In previous Diablo III demo videos that have surfaced, the character dialogue systems showed the characters in a cinematic style close up. Speaking at Gamescom 2010, Diablo III game director Jay Wilson revealed why Blizzard decided to drop this approach, and revert back to the traditional system of a dialogue box hovering next to the character.
StarCraft II has been praised for its use of highly detailed real-time 3D rendered cut scenes. Wilson said that implementing such a system in Diablo III would set the development process back another two years. This would be due to the massive amount of detailing that goes into creating each character.
StarCraft II only featured a few key characters in its 3D rendered cutscenes. Wilson said that in Diablo III, the sheer number of NPC characters, combined with the five classes, which are doubled with two sexes, and the 18 different armor sets, would amount to a mammoth task.
Wilson said that during the development cycle, the team decided that in order to remain flexible, high quality real-time cinematics weren’t feasible. Should the developers wish to make changes or add a new NPC, they do not want to be unable to do so because the high quality models would take too long to produce and render.
Wilson did promise that the usual high quality pre-rendered cinematics that have become a staple of Blizzard games will definitely be utilized, with some ‘surprises’ in store.
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