NaturalMotion: Next Gen animation middleware

[Acert93]

Movie: http://media.xbox360.ign.com/articles/651/651000/vids_1.html

Link: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/651/651000p1.html

Yet the even the most exhaustive motion capturing yields awkward transitions between animations, such as the noticeable transition between when a player in Madden is running and when they're being tackled. NaturalMotion's upcoming run-time technology, which will be used in some next generation titles, will give control of a how a game character reacts to environmental stresses over to the processor. In other words, how a game character reacts to various forces, weights, and speeds will all be calculated and adjusted automatically and tailored to that specific situation.

As Mr. Reil put it, "Once the technology is in the game for the run-time engine every tackle, for example, you would produce is unique, it's your tackle. Nobody else has done this before and nobody else will ever do that. The same is true for other gameplay elements. Games for the first time become unique. The way you play a game, what happens, really is something that you create since it has not been pre-produced. I think that is a huge shift in overall gameplay and the way games will look on the next generation."

The gameplay oppurtunities for this are insane. e.g. On top of fluidity and interactivity this could all your player to get stronger as he gets older he can handle a sword better and more quickly (e.g. a 'growing' Link), injuries in sports games affect how one moves, picking up a big gun in a game naturally affects how you move and fall, and so forth. It could be a very cool concept for a fighting game as well.

I really like how they have linked AI to animation. Sadly I don't think we will see this in Madden. Very risky, and without competition it is a HUGE risk not really worth the effort probably.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Very nice, but this system was raised here some months back

 

[Acert93]

Front page IGN news... oh well, no intent to repost. Although if I were to be so devilish to try to sneak reposts onto the forum to further my own agendas this would be one of the technologies I would not feel ashamed plugging. UE3 needs a pluggin for this

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Wait wait, what? Did I miss something? This is endorphine, not naturalmotion. Or is NaturalMotion the name of the company? Anyway, Shifty's right. THis is OOOOOLD. I mean even G4TV talked about almost 2-3 weeks ago. IGN's apparently behind G4 now.

By the way, an example of this in use is the opening CG to Tekken 5, for those curious to see how nice this is thing is.

 

[Josh378]

Yea, I started that post here....canned animations....yay or nay?

-Josh378

 

[mistan]

That's not to say NaturalMotion isn't working with any game developers. Currently, Sony Europe, Sony America, Namco, Koei, Konami and Tigar Hare Studios are all NaturalMotion customers.

The potential of Metal Gear Solid 4's animation has improved dramatically in my eyes.
On the fly animations for the soldiers being scared and trying to run away but tripping would be nice, and we will still be able to notice the fear.
I hope alot of Sony games use this.(not a f-a-n-boy comment, because microsoft has yet to sign up well at least ign didnt report it) Madden really needs to use this prog.

No, this is new tech.

Some titles that have used their endorphin development kits, which is a highly efficient animation development tool and not the same thing as the next-gen run-time technology, include The Getaway: Black Monday and Tekken 5. Despite NaturalMotion's relative newness on the market, they've managed to get involved with some major players in video game development.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Oh, it's new is it? I would guess NaturalMotion is designed more for realtime scenarios, whereas Endorphin was AFAIK developed for offline rendering. I shall have to look into it, and apologise to Acert

 

[mistan]

I dont think that their next gen middleware has a name yet...
The videos and pics are from endorphin though

 

[Acert93]

(not a ****** comment, because microsoft has yet to sign up well at least ign didnt report it) Madden really needs to use this prog..

Ahh but it was front page xbox360.ign.com news IGN has all kinds of issues with how they store information, but the fact it was front page last night indicates it may have some relevance. Or not. Until something is officially announced (so far no one has confirmed a game using it) it would be hasty.

But like you I hope a TON of games use this--or similar--technology. I would gladly stick with HL2/FarCry graphics if it meant better animation. GOW, MGS4, KZ2, etc... all look great, but what most frequently breaks the immersion is NOT the graphics but the animation--at least for me. That is one reason I loved HL2. The immersion was rarely broken, comparatively.

Btw, I am thinking SPEs would be really good at animation. So toss an SPE at animation, a couple for physics, a couple more for lighting/shadowing, and I think you have a pretty good aid to RSX.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

From an interview I don't rightly recall where... it was in video form, but there might be a transcript... a Sony exec of somesort, again sorry it was a long time ago, made a comment about wanting to use endorphine extensively in their next titles. So there's hope that we will see good use of it. Oh, I think it was SCEE exec, but I'm not sure.

 

[Frank]

It would probably look much better, but you and the NPC's will be restricted to the same canned moves. For you, there is no way to actually control the huge spectrum of new moves possible, while the developers couldn't debug the storyline if just anything can happen.

But it surely is a very nice step to much more realistic computer generated environments.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The idea is that you WOULDN'T use the same canned moves. Rather then using motion captured animations you'd simulate human motion through a skeletal system. eg. You have a skeleton and apply a force to their arm, it swings. Put a short-sword in the hand and it swings differently. Attach a huge claymore and again it reacts differently. The gameplay becomes intrinsically combined with the animation system. The improvements would be fanastic if they can pull this off, as the article describes in the football example. Such a system could be as open or closed as the game allows thus avoiding complications of say NPCs or scripted areas getting mangled

 

[Frank]

Absolutely. But think about it. For example, you want the sword to actually hit the opponent. And let's say you're standing on a hillside, with the guy you fight above or below you. Would the terrain advantage negate the skill level? And you would have to swing totally different. Who is going to control that? You and your friends together (one for the legs, one for the sword, etc), or an AI, like with auto-aiming joypad users?

And you couldn't script the NPC's anymore. Because you cannot anticipate the situation if there are too many possible outcomes. Although it is very good for persistant-world rpg's, where there is no fixed storyline.

But for starters, I would settle for people on a hillside actually touching the ground with both feet.

 

[mistan]

DiGuru, you actually do have control over what happens.
They provided an example in the videos. Say you tackle an enemy over a rail and onto a hill.
You can have a predetermined animation for the tackle and the landing. You can set it up so you have the tackle animation to play until you both hit the rail but then have the Natural Motion tech take over the rolling and body movements and limb flopping. You dont stop there though, you have the predetermined animation part take back over on the landing. You might want one guy to land on his feet and one to land on his belly. But the point is that it provides different movements and flops for the same predetermined animations. So you can still control what happens with constraints. I hope that explains it or maybe your talking about something completely diff. Could you provide another contradiction?

Here's the video:
http://www.naturalmotion.com/files/Sig_05_Reel_Web_Large.avi
Its during that reel. When the guys are solid gray thats the predetermined animation and when its blue/white thats NaturalMotion. (Im pretty sure about that, not 100%)

And watch the car example too.

 

[mckmas8808]

From an interview I don't rightly recall where... it was in video form, but there might be a transcript... a Sony exec of somesort, again sorry it was a long time ago, made a comment about wanting to use endorphine extensively in their next titles. So there's hope that we will see good use of it. Oh, I think it was SCEE exec, but I'm not sure.

Baby I'm going to hold you down right now. I really really think you are talking about the natural motion website if I'm correct. And yes it was a Sony dev, but not a SCEE one yet a SCEA one. He name is Jason Parks. Listen closely to what he says. It is very very very important so please listen carefully. I think people can learn alot from how games like KZ could be made. We can get a great idea on what Hideo means when he talks about Natural Movement in MGS4.

Without further ado hear is the interview. (sorry if old)

Jason Parks interview (SCEA)
http://naturalmotion.com/files/sig2004testimonialsS.mpg

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Saw that when it was originally linked. However, just be wary. There's always lots of amazing experimental techs out there that don't make it big for one reason or another. These companies have research departments that come up with amazing ideas but they can't practically be employed. Though I'm hoping for big things, what actually makes it into PS3 etc. might be quite cut down simply due to lack of resources. Or maybe it's limited to two character games like tennis and Tekken. Don't look at the experimental vids though and think 'hey, they're doing it already and can use it already'. How the engine performs in a console game is as yet undetermined - might be buggy as hell!

 

[mckmas8808]

Saw that when it was originally linked. However, just be wary. There's always lots of amazing experimental techs out there that don't make it big for one reason or another. These companies have research departments that come up with amazing ideas but they can't practically be employed. Though I'm hoping for big things, what actually makes it into PS3 etc. might be quite cut down simply due to lack of resources. Or maybe it's limited to two character games like tennis and Tekken. Don't look at the experimental vids though and think 'hey, they're doing it already and can use it already'. How the engine performs in a console game is as yet undetermined - might be buggy as hell!

The guy from SCEA sound to me like he was using it. As in the present form. I don't know but I wish Sony could buy them out just to make sure that devs use it.