Next-Gen Indy Jones game looking more and more NEXT-GEN!

[VictimOfScience]

...with its upcoming Indiana Jones title, LucasArts may be onto something. Utilizing a run-time animation technology called euphoria, the game is poised to push the limits of what was previously possible. The company that developed the technology, NaturalMotion, has been working for years to hone euphoria to accurately replicate real-world physics such as strength, weight, and momentum with in-game character models. Whereas before, all animations had to be pre-programmed, euphoria allows for reactions and behaviors to occur in real-time -- allowing models to react realistically to whatever situation might arise.

No more rag-dolls, no more pre-programmed animations--all real time AI awareness. The descriptions they give of the AI trying to grab onto things while falling or sliding or landing or trying to help another AI character sounds incredible and will no doubt help put the "next" into the "next-gen." The videos are great, but it will be much better to see the actual Indy Jones fight demos and such. Hopefully they will surface soon...

Whole story here (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/702/702423p1.html).

[Lucid]

http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/cwm/eek2.gif
Well then... this certainly sounds and looks pretty kicking rad!

[Asuka]

http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/cwm/eek2.gif
Well then... this certainly sounds and looks pretty kicking rad!

****ING INSANE. PERFECT FACE FOR THIS!!! HAHAHA!

[Space Farm]

Let's hope they don't forget to add the most important thing...gameplay.

[Jack_Karverboy]

That will be awesome! I hope they don't mess it up.

[Cole]

Similiar to spore, all of Spore's animations are not done beforehand, but they use procedural generation to get it all going. You make the model however you want it, and it will figure out how it will walk, attack, etc....

This is basically pretty similar.

[Iced_Eagle]

I've played around with the animation program, endorphin, quite a bit :) It's really amazing what they can do!

In fact, they have a free Learner's Edition out...

http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/le.htm

Download that, then go on the forums and watch all the video tutorials, and you should be able to make some really cool things happen! :D

Glad to see this is finally getting used in a game!!!!

[sea]

That sounds pretty sweet. However, one thing that makes me slightly uneasy is the implication that all games could end up looking the same, animation-wise. I hope there is a way to add some character to your game's animation. Art design is more important than all the technology in the world, in my mind, and I don't want that to be lost.

[Que-Ever]

Sounds nice and all, but... where's the ****ing movie?

[OCybrManO]

No more rag-dolls, no more pre-programmed animations--all real time AI awareness. The descriptions they give of the AI trying to grab onto things while falling or sliding or landing or trying to help another AI character sounds incredible and will no doubt help put the "next" into the "next-gen."What have I been saying? Did I call this or what? It's almost exactly what I was talking about. I referred to the same company, NaturalMotion. I talked about how they would most likely hook the AI into the animation system in real-time. I even said that, if they don't waste too much power on other new features, it could be implemented as soon as the upcoming console generation... because of the shift to multi-threaded hardware. I had been thinking about this kind of implementation since high school. I only hope that, unlike Trespasser and physics, the pioneering game in this technology doesn't turn out to be a piece of shit... thus, giving it a bad name and making other developers shy away from it for a while. I can't wait to actually play a game built around it. ;( (tear of joy)

[Pesmerga]

Now all we need are particle simulators and we can build a massive, fully functioning universe.

[AmishSlayer]

I've played around with the animation program, endorphin, quite a bit :) It's really amazing what they can do!

In fact, they have a free Learner's Edition out...

http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/le.htm

Download that, then go on the forums and watch all the video tutorials, and you should be able to make some really cool things happen! :D

Glad to see this is finally getting used in a game!!!!
OH MAN. I remember seeing videos of that back in the day wishing I had that software to just play around with. This learner's edition has demos that are fun to mess around with. I messed with one real quick where it shoots arrows into the guy and he staggers differently depending on the angle he gets hit and with how many arrows. This is awesome.

I made a quick little vid of the guy getting hit with 2 arrows, then I set up the 3rd to fire and captured the little animation just so you can get an idea of what this looks like.

http://media.putfile.com/Arrow-Vid-75

[dream431ca]

Now all we need are particle simulators and we can build a massive, fully functioning universe.

Agreed.

[AmishSlayer]

4 more short vids of Endorphin in action.

Demo as normal
http://media.putfile.com/Balcony-47

I tripled the force put on the guy as it starts
http://media.putfile.com/Balcony--Force

If you watch nothing else - WATCH THIS
http://media.putfile.com/Plane-Escape

I had a little fun and took out this poor guy's landing animations and behaviors.
http://media.putfile.com/Plane--Ouch

[Pesmerga]

I dunno, it doesn't seem like those people sitting down were really reacting, only that they took the intitial impact and acted as if they had been instantly killed.

Good plane movie though, I love the rolling part :p

[AmishSlayer]

I dunno, it doesn't seem like those people sitting down were really reacting, only that they took the intitial impact and acted as if they had been instantly killed.

Good plane movie though, I love the rolling part :p

All they were given was a staggering behavior at the point of impact then at the end all the behaviors stopped so everybody goes limp.

There's so much you could mess around with in this. I only wish I had a motion capture system or some animations to import :D

[Iced_Eagle]

Yes you can really make it look a little bit more dynamic (and you could make them like get back up from the chair after they fell and such instead of going limp).

Again though, I'm so glad someone is using this sytem :) I always thought it was going to be a hit, but nobody seemed to ever utilize the technology, until this day :D

[VictimOfScience]

What have I been saying? Did I call this or what? I had been thinking about this kind of implementation since high school.

Your job now is to make developers everywhere believe what you believe. If what you say is true, then you my friend can provide better advice and analysis to these guys than they have had heretofore. :)

I can't wait to actually play a game built around it. ;( (tear of joy)
QFT. This kind of thing should make the gameplay of this title a whole heck of a lot more diverse and immersive. This and more physics (i.e. destructable environments) equals big time fun and excitement and a very different experience everytime you play!

[OCybrManO]

NaturalMotion has been working on this (endorphin) for at least five years. At first, it was intended as a sort of virtual stuntman from which to generate motion capture data for movies/TV. Then, game developers started using it to generate their pre-canned animations (because mo-cap and talented animators are expensive and time consuming). Finally, it's making the step into on-the-fly animation. With things like relief mapping, photon mapping, subsurface scattering, fluid dynamics, soft-body physics, dynamic hard-body deformation/destruction, and dynamic animation on the horizon... games are going to start getting a lot more realistic over the next 5-10 years. I can't wait to see games with all of those features... and more.

For the people who are worried the characters won't have the kind of, well, character provided by animators... endorphin is highly configurable. It can be tweaked to give a lot of different results on its own. It has been used to generate animations for all kinds of projects from Troy to Tekken. Also, it can blend in with your own animations, take over where an animation leaves off, make sure that if the game logic says two things should collide they will actually hit, eliminate clipping, etc. It has the potential to drastically decrease the time required to make a game once you integrate it with a good AI system... while also greatly increasing the variety, replayability, and fluidity of the games. Sure, the first game might not do it justice... but it has a lot of potential.

[CptStern]

wow that is revolutionary ...although wouldnt something like this make physics cards redundant? ...I'm assuming you could attach this to enviromental effects like grass blowing in the wind etc

[DEATH eVADER]

I never knew that pepsi advert used that animation software

[ChiChi]

Grrr, my thing keeps freezing whenever I try to do anything more complex than adding a character. my specs are 2.7ghz and 760gbRam and the minimum are 1.7ghz and 512 ram. What gives?

[Iced_Eagle]

wow that is revolutionary ...although wouldnt something like this make physics cards redundant? ...I'm assuming you could attach this to enviromental effects like grass blowing in the wind etc

First of all, this has nothing to do with rigid-body physics, fluid dyanimcs, soft-body physics (aka cloth or hair), etc etc... This is merely for characters to have more realistic animations on the fly. So a PPU card is still viable.

And you probably could implement this system with the PPU so you could have LOTS of characters each reacting differently on-screen at once.

[Dalamari]

Just the fact that they are making a next-gen Indiana Jones game makes me smile :)

[drunkymonkey]

Let's hope they don't forget to add the most important thing...gameplay.Yeah, LucasArts are certainly forgetful when it comes to that, aren't they?

I think Mixnmojo hit the nail on the head right here (http://mixnmojo.com/php/news/showfile.php?id=2043&category=lucasartsnews).

[Asuka]

Just the fact that they are making a next-gen Indiana Jones game makes me smile :)

haha. Thats what i thought. Could be very interesting.

[Murray]

Whoa, awesome. I've seen those physics videos before. Finally they've implemented them to a game. And to think they would do it to a Indiana Jones game, makes my hopes go through the roof. :D

[drunkymonkey]

Just the fact that they are making a next-gen Indiana Jones game makes me smile :)Are you going to keep smiling when you find out Lucas Arts wants to bring one out every year?

[ríomhaire]

Reminds me of spore but in an action game format.

[Sulkdodds]

Da da dah daaah! Da da daaaaah! Da da dah daaaah! Da da daah daah daaaah! :D

[Shadow-warrior]

Can't wait. They just better release it on the PC!

[AmishSlayer]

I think EVERYBODY should give Endorphin a go. I was playing with it a lot at work and I'm getting pretty good at working things.

Here's a couple videos with me blending animations from simulation.

http://media.putfile.com/Animation-Blend
http://media.putfile.com/Animation-Blend-2

You'll notice the guy is grey at the start - that's an animation. Then the animation stops when he gets hit (he gets colored in) and then I blended the simulation into a jump landing that was in the program. I swapped out which animation it was blending to (2nd vid) for a display on how easy this is to use.

EDIT: wtf? when did we get new titles?

[Asuka]

Ill download it, dunno when ill play around with it tho. I have a lot on my hands right now.

Looks like something thats going to improve gaming a lot. I can imagine F.E.A.R with this...wow.

[AmishSlayer]

My newest creation :D A guy kicking a fat guy off a high landing and then running, jumping then stomping the fat guy as he's on the ground.

It took a good couple hours at work but I like it.

http://media.putfile.com/KickStomp

It was tough with the limited animations that are available but it still gets the idea across.

[VictimOfScience]

My newest creation :D A guy kicking a fat guy off a high landing and then running, jumping then stomping the fat guy as he's on the ground.

It took a good couple hours at work but I like it.

http://media.putfile.com/KickStomp

It was tough with the limited animations that are available but it still gets the idea across.
Nice! It looks sort of like he trips when he goes off the ledge to stomp the guy though. I got a nice chuckle out of it, even if it wasn't intentional. :D

I just can't wait to see what the devs come up with in terms of this new Indy game. I really liked Emperor's Tomb (bought it for $3 last year) and Ihope it just improves on that! E3 would be a great place to see some of this in action! [/wishful thinking]

[AmishSlayer]

Nice! It looks sort of like he trips when he goes off the ledge to stomp the guy though. I got a nice chuckle out of it, even if it wasn't intentional. :D

I just can't wait to see what the devs come up with in terms of this new Indy game. I really liked Emperor's Tomb (bought it for $3 last year) and Ihope it just improves on that! E3 would be a great place to see some of this in action! [/wishful thinking]

That was the transition I just couldn't get right. I had a basic running animation at my disposal and a "Jump and Dive" behavior to work with. The Jump and Dive part he gets nothing to kick off because he's running at such a forward angle.

Some of it can be pretty tricky but it gives me something to do at work :P

[mysteryman]

looking forward to this game:bounce:

[CookieCuttah]

I wish Oblivion had done this, limp physics are fun, but this sounds even better.