Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Multiplayer Revealed and Sledgehammer Games’ Take on Photorealism

Updates: "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" has hopes of becoming a sub-series in the franchise--at least for its developer, Sledgehammer Games.

Microsoft may be planning more for the "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" multiplayer at Gamescom 2014, but there's already a teaser video for the Xbox Live reveal during the event at Cologne, Germany.

"Join me, Xbox Live's Aceybongos and the creators of "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare' for the world broadcast premiere of the next generation of 'Call of Duty' multiplayer during a special live event streamed on Xbox Live," Major Nelson announced over his official blog.

However, the trailer, as seen below, is merely a glimpse of what Sledgehammer Games has in store for "Call of Duty" fans. August 11 is a date to remember, as it marks the live reveal of "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer, complete with exclusive interviews.

More than the multiplayer, for which Sledgehammer Games hopefully has a lot of interesting modes in store, the developer has also revealed a few more details on just how much of a game-changer "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" is.

This goes beyond the EXO suits, which take the battleground of the COD franchise off the usual battlefield and onto futuristic heights.

If "Call of Duty: Ghosts" was a bit disappointing in terms of the promised next-gen realism, "Advanced Warfare" may hold the advantage with its photorealism techniques.

Speaking with Venture Beat, Sledgehammer Games reveals how they were able to make people wonder if what they're seeing onscreen for "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" are real people or anmations.

"There are three basic pillars that make that reality. You have to have HDR, you have to have this thing called physical-based shading, and you have to have something else called physical-based lighting," Joe Salud said to Venture Beat.

What this means is that, instead of just relying on the artist's eye for details, there is now an engine that does all the procedural details to make sure that the characters look as real as they can be.

Achieving photorealism for "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" also meant more than just mo-cap technology and shading. As mentioned before, the physical environment and surroundings also play a major role.

"One of the interesting things about realism and environment art from a production standpoint, which was new for me when overseeing the team and the artists and designers--you talk about going out and capturing facial," Sledgehammer's Aaron Halon said to Venture Beat. "But even for the environment, we were capturing real-world lighting with real-world materials. That was a big part of this physical base."

You'll see more at Gamescom, with hopefully more action and more villainous lines from none other than Kevin Spacey.

"Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" multiplayer reveal (via YouTube/xbox)

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