Fix the animations - bring the game to life

[pete10 0]

To my mind the single greatest thing holding this game back is the robotic animations of characters.

One of the main things that allows humans to recognise other humans as humans is the way they move.

after all these years, arma's characters still move like machines. Platoons move like schools of fish and rotate while standing in one spot without moving a muscle.

Please BIS, spend some money recording actual human movements in a motion capture studio.

Surely if low budget start ups like ground branch can afford proper motion capture so can Bohemia.

Keep up the good work!

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Please BIS, spend some money recording actual human movements in a motion capture studio.

Surely if low budget start ups like ground branch can afford proper motion capture so can Bohemia.

Erm, BIS own a mo-cap studio:

http://pro.bistudio.com/services/motion-capture

http://www.arma3.com/news/interview-with-zdenek-vespalec-animation-lead

Edited February 28, 2014 by da12thMonkey

[Ophelian 10]

Well the player animations are quite realistic and beautifiul, i think its just the way that the AI sends commands to the units, and how those units interpret and execute the movements. I find the AI quite realistic, maybe a bit clunky, but seing them use stances behind cover (like leaning) i find it quite impressive. I think of games with AI units, and when you look at them in spectator mod you clearly see that its a computer making the decisions, making the movements short and sharp, because its just a computer crunching numbers... Could be wrong also.

[jgbtl292 0]

animations are good , only what he need is a little finetuning in the start and end speed ( the robotic chance in the stances example) and a bit more animations for rotation. and better adapted weapons. ( actual you look in the stock not in the optic^^ ) all the rifles are to high. only in one stance is this good . for all the other stances bis need a adjustment from the rifle. little tunes for a more real and quality look more immersion and more fluid feeling ;)

.

Edited February 28, 2014 by JgBtl292

[roshnak 41]

This is a thing:

http://dev.arma3.com/oprep-refactoring-animations

But, yeah, a couple of the things the OP is commenting on aren't really related to animations.

[Belbo 462]

I guess some part of the problem derives from the transitions between different animations. If AI in SAFE mode hears a shot nearby they firstly pull up the rifle and start to move after that. If the AI would move the rifle upwards while starting to sprint for cover, it would probably feel less uncanny.

[j4you 10]

animations are good , only what he need is a little finetuning in the start and end speed ( the robotic chance in the stances example) and a bit more animations for rotation. and better adapted weapons. ( actual you look in the stock not in the optic^^ ) all the rifles are to high. only in one stance is this good . for all the other stances bis need a adjustment from the rifle. little tunes for a more real and quality look more immersion and more fluid feeling ;)

.

Luckily, you said then the animations are good ... and if was bad what else difect you did mention?....LOL

Edited March 3, 2014 by j4you

[pete10 0]

This is a thing:

http://dev.arma3.com/oprep-refactoring-animations

But, yeah, a couple of the things the OP is commenting on aren't really related to animations.

I don't know it is a thing. The way I read this update they are improving the way the current animations work. Not improving the animations themselves.

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

Most animations are pretty solid and really improved when compared to arma2.

For me it's the lack of variation, every animation should have an alternate version with rifle, with sidearm and without weapon equipped.

Most of the "talking" animations look like the actor took too many sleeping pills when being captured.

There's no emotion in most animations, there's not one single animation that makes me think: "Wow, that guy must be really <insert emotion here>", they're all way too calm and relaxed or too much planned/acted out to put it in other words.

Then there's the lack of certain must-have animations like handcuffed on the ground, a working surrender animation where the surrendered unit can still walk etc., basically all stuff you'd expect in a military sandbox game. (Or are these animations actually in the game and I just can't find them?)

It's still a big improvement from arma2 and there's more things to come.

[DancZer 65]

Maybe there are planned animations which BIS wants to add into the game as they are adding sounds(check out the dev branch change log).

[pete10 0]

Most animations are pretty solid and really improved when compared to arma2.

For me it's the lack of variation, every animation should have an alternate version with rifle, with sidearm and without weapon equipped.

Most of the "talking" animations look like the actor took too many sleeping pills when being captured.

There's no emotion in most animations, there's not one single animation that makes me think: "Wow, that guy must be really <insert emotion here>", they're all way too calm and relaxed or too much planned/acted out to put it in other words.

Then there's the lack of certain must-have animations like handcuffed on the ground, a working surrender animation where the surrendered unit can still walk etc., basically all stuff you'd expect in a military sandbox game. (Or are these animations actually in the game and I just can't find them?)

It's still a big improvement from arma2 and there's more things to come.

This is exactly my point. Because all actors perform the exact same animations they look robotic. If there was just some variations in how soldiers carry a rifle when patrolling, or how they walk or run it would go a long way to making the whole experience more real.

[Gutsnav 13]

There are like 3 or 4 "Relaxed" walking animations. If BIS made each soldier have a randomized one of these animations, it would look so much better than it does now (No more Skynet on patrol :P)

[bwc153 10]

Even having a +5%, -5% on animation speed would do wonders for making groups of soldiers performing the same animation seem less robotic.

[adanteh 58]

Personally I think the animations are great. The s system that does all the linking together not so much. I think everyone that tried scripting certain animations playing realized that it's a bitch to do and it's all quite clunky. Hopefully the work mentioned in the OPREP improves those things, but from what I understand it's AI focused. We really need more gestures rather then full body animations. Would make things so much smoother

Sent from my MI 2 using Tapatalk

[bravo93 37]

To the guys saying the animations are good...Have you ever seen a guy walking like they do in Arma 3? They look like penguins ;)

They pretty much nailed the walking animation in Arma 2. It was certainly a lot better than this A3 waddle. And then there's the quick walk animation...that looks like you know when you really need a poo and you cant hold it much longer

I applaud BI for trying new stuff to bring the franchise forward but it needs a LOT of work. The lighting systems good but it looks really not great when you're in the back of a helicopter and perfectly straight light beam is systematically moving up the helicopter. It's hard to explain but it doesn't look good.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Bravo93

[jgbtl292 0]

then dude walk and run with a full battle vest and a splinter protection vest + plattecarier ( maybe with traumaprotection ) and knee pats and helmet - ;) your movement and feeling is more than this from a turtle than from a cat !! when you this say, then you have not one day spent with this all on your body !

and outstretched arms are normal after minutes with all this packeted. that they do not grind on the equipment all the time !! when you have bags for smoke grenade or other stuff on your side !! and fast run you can forgot with a big bag pack with 120 L to and maybe a MG or the ammo boxes for the mg or a AT launcher, you are so heavy then you can made no large steps ;)

my heaviest weight alone clothing and equipment which + / - 95kg that's not funny ;) 40kg weight what dudes can read - is bullshit ;) with full equipment ^^

move normally - no chance ^^ and yes i have see and feel it.

and then you have a problem you need different animation for light middle and heavy equipment . different animations with or without armour plates , with or without splinter protection and no plates, with or without bag pack ( and a light or a heavy version) , At/AA launchers , machine guns and and and ... you see you need more then the 6 times at work ;) sure gradually a updates with new animation - then have you many cost more in the time where the game is 3-4 years old and the most sells are already made. who should pay for it ?

Edited March 11, 2014 by JgBtl292

[DJankovic 401]

Bring some real soldiers in studio..LOL leave Rocket to work on Dayz

[Nexerius 10]

I cant really enjoy the animations at all. Maybe only if i play single player. On multiplayer i mostly get <25 FPS, so it looks pretty horrible for me. Animations does look good most of the time when i have a decent, stable FPS. If not, it looks very bad.

[marcai 1]

I'm always impressed watching Project Reality's animation sets. When I play Arma I don't really think about how my character moves that much, which is a great example of how much better A3 is to A2 where I constantly noticed it. The ainations aren't overly fanciful; they're functional and do what I want, but when I go onto other FPS games or when I get the urge to watch Project Reality videos they really seem to stand out and make me realise how much better they can get in a game with a similar style, scale and purpose with just a few small tweaks.

They really give your movements weight and a less 'robotic' feel. A3 has definitely taken huge and promising steps ahead of its predecessors- and even has stuff to teach other shooters with its glorious stance system-, but it could do with going back and looking at the basics which we see in every firefight and just adding some more humanity to the actions. Deploying weapons would be a wonderful example (which ties into that oft-requested featuers of weapons resting that we won't go into in this thread!), as would part-animated ragdoll death animations that are seen in Red Orchestra or Left4Dead, where there is a brief 0-3 second animation reaction to the blow which killed it before dropping into ragdoll- which also seems to respond to nearby scenery as a character slumps against walls holding wounds.

Of course, we can't have the perfect game, and we can't incorporate *every* good feature from every other FPS to have existed prior to today, but there are so many tweaks here and there which would make me love this game even more that you just have to wishlist occasionally ;)

[babylonjoke 22]

I think would be nice have the same body movment of when you have "aiming deadzone" , but keeping the 1st person view like if you havn't it. From outside the movments would looks much better. Just check it out.

[pete10 0]

I'm always impressed watching Project Reality's animation sets. When I play Arma I don't really think about how my character moves that much, which is a great example of how much better A3 is to A2 where I constantly noticed it. The ainations aren't overly fanciful; they're functional and do what I want, but when I go onto other FPS games or when I get the urge to watch Project Reality videos they really seem to stand out and make me realise how much better they can get in a game with a similar style, scale and purpose with just a few small tweaks.

They really give your movements weight and a less 'robotic' feel. A3 has definitely taken huge and promising steps ahead of its predecessors- and even has stuff to teach other shooters with its glorious stance system-, but it could do with going back and looking at the basics which we see in every firefight and just adding some more humanity to the actions. Deploying weapons would be a wonderful example (which ties into that oft-requested featuers of weapons resting that we won't go into in this thread!), as would part-animated ragdoll death animations that are seen in Red Orchestra or Left4Dead, where there is a brief 0-3 second animation reaction to the blow which killed it before dropping into ragdoll- which also seems to respond to nearby scenery as a character slumps against walls holding wounds.

Of course, we can't have the perfect game, and we can't incorporate *every* good feature from every other FPS to have existed prior to today, but there are so many tweaks here and there which would make me love this game even more that you just have to wishlist occasionally ;)

Well said. But I think the key is VARIETY.

Nothing saps reality for me like seeing a squad moving down a road in exactly the same stance at the same pace.

The AI sometimes look like they are line dancing.

Edited March 17, 2014 by pete10

[timmo1982 10]

lol varity.

[Gattobuono 10]

To the guys saying the animations are good...Have you ever seen a guy walking like they do in Arma 3? They look like penguins ;)

They pretty much nailed the walking animation in Arma 2. It was certainly a lot better than this A3 waddle. And then there's the quick walk animation...that looks like you know when you really need a poo and you cant hold it much longer

Or a 2 year old with a very full nappy... these 'waddling' animations are embarrassingly bad. Compare this:

with this:

and this:

... spot the difference?

This is OFP DR from 2009, check out the reloading animation:

... and if you've never played OFP DR watch the rest of the video, this campaign is really hard, but great fun to play as coop with up to 3 friends ...

[Opticalsnare 12]

This is OFP DR from 2009, check out the reloading animation:

... and if you've never played OFP DR watch the rest of the video, this campaign is really hard, but great fun to play as coop with up to 3 friends ...

Oaaah faking ere we go, heavy flak vest check, full flak face mask check, ok bunker down and prepare for attack..

[Gattobuono 10]

Oaaah faking ere we go, heavy flak vest check, full flak face mask check, ok bunker down and prepare for attack..

... care to explain what you're on about?