What can you tell us about working with resource costs? How annoying is that?
TL;DRResource costs are hard limits that come late in production, and features like custom logos multiply unique textures in crowds, so the heaviest worst-case character must be tested.
I haven't run into it yet here. I definitely will. But at Naughty Dog, yeah. It comes to a point in production where it's, these are the hard limits, and now make everything work with that. And that becomes the hard part, especially when you have a lot of great art. And you've got to figure out the smart ways to preserve that, but allow the game to run.
It turns into one of those things where it's like, okay, I think it's a great idea. You're able to put your own logo. Okay, cool. Now we've got to imagine a crowd scene for 50 people. So that means we have to add an additional texture. That doesn't sound like a big deal. But now you have 50 people in a room and they all have their own. Now you added 50 unique textures. Whereas 50 people in a crowd might be wearing the same jeans, or they might be wearing some of the same shirts, or there's a chance, right? You don't get to share that stuff if everybody's put on their own custom logos. So it's much more of a resource question than it is an art question.
And that's not something you can predict at the beginning. That's something that comes later on. You design and you build out for everything that you want. And then there comes a point in production when all the systems are in and you have to start balancing between them.
That's where you figure out the worst case. What is the heaviest character? What if everyone is that character? That's the test, because that could happen.