Animation System still rigid?

[pokletu 0]

Watching the new trailer, I can't pick out anything that would suggest that they now have animation channels in their models(run while reloading, for instance; or stand up from prone binoculars in one motion, he he )

Looks like they added MORE animations, like the hand-signals; and stepping over the fence. That won't replace smooth movement, though.

They're going down a bad avenue to have the engine look so nice 'n' shiny, now, if they haven't adressed this.

IMHO, this was THE gamebreaker for ARMA(not that there weren't other nails in it's coffin).

BIS, adress your animation systems!

[EricM 0]

They have separate animations for lower body and upper torso, enabling reload while walking for instance.

[sanctuary 19]

I am sure at 99,99% that i saw on one of the videos from several month ago (before the last batch of them), a soldier crouch/side walking after using a rifle or a grenade launcher and reloading in the same time.

The 0,01% left could be me not having had a good enough sleep before watching the video.

I hope the AI will be able to move in diagonal and to the side, as so far the AI has only been capable to move forward or backward , and used rotation on itself when it needed to change direction.

[MehMan 0]

I recall that too, the video clearly showed the AI moving sideways and reloading the grenade launcher. I'm not sure but I think they had XM-8s in that video...

[eenter 0]

The animations are improved, you can "break" them now and reload while running.

[trini scourge 1]

This was shown at GC '08, according to Marek Spanel there are lots of improvements made to the animation system (In one of the videos he talks about Sanctuary's concerns; The AI is able to sidestep, move diagonally, lean etc.)

Here is a video showing movement while reloading:

Look at the related videos for more improvements.

[sk3pt 0]

Does this mean we can go crouch while walking slowly, without having to abruptly stop, and without exiting "sights mode" while doing so.

This is something I never really got over, and it still sort of bothers me, but maybe I'm the only one having this "issue".

Good news non-the-less.

This could easily turn into the greatest game ever !

[mr.g-c 6]

I agree to sk3pt. Armas Animations are needing way more Freedom indeed.

It should be NO Problem to go (and switch between) into all available stances with ANY selected Weapon or Gear/Whatever.

It should be possible to raise and/or lower default "crouch" stance (maybe via mouse-wheel?) for at least a little bit....

What is in RL if you crouch behind a tiny wall which is just a little bit heigher than you could aim over it?

Do you stand up entirley and expose yourself or do you raise your body a little bit and support yourself at the wall for better aiming?

The latter one must be possible!

There is countless more Animation-Wise and Freedom-Wise which should be really addressed for a "Infantry Simulator".

Nothing which they showed on the GC could really convince me that the animations got "major" overhauled.

Indeed they have a few very good tweaks like that reloading on the move (which was really about time) and other stuff, but the rest looks just like Arma1... very stiff, clumsy, inaccessible and absolutely freedom-less.

Jesus when i play some rounds of GTA-IV (i bought it few days ago) and i see how fluid and real-life like the animations are looking there.... it would be a dream to have anything roughly similar in Arma2 (i'm not suggesting euphoria or ragdoll stuff here) - but i won't hold my breath for it unfortunately.

Also, what they confirmed in the Interview and what saddens me, is that there will be only one general reload-animation again for the entire weapons.

The reason they said was the potential "size"....

I don't know... OFP2 will be (most likely) better that are i guess.

Hopefully it will be at least possible to mod that more easy than it is now, so that realism mods could tweak the reload time for MGs like PK and M240.

[sparks50 0]

Something that has been on my mind while chasing insurgents in Opteryx Afghan village with all its chest high walls is a "look over" key for the iron sight mode, that could make the character stretch about 15cm higher(pun not intended) when you press it in iron sight mode in standing or crouch stance. The key could be Shift, or something else.

The problem with fluid stance is that it requires a fluid control, such as mousewheel or mouseaxis.

ArmA uses the mouse wheel for the actionmenu.

Raven shield used mouseaxis which did not work for the simple reason that you need it for aiming at all times.

I do really hope the motions have been smoothed up a bit, and reloading while moving is a good first step to that. I think rigid controls is the number one issue general people complain about ArmA, right after bugs.

For me there is no control system in any fps that is better than the one in ArmA, despite the rigidness. I actually feel like Im controlling a human being and it has a lot of sweet features that it is easy to take for granted.

But theres definitely a potential in making the movements smoother, without having to sacrifice realism.

[Pulverizer 1]

Quote[/b] ]fluid stance

Hells yeah. That was teh win. Too bad it didn't become a standard in FPSes. Animations in ArmA are quite a bit more complicated (with free head movement, free aim) than Raven Shield though.

Quote[/b] ]The problem with fluid stance is that it requires a fluid control, such as mousewheel or mouseaxis.

Not really. Could be used with simple keys too. Just make it respond slow enough to tapping the keys to keep small adjustements possible.

[Col.Flanders 0]

The problem with fluid stance is that it requires a fluid control, such as mousewheel or mouseaxis.

ArmA uses the mouse wheel for the actionmenu.

Well if they could add that as a new axis for TrackIR (ie. lean up = stretch, crouch = crouch), I'd be getting all worked up. Possibly not great for the back in prolonged crouching situations though. I'm sure the standard crouch key would overcome that. I agree it would be nice to have an analogue control of stretch/crouch.

[max power 21]

Something that has been on my mind while chasing insurgents in Opteryx Afghan village with all its chest high walls is a "look over" key for the iron sight mode, that could make the character stretch about 15cm higher(pun not intended) when you press it in iron sight mode in standing or crouch stance. The key could be Shift, or something else.

You can sort of do that by lowering your weapon. It makes you taller, and you can see over the white walls.

[dmakatra 1]

IIRC, Vietcong had a very good solution to this problem. While crouching behind cover and pressing the 'aim down the sight'-button, the game calculated the height of the obstacle in front of you and automatically had you change your stance accordingly.

[SHWiiNG 0]

Personally, i think its a shame that i have to reload my M249 like it was a M16A2.

Additionally, it takes the whole weapon handling concept to a very low level, for example.

Clearing jams - Reload animation

Fixing a ACOG sight - Reload animation

Flip up sights for M203 - Reload animation

Thanks to other games i have grown used to the concept of highly detailed weapon handling animations, OFP2 (despite the Patriotic style) has them a bit of an incentive there i think.

[celery 8]

IIRC, Vietcong had a very good solution to this problem. While crouching behind cover and pressing the 'aim down the sight'-button, the game calculated the height of the obstacle in front of you and automatically had you change your stance accordingly.

That's actually true. A very simple and neat feature that few games have. Call of Duty 4 has something like that as well.