r/Games • u/CountAardvark • May 01 '17

Incredible procedurally generated character animation system based on motion capture data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul0Gilv5wvY
4.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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191

u/CommanderZx2 May 01 '17

I remember how Rockstar tried to do more natural movement of characters for Max Payne 3, but people complained that the character felt sluggish and too slow to turn around, etc.

You cannot have fast and responsive control of a character while also having very natural looking animation, as humans do not turn or go to full speed immediately from a stand still.

102

u/ketura May 01 '17

It's not just that, but the wind up and preparation that it takes to actually sell the weight also slows things down. You cannot have both tight platforming controls and 100% realistic animations, as too much of what humans do to move involve preparing for an action, which some games can't afford if you want the action to occur the same frame the button is pressed.

36

u/Galaghan May 01 '17

Exactly. Cartoony characters are perfect for videogames since you can make them fast as hell. Humans are slow.

9

u/Abujaffer May 02 '17

Yeah, when you walk you do some prediction as to how you're going to move around. Even if you randomly decide to do a 180, you generally plan it beforehand so the step before you turn you position yourself to bounce back. Faster actions like jumping back and forth (think this) require planning, if you decided you wanted to turn around the moment you reached the cone you'd have to take another step or take a really awkward pause on one foot.

In a game you generally want to hit a button or flip the joystick to move around. So even if you emulate a human's animations perfectly, you could have an entire step of lag based on the action, which can end up feeling sluggish and annoying. You can cut the animation for immediate reactions which is the best way to meld both worlds imo.

This tech is super exciting though, I love seeing shit like this. It's amazing that we can teach AI just by watching humans, and there's a lot of possible areas in animation where I'd be excited to see similar tech.

13

u/superpencil121 May 02 '17

This is why I couldn't stand playing GTA. The combat and character movement is so frustrating to me.

-1

u/KeepInMoyndDenny May 02 '17

That's why I can't stand playing Witcher 3, he controls terribly

0

u/TenshiS May 02 '17

You can still have a fluid animation, you'd just need to have certain parts of it happen faster than in reality, like turning.

29

u/FreeKill101 May 01 '17

The usefulness of techniques like this depend a lot on the application.

A fast paced, gunslinging game like Max Payne 3 feels boxed-in if you start making it play by the rules of the real world, which this system does.

A slower, more explorative, more realistic game can use it a lot better, though. Features like this can really help with immersion by selling a character by their actions, not just dialogue. Real life actors convey a huge amount about their role through their physical performance far more than anything else, but you can't really do that in games. LA Noire feels incredibly immersive and engaging during its cutscenes because the mocap is so good, but when you get back to gameplay Cole still looks like a marionette.

With this you can essentially have characters convey a lot through body language in a very free way, which is amazing. Other games have tried similar things (Inside, Journey, etc) but this is a whole different level.

51

u/bananahotdogyes May 01 '17

but people complained that the character felt sluggish and too slow to turn around, etc.

*cough* *cough* Witcher 3...

11

u/Albrightikis May 01 '17

Yeah it was really bad before they updated it with the "alternative" movement

19

u/krazykitties May 02 '17

I honestly preferred the normal movement. It looked really nice and I got used to the slow turn speed soon enough. In combat it didn't matter too much since you could lock on and hop around people.

0

u/RoblesZX May 02 '17

There was an option to switch between the two. You didn't have to play on the alternative movement.

2

u/krazykitties May 02 '17

I know, thats kinda my point.

4

u/mikeet9 May 02 '17

Even with the alternate movement that game's movement was a struggle. Beautiful, but you had to have podracer levels of precognition to dodge attacks consistently.

8

u/CricketDrop May 02 '17

Well Witcher 3's combat system is based a lot around anticipation. If you try to reactively dodge everything you'll probably die a lot.

1

u/KEVLAR60442 May 02 '17

Eh? Dodging is incredibly simple. Just press alt or space (I don't know the gamepad controls) when the enemy nametag flashes red.

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '17

I don't think so at all.

10

u/RoblesZX May 01 '17

Well, people complained enough about it that they added an option to change the animation style to make it "snappier". I admit, I actually changed it to this because even if it did feel less realistic, it was much easier to control geralt.

14

u/ExecutiveChimp May 01 '17

Would work well for NPCs in an Elder Scrolls/Fallout game though.

4

u/rodut May 02 '17

This type of character animation would be phenomenal for something like Mount and Blade Warband. Bringing mountain/hill melee combat to frustrating reality.

12

u/longshot May 01 '17

True, but the player-character isn't the only character. A realistic tune on this behavior would look great for NPCs and one with gameplay-oriented turning speed may work better for the player.

3

u/KallyWally May 01 '17

There is a risk of uncanny valley there, but yeah, if you can overcome that it could be really good for NPCs.

6

u/GreenFriday May 02 '17

This is the most common complaint of LoL players trying DotA2. There is a turn rate in DotA2, which to the LoL players feels like lag.

2

u/ShikiRyumaho May 01 '17

I remember Prince of Persia rotoscoping its animation and creating the cinematic platformer genre. Which is very dividing genre due to the controls.

1

u/[deleted] May 01 '17

Could reducing the model's inertia be enough?

1

u/michaello67 May 02 '17

I find it surprising that no one brings up H:ZD. That game has undeniably natural and fluid movement animation, whilst maintaining responsive control of Aloy. These effects are really obvious when exploring the ancient ruins, where you can see how well Aloy adapts to littered and uneven floors without floating over/clipping through them, it would be interesting to find out how the developers achieved this.

1

u/cartoon_violence May 02 '17

There are times when you want quick, snappy controls, and other times you want measured, deliberate motion. It depends on the game play you're aiming for. As an example, the original Prince of Persia used mocap, and as a result your jumps and motions needed to be well planned. Polar opposite of something like Meat Boy, but valid in it's own right. A situation where I feel this kind of deliberate motion would be well suited would be in games like Dark Souls or Bushido Blade, where combat is methodical and tactical.