As far as video game visionaries go, there are few out there that are as big and as passionate as Quantic Dream’s David Cage.

In 1999 the French studio started exploring body and facial capture with their debut project, Omikron, a game that featured David Bowie. Using basic and cheap technology in that title, it was the beginning of Cage and Quantic Dream's journey to bleeding more emotion and believability into their games.

6 years later, Quantic Dreams developed their tech further in Indigo Prophecy (AKA Fahrenheit), but it wasn’t until 2006 with their unveiling of The Casting tech demo – a demo using the technology that later became the foundation for Heavy Rain – that their facial and body mo-cap took an evolutionary step.

Here we are, 2 years after Heavy Rain and GDC 2012 will forever be known as the platform for the reveal of Quantic Dream’s latest tech with a tech demo that is set to propel Quantic Dreams further into the stratosphere.

The latest piece of tech, which Cage emphasised, is not his next project and his intention was merely to show off what their latest engine can do.

The new tech demo, called Kara, is created using their brand new 3D engine and was created to test the prototype out in a live environment. A prototype that clones living actors, scans their face and body on the go and produces it exactly in the game as it was performed on the stage. Cage says that their intention is to have a quick turnaround with the highest quality and with the lowest cost possible.

The engine is fully flexible, has a 24-hour turnaround from stage to engine, can use retargeting, uses complex shaders, is able to add special effects like tears, sweat and blood in post production, allows for dynamic wounds, and maps such things as facial hair to an incredible degree.

Kara is essentially 3D concept art, with Cage noting that the video we saw today at GDC being one year old. The engine, according to Cage, is now in version 3, so 50% of the features in version 3 weren’t present in the tech demo at GDC today.

The latest tech demo shows a cybernetic being, Kara, being built from the ground up and then disassembled. The actress, Valerie Currie – who’s in the next Twilight movie – was chosen from 70 actresses and is tracked using 65 cameras (expanded from 28 cameras in previous iterations of their tech) with 90 markers on the body and 90 markers on the stage and recorded in a soundproof environment.

In the demo you’ll see the pupils dilate, subtle muscle movements tracked, stunning lip sync, realistic movements and even see the panic flood across her face and her eyes well up at specific junctures.

The demo is real-time 3D on a PS3. It's not CG or pre-rendered... it's in-game. In fact, according to Cage, it’s almost raw footage, so you can imagine the possibilities.

You can check it out here now. You owe it yourself to watch it. It's pretty damn stunning.

[Via Eurogamer]