Better animations?

[metalcraze 290]

Here's a suggestion on how to make stepover animation faster and yet keep it the same

I've noticed that despite the soldier having his left leg to the front in the first frame of this animation - he still begins stepping over with that left leg. And as a result when he finishes the step with right leg he must make another step with the left leg to return to the default stance.

This is completely unnecessary. Much logical will be to begin with right leg (since the left one is closest to the obstacle) and finish with the left one which also returns the soldier to that default stance.

This will easily speed up stepping over 30-50% and still remain realistic - while eliminating the 3rd step.

[armitagewb 10]

I must apologize beforehand to the BIS devs for my whining - the animations are obviously products of hard work, and a lot of thought was given into how they behave. While certainly more playable, I have issues with the immersion break created by the unrealistic animations, and think they need a ton of work.

The problem is that the animations aren't "bad," per se - they would look quite good in a military shooter such as COD or BF3. The problem is that the animations don't really fit into the paradigm of what made OFP and Arma great. I've never been in combat, but I have been on combat training exercises and was an avid paintballer years ago. What I loved about the OFP/Arma series was that the animations were the closest a game had gotten to making you "feel" the body of your soldier and the natural movement of a combat environment. I feel that the new animations have betrayed this strength of the series and have instead opted for a cheap imitation of BF3 - seriously, why is there this obsession in the animations with keeping the gun in the sights of the player? It seems like an attempt to make Arma feel more familiar to shooter players, but it makes movement feel incredibly wooden and unrealistic. As mentioned earlier in this thread, there are also ridiculous problems of footsteps not sinking with movement, leading to AI ice skating. I think all that needed to be improved from the previous Arma animations was increased finesse, control, and the ability to break animations to end frustrating weapon changes and the like. Instead, it feels to have been replaced with something more akin to a traditional shooter.

To me, it's more than cosmetic - they defeat not only the strength of Arma's movement, but the strength of Arma's immersion, for the new animations constantly remind you that you are playing a game when you see soldiers strafing like UT2004 characters.

To get into finer detail of why exactly the animations feel so strange, I think it has to a large part to do with the decision to disconnect the torso entirely from the soldier's legs. This was perhaps done to enforce your view to constantly have a gun in it, making it similar to other popular shooters. This is why, for example, the vault animations looks so strange - his upper body is intently focused on aiming and keeping his gun in sight, but his legs are trying to vault. Who vaults a fence like that in real life? This problem is similarly visible is the strafe animation. Have you ever tried to strafe like the soldiers in Arma3? It's near impossible, and I'm a pretty athletic and flexible guy. To turn your legs sideways and run while having your torso perfectly facing another direction while holding a weapon is simply ridiculous and betrays the realism of the series - done seemingly to insist the weapon be in the player's view.

It's possible to have great CQB animations and realistic animations - why not have the default run animation have the gun be down, and then keep it up for tactical pace? In its current state, I find the first and third-person animations immersion breaking and ugly.

Edited May 14, 2013 by armitagewb

[charlie-k 10]

On new DEV build.

I think sprint with sidearm animation looks weired.

Try this.

With RMB, ready your sidearm.

then move forward with sprint.

when you sprint, two arms with sidearm almost block your sight.

Why does it changed?

[Smurf 12]

On new DEV build.

I think sprint with sidearm animation looks weired.

Try this.

With RMB, ready your sidearm.

then move forward with sprint.

when you sprint, two arms with sidearm almost block your sight.

Why does it changed?

That is because now you can remain in "aiming down sights" (ADS) mode while reloading or moving. This type of weird stuff also happens with UGL.

IMO, its nice with weapons with ironsights (pistol in "normal" movement is really nice) or holographic sights, anything else and running should remain as before.

@armitagewb: A2 felt more natural and RL like? Really?

I don't share the same vision, those animations\movements were the best improvement of this new game and has nothing to do with COD\BF. There is anything in-game you can't do? Those movements where MoCaped with real people!

Edited May 14, 2013 by Smurf

[chortles 263]

Insofar as infantry movement animations, I've honestly never felt that the AI wasn't ice skating around, so in that respect Arma 3 is no worse (if also no better).

As for keeping the gun within the player's non-free-look field of view... armitagewb, you do realize that Arma 3 is basically the only shooter out there with four standing/crouching movement speeds? If comparing to most shooters in that respect, Arma 3 differs in how run (which in most shooters would be sprint) is default movement speed, combat pace is toggled and walk is manually toggled instead of being forced by and only occurring when aiming down the sights... frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it's currently only "out of sight" in sprint as a way to visually tell it apart from run, since when running the weapon is in low ready and you have to stop (go stationary), go into tactical pace or go into walk for the character to shoulder the weapon.

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if the initial positive public reception for the infantry movement/weapon handling changes are also part of why we've got this -- the animations lead dev Vespa was already talking about making mouse acceleration and smoothing (that is, looking/aiming) "fps standard" -- plus reviewers were noticing the changes away from Arma 2 as early as E3 2012 and users/players in the early days of the public alpha release were complimenting the hell out of the changes... frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if early videos such as TDM videos or Dslyecxi's "

" before the public alpha release were part of reinforcing this wave of public "oh crap Arma isn't nearly as clunky anymore it's actually cool now!"... I can still remember a guy trying out the public alpha (or alpha lite) Vehicles showcase and his "Oooh, it plays a lot more like a shooter now!"

(As for why the third-person view has no separate "aiming through the sight" animation, whereas even COD does, I believe a dev said that that'd take up a heckuva lot of animation resources... TL;DR: engine limitation.)

EDIT: Arma 3 is also the only shooter I'm aware of that has "sprint-prone".

Edited May 15, 2013 by Chortles

[Mirudes 1]

AT animations are a mess.

Binos animations are a mess.

Combine both and you have a trainwreck.

Add a pistol in the middle and the party is complete.

There is anything in-game you can't do? Those movements where MoCaped with real people!

I don't know exactly, how long BIS have the capability to motion capture animations from actors, but I know for sure that the excuse "IT'S AN ALPHA!" can not be taken for this.

On one hand you confess, that all of the AT-animations in combination with every other equipment like binoculars, pistol and primary weapon are totally messed up. In combination with every stance.

Even sometimes you end up in a endless animation loop, when you get shot. Since the alpha of Operation Flashpoint, btw. :o

And on the other side you claim that BIS uses their own Motion Capture Studio and thus makes errors impossible. I don't get it.

AT soldiers animations: odd behaviour

[Smurf 12]

I don't know exactly, how long BIS have the capability to motion capture animations from actors, but I know for sure that the excuse "IT'S AN ALPHA!" can not be taken for this.

On one hand you confess, that all of the AT-animations in combination with every other equipment like binoculars, pistol and primary weapon are totally messed up. In combination with every stance.

Even sometimes you end up in a endless animation loop, when you get shot. Since the alpha of Operation Flashpoint, btw. :o

And on the other side you claim that BIS uses their own Motion Capture Studio and thus makes errors impossible. I don't get it.

AT soldiers animations: odd behaviour

One thing is transitions and missing animations, quote #1;

Other thing are the animations in-game, quote #2.

Is really that hard to understand?