue of more hair lengths, just not in that way. Also, can you explain what you find so terrible about the faces in NCAA 12 besides the lack of variety, which is said to be expanded in NCAA 13?

It seems like the visuals are handled by the art department and animations along with the improved passing system would be handled by the gameplay team, so why does your opinion of the visuals spill over into every department equaling EA phoned this one in?

If I go to McDonalds to get a chicken sandwich, fries, drink and the fries are cold along with the drink being watered down, that doesn't automatically mean the sandwich is FUBAR too. Different people were responsible for each item, likewise for NCAA 13, I presume.
The faces are awful. Just not realistic at all and awful. And do you really think you're going to get anything different than you got last year? You're not.

And that McDonalds analogy is bad because everything at McDonalds is trash. Kind of like EA sports right now.
 
# 94 EAGLESFAN10 @ 04/10/12 10:24 AM
I understand where people are coming from when it comes 2 player faces but I THINK most of u want the player faces 2 look like the real-life player but thats just opinion no need to bash lol
 
# 95 BlackBetty15 @ 04/10/12 10:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadman
People are mentioning what they heard from the developers. It's up to you if you want to believe the developers, but this is what they told OS a few years ago.

If the graphics were scaled way back and downgraded as mentioned, there would be people screaming about that, too.

I would love active sidelines, too, but EA doesn't want to go down that path and take that risk.
What is sad is in your post you revealed the true issue at hand...EA is too scared to take any risks. They play it safe year in and year out which is why they have dug themselves into what seems to be an hole so deep they may never get out of until the current team is entirely replaced (except for the OS audio guy who seems to be the only one who knows how to do things) I remember in the movie TROY, at the beginning, the kid was like "the man your about to fight is huge, I wouldn't want to fight him" and then Achilles responded, "and that's why nobody will remember your name." How fitting that is with what the ncaa is known for now...too scared to risk anything and in being too scared they are now know for being to incompetent to do anything.
 
# 96 roadman @ 04/10/12 10:50 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by PowerofRed25
At some point they have to take that risk though. If they don't on this current generation, fine, but at some point they are going to need to take a leap forward.

I do not believe it is as big of a risk as you think, I do not believe on field graphics will suffer if active sidelines are created because frankly, the on field graphics aren't that great. The lighting is washed out terribly, player models are terrible and what little of the crowd you can see is stale and pointless.

I'd really prefer they get those things right before they work on active sidelines though.
I agree, but it doesn't matter what I think.
 
# 97 johnnyg713 @ 04/10/12 12:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadman
People are mentioning what they heard from the developers. It's up to you if you want to believe the developers, but this is what they told OS a few years ago.

If the graphics were scaled way back and downgraded as mentioned, there would be people screaming about that, too.

I would love active sidelines, too, but EA doesn't want to go down that path and take that risk.
I have read that a few years ago here as well, back around ncaa and madden 09/10.

NCAA 09


NCAA 13


Comparing the screens, I can see why the development team really focused on making player models look so damn good. NCAA 13 looks gorgeous. However, if they focused on atmosphere all these years, I have no doubt graphics and player models in "NCAA 13 with active sidelines" would look better than NCAA 09s graphics (Im basing this assumption purely on the fact of how much the graphics have improved since then).

The fact that EA said the graphics would take such a huge hit but years later can improve them so much is what bothers me. Theres no argument which game looks better, its just living with the fact that everything else looks bad.
 
# 98 BlingBling19 @ 04/10/12 01:00 PM
This might be a obvious question which I think I know the answer to. Is each installment of NCAA football just being built on top of the previous years game??

So they start NCAA 13 with the NCAA 12 game and just tweak stuff within NCAA 12's coding? Or do they scrap everything and start completely over with NCAA 13?
 
# 99 johnnyg713 @ 04/10/12 01:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlingBling19
This might be a obvious question which I think I know the answer to. Is each installment of NCAA football just being built on top of the previous years game??

So they start NCAA 13 with the NCAA 12 game and just tweak stuff within NCAA 12's coding? Or do they scrap everything and start completely over with NCAA 13?
They build upon previous titles.
 
# 100 HammerOfGod @ 04/11/12 07:34 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg713
I have read that a few years ago here as well, back around ncaa and madden 09/10.

NCAA 09


NCAA 13


Comparing the screens, I can see why the development team really focused on making player models look so damn good. NCAA 13 looks gorgeous. However, if they focused on atmosphere all these years, I have no doubt graphics and player models in "NCAA 13 with active sidelines" would look better than NCAA 09s graphics (Im basing this assumption purely on the fact of how much the graphics have improved since then).

The fact that EA said the graphics would take such a huge hit but years later can improve them so much is what bothers me. Theres no argument which game looks better, its just living with the fact that everything else looks bad.
I would argue the player models haven't looked good since Madden '05.

I guess I wouldn't say they looked good in '05, but the sliders for the various parts of the bodies actually worked and worked on a scale of 0-100, and a players position didn't dictate a general build template like it does now. How the players looked had everything to do with weight and the sliders.
 


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