An Interesting Char Anim Locomotion System

[dissaifer 10]

Fair enough Sith, I played the demo and I can see what you are saying at times the controls feel a little slow at times. I don't know the effects in 3rd person to first, because I haven't coded it, and I don't believe this is the be all end all solution, there would probably need a bit of work to get it to feel right.

I think the difference is between slow with some responsiveness and slow with what feels like no responsiveness. When an animation is executed it feels like you are trapped until the animation is done and this is when you feel a little helpless.

With say running, because I can't think of a better example, if you are running forward you have to go from running to stopped (which is abrupt), then wait for 'pick up the gun' animation, and then you can shoot.

Say with this loco system, you have momentum as you are running forward. As the user picks their finger off the running key, the player should have learned that it is going to take a few steps to slow down, but the game should know that the gun should be going up to firing position. So, when the player has actually reached stopped, the gun is already in firing position.

This actually solves a few problems - the first is why I actually posted. The transition from animation to animation is usually abrupt, i.e. the running to stopped, things like this make the game feel robotic or clunky because the character goes from a full out run to just hitting an invisible wall, which isn't very much like real life. The second, is getting the gun ready to shoot as you slow down, this actually got me killed quite a few times. The last, which wasn't why I posted it, is because it is easier to learn momentum in a game because we deal with it every day then trying to learn how long it will take to go from a run to stop to gun ready. One is physics based, the other is time based.

[nkenny 1051]

I believe that the most common issue experienced with the Arma2 animations isn't necessarily their mechanical implementation (which has improved in some ways since flashpoint). Rather the complaints revolve around how the actual animations look and feel. Particularly obvious with heavier weapons which would behave quite differently in more realistic circumstances. In addition to that few animations are interpolated/soft which mean one often has to remain rigidly immobile while performing painfully slow action-- particularly when under fire.

The clunky -feel- of the animations compounded by a terrifyingly finicky user interface give a poor rapport between player and game avatar.

Examples:

- Drawing sidearms

- The ballerina step-over-animation

- Gravity defying "slow movement while crouched" animation

- To a certain extent-- getting into and out of vehicles.

- Poor Weapon stances high ready, low ready, vs safe/not ready/slung*

*Indeed this is one of the areas operation flashpoint did better.

i) The weapon was held "at the ready" in the default jogging/tactical movement speed.

ii) Moving slowly while crouched had the actor actually stand to a high-ready position. (not the gravity defying thing we've got now)

iii) Weapon 'feel' in operation flashpoint behaved very differently from what we have now. Turning speed/point of aim was actually affected by weapon dexterity. Less of a animation issue-- and more a gameplay one.

iv) There was less screen-wobble. Arguably a personal opinion-- but I'm of the Quake generation :P

All in all the potential is already there in Arma2.

-k

[konrad1 10]

this is pretty cool also can ruin and shoot http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/index.html#bootcamp

[Flash Thunder 10]

I've actually done a graduation project in Unity using this exact locomotion system. I'm no animator myself, but here's a few things I noticed:

• Yes, the system does greatly reduce the number of required animations for a full movement set. Especially the number of transition animations can be significantly reduced (or left out entirely for simple animation sets).
  
• Yes, the system does allow for relatively smooth interpolation, going from one animation state to the next.
  
• No, the system does not necessarily provide the instant movement feedback people here seem to expect. Some level of "clunkiness" often remains.
  

Give the implementation a try in this minigame.

As you'll see, similar to the locomotion system used in GTA IV and RDR, your character has some degree of inertia when e.g. shifting direction. In third person games like these, this isn't much of a problem due to the visual feedback you get on said inertia. But if you apply it to a first person perspective, the results could be in many ways similar to what people dislike in ArmA's anims right now: seemingly "sticky" animation switches.

It's not really my field of work, so I don't want to go too far into the technicalities. But the current discussion does seem to steer towards the "woah, awesome solution to all our problems in one package!" mindset, and I figured some personal experiences might make for a more balanced discussion ;)

Wow Awesome post Sith this makes alot of sense.

Would have to see if we could get a First person view for GTA 4 and compare it to arma 2. :)