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Rockstar to Use NaturalMotion Technology in Upcoming Games

Posted by Zonk on Wed Feb 28, 2007 07:49 PM
from the feeling-euphoric dept.
Entertainment Games
CVG reports that future Rockstar titles will feature NaturalMotion technologies in an effort to make the games more realistic. Specifically, Rockstar will be licensing the 'Euphoria' engine, an advanced physics and substance simulation model already in use in several upcoming LucasArts titles. There's no word in the article on which games will feature the technology, but this certainly seems like something that would fit well with the sandbox style games of the GTA series. " Employed in the recently revealed The Force Unleashed, euphoria simulates the human body and motor nervous system. It means that in-game characters are fully interactive and always react differently to external influences, ultimately leading to a more life-like experience for the player. Specific reference to how euphoria 'uses the processing power of PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360' to simluate the human body and motor nervous system was made in the announcement. While Rockstar is yet to name games using euphoria, its integration of the tech is well advanced."
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Rockstar to Use NaturalMotion Technology in Upcoming Games 25 Comments More /

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  • good news! (Score:5, Funny)

    by User 956 (568564) on Wednesday February 28 2007, @07:53PM (#18188422) Homepage
    CVG reports that future Rockstar titles will feature NaturalMotion technologies in an effort to make the games more realistic.

    That's great news. Because peoples' main complaint with RockStar games is that the movements aren't realistic enough.

    • Re:good news! (Score:5, Funny)

      by mobby_6kl (668092) on Wednesday February 28 2007, @07:58PM (#18188478)
      I always thought that the hookers reacted unrealistically to being hit with a baseball bat. Hopefully they'll use this new tech in GTA IV so I can experience it as the real thing.

    • Re:good news! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chris Burke (6130) on Wednesday February 28 2007, @08:30PM (#18188868) Homepage
      I assumed at first that they were referring to the control interface and using the Sixaxis controller's motion sensing ability. Which on the one hand would be good, get a more immersive experience by bludgeoning hookers. But then I remembered that this is Rockstar, the guys who came up with the control scheme in GTA, so "natural" would be the last term applied to it. They'd have you jerking the controller up and down to shoot your weapon while on foot, but you'd have to spin it around your head to do the same thing while driving, unless it was a motorcycle and then spinning it around your head would make you pop wheelies.
      • Well, the technology is more about not having to create body animations for every action, than a control scheme. It is basicly like ragdoll physics, except instead of being completly limp the bodies can actually physically move around.

    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      by imboboage0 (876812)
      Disclaimer: I did not RTFA. =)

      If this is saying we're going to have real-time physics in the GTA series, I'm all for it. I honestly love GTA and I think something like this would make it all the better, all Hot Coffee jokes aside. Although they are pretty funny.
  • Will it fix the problems with that? Ya I know I'm asking a lot.
    • You just don't realize how much you are asking. Perfect collision detection in 3D is extremely difficult. Now that's not to say it can't be improved, but perfection is rather far away.

  • Sweet. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2007, @07:57PM (#18188468)
    GTA5 sex unlocks + naturalmotion = instant puberty.

  • finally (Score:4, Funny)

    by mastershake_phd (1050150) on Wednesday February 28 2007, @07:59PM (#18188492) Homepage
    Now I can see what its really like to run someone ever with a SUV. Jack Thompsons going to love this.
    • Seriously, who uses an SUV? Get a frickin' BUS or something!
      • Slow-accelerating vehicles are a bad choice when running from the cops. I've been arrested many times in my tank this way. I avoid the military stuff, and a standard cop runs up and gets me right after I run over a few trucks.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by ampathee (682788)
          In a tank, cops can't touch you if you just keep moving. They pretty much explode on contact - great fun.
        • You can look backwards and fire to accelerate. As long as you keep firing, the recoil will ensure that you outrun any land-based police vehicle.

  • Well.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ardor (673957) on Wednesday February 28 2007, @09:10PM (#18189290)
    I just hope this guy [animats.com] does not kill off NaturalMotion with his overly broad patents.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LiquidCoooled (634315)
      They really have got a broad patent.
      The first one has a mistake:

      Anti-slip control for a legged robot and realisitc simulation of a legged creature [uspto.gov]

      does this make it invalid?

      from here: http://animats.com/topics/patents.html [animats.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Animats (122034)

      NaturalMotion isn't quite as dynamic as it may appear. It's not doing a full physical simulation most of the time. There's still considerable use of motion capture data and kinematics. Blended approaches like that are the norm in animation; full control of a humanoid character with real physics is still not that great. There's continual progress, though. Today, we have the MIPS and many of the algorithms. When I was first working on this, we had 20 MIPS, and things were rather slow. We could get the

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ardor (673957)
        Ok, now I don't want to troll, flame, or otherwise. I am just curious. You don't seem to be a patent troll, you seem to be actually working on that thing. So why do you write something as offensive as "If it falls, it has joints, it looks right, and it works right, it's probably covered by our patent." ? Doesn't that sound like a patent troll's line? Like a complete blocking of this area?

  • About Time (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MBCook (132727) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday February 28 2007, @09:22PM (#18189408) Homepage

    It's about time people start using this kind of stuff. I know it's very CPU intensive so it is only now becoming more viable in a game. Still I would prefer this kind of technology and DreamCast or even PS1 quality graphics over the stuff the 360 and PS3 can make without this technology. I've seen videos and game-play of the recent Madden games and while they often look stunning, they still have these errors. Feet "pop" or "slide" as the mo-cap doesn't match up to exactly what's happening.

    While this can be a little blip in these games, in other games (say an adventure game) it can be very obvious that these problems are going on and somewhat distracting.

    All I ask from "next-gen" is foot-planting. They can be more than just more poly's and shiny effects.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by cno3 (197688)
      EA claims that they're working on foot planting and other realism-enhancing animations [joystiq.com]. I think there's videos online from their E3 presentation, and while it looks good, I'm still less than convinced of their ability to pull it all off in-game.
  • can't wait to see the next hot coffee mod
  • I think that this is one of the first good examples of some of the things that we are going to see coming out of the power of the next generation systems. While for a game like GTA, more realistic physical simulation of the body may not be integral to the gameplay, the development of this technology can lead to new and interesting sorts of gameplay. Imagine this technology used in a fighting game for more realistic combat simulation.

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