Quantic Dream demoes advanced emotional tech with PS4 and new engine

Quantic Dream's studio founder and game director David Cage demonstrated the technology capabilities of the studio's new engine using the PlayStation 4.

The tech demo, which was shown at PlayStation Meeting 2013 earlier today, was running real-time 3D on a PlayStation 4 and illustrated the use of advanced skin shaders using translucency, and other advanced realistic shaders, as well as 3D depth of field. According Cage, this was just a sampling of advanced technological features that used to be reserved for CG films.

Cage noted the quality shown in the video is just a taste of what gamers can expect in future Quantic Dream's games for PlayStation 4. He promised that the team can push the tech even further.

"With the PlayStation 4 game creators can now forget about technology limitations and focus on creating experiences never seen before," he said.

The video demonstrated a computer generated representation of actor David Gant playing out a range of subtle emotions, a capability that obviously was very important to the Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain developer.

"You can feel these emotions by just looking at his face. Where you can see soul by just looking into his eyes," Cage says. "When you look at this old man, you can imagine who is, what he thinks, what happened to him without him saying a word."

He went on to say that through PlayStation 4, developers now have the power to make gamers "feel emotions that you have never felt in real life" without having to worry about technology limitations.

"We are now only limited by our imagination," he finished.

For information about Beyond: Two Souls and Cage's future plans, read Polygon's recent interview with the developer here. Beyond: Two Souls will release for PlayStation 3 in 2013.