Bad reload animations?

[Flubadoo 10]

I've played the game for a while now, but it seems that the reload animations on guns are virtually non-existent. I just kind of see the gun moving around the screen. Is it just me?

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Yeah they're pretty horrendous. These games are very hard to animate properly.

[maddogx 13]

Yeah, the reload animations are pretty abstract. It's basically "magic handwaving", if you look closely. Highly unlikely that the devs will ever improve this though, as it's really just a minor visual issue.

[Flubadoo 10]

Yeah they're pretty horrendous. These games are very hard to animate properly.

Why?! I mean, I animate for CS:S.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Why?! I mean, I animate for CS:S.

Well, try it for ArmA2 then. ;)

[Flubadoo 10]

Well, try it for ArmA2 then. ;)

Lol. Well I guess it's not that annoying for some people, but since I animate, when I'm watching myself reload I'm just saying lol to myself.

[TimRiceSE 10]

in CS youre animating just a pair of hands and forearms in first person view. in ArmA there is no separate first person view, i.e. youre animating something that is linked to the whole body.

[SteveJA 12]

Yeah there are a few animations that may lack err eye candy, but i think bis has focused on the gameplay features, as ultimatly this is what sells the game. And with a game this HUGE bis needed all the time they could get :)

[maddogx 13]

Yeah there are a few animations that may lack err eye candy, but i think bis has focused on the gameplay features, as ultimatly this is what sells the game. And with a game this HUGE bis needed all the time they could get :)

^^ This.

It would of course be great if BIS had the time, money and manpower to completely polish their games in every way... proper reload anims, flawless voice acting, fully animated get in/out and position switching for vehicles etc. But that's not going to happen any time soon, unless you want BIS to whore themselves out to some big publisher like Consolemuppets or (*shudder*) Ubisoft.

Noooo, no no. Not for eye candy.

[dunedain 48]

Well even if it's true it would be a huge ammount of work to create different realistic animations for all weapons, I really hope they may upgrade that part of their technology in the future giving the community more possibilities. :rolleyes:

I mean reload animations for weapon and bolt action rifle weren't uglier 9 years ago when I bought Ofp and even back then I found this kind of awkward.

[maddogx 13]

I really hope they may upgrade that part of their technology in the future giving the community more possibilities. :rolleyes:

Yeah, that would be nice. But when you consider how much work it would be in total to make all those anims, I'm not sure even the larger mod teams would be willing to take it on. There are, after all, more important things to do than make some animations look nice and pwitty. ;)

[cossack8559 10]

Would be nice to have proper reload animations (bolt animations etc) but as i say about most games i prefer if they put gameplay before graphics. :)

[DaveP 66]

The problem is that you have to synchronise the animation of two separate entities which are set up completely differently

The hand movements are all done through .RTMs (shoot me if I forgot the name), which are most certainly the animator's world in terms of creation and principles, however weapon animations (magazines, bolts etc) have to be done through axis animations in Oxygen, which is much more technical and complex to implement than a (not so) simple .rtm

Some addons have got the magazine sliding out, and this is pretty damn good for the system in use. Back in OFP days literally nothing on the gun moved; we've come a long way.

Edited July 2, 2010 by DaveP

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Indeed, the reload anims are pretty detailed for a game like ArmA2. In fact, I can't think of any games that have more detailed anims than ArmA2 does in 3rd person, and since the 1st person view in ArmA2 is a real first person perspective (got your whole body, animated the same as it is from 3rd person perspective), I'd say that makes ArmA2 beat all other games.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Big Dawg KS

[Flubadoo 10]

in CS youre animating just a pair of hands and forearms in first person view. in ArmA there is no separate first person view, i.e. youre animating something that is linked to the whole body.

Ohshit thats 3rd person and 1st person animations combined. Thats like... 2nd person, which i doubt exists, but that would be haaaaarrrd.

Well I wish at least MG reload times were longer, but then again, gameplay is good, therefore game is good.:cool:

[CameronMcDonald 146]

SLX mod has a PBO which increases your MG reload times. :)

[twisted 127]

reloading is a big part of shooting. especially the time and complexity of the reload. that would add to the game.

[DaveP 66]

Ohshit thats 3rd person and 1st person animations combined. Thats like... 2nd person, which i doubt exists, but that would be haaaaarrrd.

Well I wish at least MG reload times were longer, but then again, gameplay is good, therefore game is good.:cool:

Not to go off-topic, but a game already coined the concept of 2nd person shooter: You have to control your character through the eyes of your adversaries. Tricky.

1st Person = I

2nd Person = You

3rd Person = Him/Her

[dunedain 48]

In fact, I can't think of any games that have more detailed anims than ArmA2 does in 3rd person

Well in RO you can also see the bolt animation in third person and it looks great, it's really nice for immersion.

Edited July 2, 2010 by dunedain

[TimRiceSE 10]

Ohshit thats 3rd person and 1st person animations combined. Thats like... 2nd person, which i doubt exists, but that would be haaaaarrrd.

Well I wish at least MG reload times were longer, but then again, gameplay is good, therefore game is good.:cool:

lol ^^

but the other guy explained it a bit better, basically the "hands" and the "weapon" arent really the same "model" like in CS:S - and indeed every other FPS that i can think of off the top of my head. Its animating two separate things that should "play" together which makes it complex.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Well in RO you can also see the bolt animation in third person and it looks great, and is really nice for immersion.

Well, it wouldn't be entirely impossible to implement animations with this kind of detail in ArmA2. Using the right animation controllers on the weapons, very detailed (and weapon-specific) soldier animations, and carefully syncing them up, you could probably achieve that kind of detail. The problem is that it's a huge amount of work to make it look nice.

[Heatseeker 0]

I think i've discussed the diference betwean BIS games and unreal based games and their (fake) fpv models and animations for atleast 2 generations of gamers now...

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Still, it would be nice to see that bolt on the lee-enfield animated, and an appropriate hand gesture to play between shots. :butbut:

[Nephris1 10]

I already opened a thread somewhere here due that point.

Coz it also annoys me that u even cant see just any reload anim in MP, so yes, that is a point that really needs to take care imho!

[st_dux 26]

Even games that have separate first-person and third-person perspectives (i.e., all other FPS games) usually manage to have better third-person reload animations (the animation you see others using) than the utter crap that has been in the ArmA series since OFP v. 1.0.

The excuses that fans try to make for this are astounding, but the fact of the matter is that OFP used an outdated animation system when it came out in 2001, and ArmA II:OA is still using the same core system, which is archaic at this point. It would be very hard to have good-looking reload animations in ArmA II, but that's because the animation system is crap and needs to be overhauled completely.