{"id":70264,"date":"2026-07-30T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=70264"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:47:26","slug":"pragmata-developers-considered-giving-diana-a-bob-cut-to-reduce-rendering-costs-but-scrapped-the-idea-in-favor-of-a-more-character-appropriate-hairstyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pragmata-developers-considered-giving-diana-a-bob-cut-to-reduce-rendering-costs-but-scrapped-the-idea-in-favor-of-a-more-character-appropriate-hairstyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Pragmata developers considered giving Diana a bob cut to reduce rendering costs, but scrapped the idea in favor of a more \u201ccharacter-appropriate\u201d hairstyle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC) 2026, Kenji Irie and Serina Ohara of Capcom delivered a case study on the development of Pragmata<\/strong>\u2019s character models \u2013 specifically, their hair and facial expression animations (source: Famitsu<\/a>). Though Diana\u2019s hair is almost as long as she is tall in the final game, Capcom originally meant for her to have a shorter hairstyle to cut down on development costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike other games, which use hair cards (flat polygons with hair textures) for animation, Pragmata renders each hair strand individually, creating photorealistic hair that flows and bends naturally. According to the developers, compared to the 22 joints Diana\u2019s hair would have when animated with hair cards, animating each strand individually required a whopping 430,000 animation points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Diana\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With this considered, the estimated costs of asset production, simulation, and processing of Diana\u2019s long hair would end up being quite high. This is why the developers were rather reluctant about giving Diana her iconic hairstyle as early as the 2D concept art stage. There were even discussions about shortening it into a bob cut well into the middle of development, and Capcom reportedly went as far as to create a test model of Diana featuring the shorter hairstyle to determine whether it would resolve cost issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the final consensus was that Diana\u2019s blond locks were necessary to \u201cconvey a sense of life on the moon,\u201d and helped portray her character as a young girl swept into an adventure that she isn\u2019t prepared for. Given that the back of Diana\u2019s head is often seen during gameplay, the intention was also for the animations of her long hair to keep players engaged over extended periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pragmata\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dev team pushed through many hardships, including managing asset production costs, simulation challenges, and figuring out the GPU processing loads for different PC setups and consoles (the game had to run smoothly even with Diana\u2019s hair flowing on screen).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the average human head consists of roughly 100,000 strands of hair, Diana\u2019s in-game hair count averages less than 20,000 strands, which were made to look more natural by adjusting their styling and thickness. The result is a hairstyle that matches the character\u2019s bubbly and occasionally wild personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmata is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam<\/a>), and Nintendo Switch 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capcom had a women-led \u201cDiana Police\u201d on the Pragmata team to make sure Diana was cute in an \u201cuncontrived and childlike\u201d way<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmata devs struggled with conveying Diana\u2019s \u201candroid-like\u201d vibes in a global cultural context. Screwing her head off like Arale-chan \u201cwould\u2019ve been difficult to achieve,\u201d says director<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At CEDEC 2026, Capcom’s Pragmata developers talked about the challenges behind creating Diana’s iconic long hairstyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":70267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-29T16:00:09+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrscafnajo2q","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrscafnajo2q\",\"cid\":\"bafyreihgbelfqvgf6rif4o762rmaf4ewfgrgtvxy6obtvfjp5ijjyeyshu\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreigdgqb4jtmejofp3ta7adqebtaidcdp2kfm6frruyzdwfr2jmaa4i\",\"rev\":\"3mrscafnego2q\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-70264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nPragmata developers considered giving Diana a bob cut to reduce rendering costs, but scrapped the idea in favor of a more \u201ccharacter-appropriate\u201d hairstyle - 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