It's 2016, consoles are more powerful than ever, yet "canned animations" have yet to become a relic of the past. Even the biggest blockbuster titles with the highest budgets and most impressive graphical fidelity have not gotten rid of them (Uncharted 4, MGSV, etc.). I'm not debating these games' animation quality, have you seen the intricacy in the way Drake moves?
So...erm, what exactly is the problem then? The problem is that the animation always plays out to completion in a pre-defined manner, with little (if any) response to dynamic inputs. This often creates "awkward situations" where a dynamic event (collision, impact, free-fall) should occur in a way that's grounded in the laws of classical mechanics, but instead plays out within the boundaries of a "canned animation." MGSV has decent examples of this: regardless of the height you jump from/off of, Snakes's "falling animation" is the exact same, and doesn't take into account the initial height, velocity, and acceleration that he jumped with. If he jumps from a height of x meters, shouldn't his body react differently to jumping from a height of 2*x meters (assuming x is reasonably large)?
Enter Euphoria. You may already be familiar with this animation engine, especially if you've ever played a 7th generation R* game (GTAIV, GTAV, RDR, Max Payne 3), Backbreaker (please don't play this), or Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Let's observe this gif showcasing the Euphoria engine, if you're not quite familiar with it:
So what do you notice about this gif? Even from a single gif, it's quite apparent that this isn't your standard "canned animation." Pay close attention to the way the avatars react to each other. Their animations are grounded within the dynamics of their movement:
Character A is lunging onto Character B, who is stationary. A misses B by a large margin, but does manage to get a bit of his arm onto B's leg, which then slams into the ground along with the rest of A's body. B reacts, but does so in a way that stabilizes its position based on where A hit, and how hard A hit.
Max Payne 3 arguably has one of the best implementations of the Euphoria Engine, with characters reacting realistically to bullet impacts based on where they were hit, and what type of gun Max used:
and just for fun:
Implementing Euphoria into games creates an infinite amount of gameplay scenarios that are grounded in the dynamics of each environment. It makes every encounter unique and fun, adding a layer of complexity that transcends hard-coded gameplay mechanics and animations. Just imagine Insomniac's Spider-man game using this engine, web-swinging could be made incredibly fun, and collisions would be absolutely hilarious.
So do you think this (or something similar) should be included in more games? Why or why not? If yes, what games would benefit the most from its implementation (give specific titles)? Are there any games that it wouldn't really affect?
So...erm, what exactly is the problem then? The problem is that the animation always plays out to completion in a pre-defined manner, with little (if any) response to dynamic inputs. This often creates "awkward situations" where a dynamic event (collision, impact, free-fall) should occur in a way that's grounded in the laws of classical mechanics, but instead plays out within the boundaries of a "canned animation." MGSV has decent examples of this: regardless of the height you jump from/off of, Snakes's "falling animation" is the exact same, and doesn't take into account the initial height, velocity, and acceleration that he jumped with. If he jumps from a height of x meters, shouldn't his body react differently to jumping from a height of 2*x meters (assuming x is reasonably large)?
Enter Euphoria. You may already be familiar with this animation engine, especially if you've ever played a 7th generation R* game (GTAIV, GTAV, RDR, Max Payne 3), Backbreaker (please don't play this), or Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Let's observe this gif showcasing the Euphoria engine, if you're not quite familiar with it:
So what do you notice about this gif? Even from a single gif, it's quite apparent that this isn't your standard "canned animation." Pay close attention to the way the avatars react to each other. Their animations are grounded within the dynamics of their movement:
Character A is lunging onto Character B, who is stationary. A misses B by a large margin, but does manage to get a bit of his arm onto B's leg, which then slams into the ground along with the rest of A's body. B reacts, but does so in a way that stabilizes its position based on where A hit, and how hard A hit.
Max Payne 3 arguably has one of the best implementations of the Euphoria Engine, with characters reacting realistically to bullet impacts based on where they were hit, and what type of gun Max used:
and just for fun:
Implementing Euphoria into games creates an infinite amount of gameplay scenarios that are grounded in the dynamics of each environment. It makes every encounter unique and fun, adding a layer of complexity that transcends hard-coded gameplay mechanics and animations. Just imagine Insomniac's Spider-man game using this engine, web-swinging could be made incredibly fun, and collisions would be absolutely hilarious.
So do you think this (or something similar) should be included in more games? Why or why not? If yes, what games would benefit the most from its implementation (give specific titles)? Are there any games that it wouldn't really affect?
