Here’s a very silly look at Black Myth: Wukong’s mocap tech, with cats

pcgamesn.com:

There’s a new trailer all about Game Science’s highly anticipated action-RPG Black Myth: Wukong to check out. Well, kind of. The studio has released a comedy trailer to wish fans a happy Chinese New Year, which nonetheless gives us a bit of a look at some (unfinished) gameplay, the game’s mocap tech, and plenty of cats.

Called ‘An Alternate Reality of Game Science…’, the clip (which you can see below) offers a good 13 minutes of silliness. The devs at the studio chat about the challenges around bringing mocap technology on board for creating Black Myth Wukong, which was first unveiled with a chunk of pre-alpha footage in 2020. Specifically, the devs chat about the difficulties around creating motion capture for quadruped characters and creatures – and so, we get to see plenty of (very wonderful, gorgeous) cats brought in to lend a ha-, er, paw.

Cats are fitted with wee mocap vests and then spend a little time bouncing and flinging themselves about, giving the devs data to work with. The end result is a hilariously clunky, not-very-polished fight between the main character and some tigers who, well, just wander about acting like big, glitchy cats, really.

There’s sadly not a whole lot of Black Myth: Wukong gameplay footage to check out this time, but there are lots of cats, so you’ve got to take what you can get I guess. Here’s the New Year’s comedy clip:

It’s not wholly clear whether the devs will actually use any mocap stemming from the feline friends’ session in the studio. It seems unlikely, though, given the clip’s comedy ending that seems to show the studio shuttering and the devs going into the restaurant business instead, following all the troubles of this approach to mocap in the trailer’s alternative reality.