Procedural Animation in an MMO?

[Garthilk]

Is it even possible? After watching the 30 minute spore preview I've got a bit of a handle of what procedural animation looks like. I wonder, is this type of technology going to make it's way into MMO's? Maybe even WAR? I definately could see emotes being worked procedurally, in fact I'd love to see this.

Am I alone on this?

[parabola]

I dont think WAR will be. It is interesting though.

[CrusherDestroyer]

It is a very interesting concept and may be doable in the future, but it seems that procedural animation is still in its infancy. Spore may open the floodgates for this type of animation once it is released, and we may see more and more games use procedural animations (maybe even mmos).

[Ahriman]

Garthilk can you please link the 30 min spore video? I am unfamiliar with this topic.

[parabola]

Garthilk can you please link the 30 min spore video? I am unfamiliar with this topic.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&q=spore


Im not Garthilk but here ya go!

[JonesyMan]

That is the craziest thing I have learned in the last couple of months. Nifty idea though, if it could be incorporated into an MMO.
Nice find Garthilk.

[Ahriman]

Thanks Parabola!

After watching the Vid, I can't wait to see WAR come out. I havn't played computer games in a long time.

[parabola]

No problem. I aim to please :D

[Ahriman]

:D Garthilk is definitely not alone on this. I would love to see procedural animation in WAR because of the customization and new material that could be shared.

[Denkim]

I suppose it could be done. One of the major plus sides for procedural animation is that it would all but get rid of clipping, since each piece of the game has its own set physics and whatnot. You could create realism never seen before in cloth and armor of the characters. And the characters movement would be real to life. When you turned, you character wouldnt just rotate, your first foot would actually change direction and the back foot would stay planted where it was while the body rotated toward the new direction.

The only problem I see here is that it would have to be animated client side. You just cant send that much information through a server. That means that each player would see a somewhat different version of the animation. This isnt a major problem though, because as it is, there is allready about a 1-2 second lag between players anyway.

That and I dread to think of what kind of beastly computer it would take to run a MMO with that kind of technology and not lag like a maniac.

I fully expect this technology to be in just about every single player game in a couple years.

[parabola]

I think there is a reason that Spore is not a full multiplayer game.

[Ahriman]

Is the reason Spore isn't a full multiplayer game because it would be too hard to manage 10 thousand worlds that are populated by other players playing real time strategy?

[parabola]

Is the reason Spore isn't a full multiplayer game because it would be too hard to manage 10 thousand worlds that are populated by other players playing real time strategy?


That is the technical reason of it, although it is possible if youre being highly funded ie: Blizzard.

The other reason is the gameplay in Spore. Everyone is considered a God and can do anything to anyone they want. For instance, imagine that it was a full on multiplayer game and that everything technical didn't matter. You could invade planets , abduct every alien, and then when they have nothing left destroy their city and finally destroy their planet. Thus ruining the game for them and making them start over their hard work creating an alien they like.

[Ahriman]

/ponders the thought of mass genocide in MMO and WAR

[Maerius]

Regardless, you are not going to see procedural animation in WAR - the fact is, I'm sure the game engine technology is already in place for the most part so making a change like this is just not feasible at this point. Maybe WAR2...

[spirit]

I think there is a reason that Spore is not a full multiplayer game.

But the reasons Spore is inot a multiplayer game have nothing to do with it's procedural animation- they are to do with the fact taht at some point in the game you get a weapon the actually instantly destroys planets.

Multiplayer games can be made to make use of procedural animation very easily, and I fully expect them to in a few years time. It has the benefit of saving manpower and animators time AND of looking a hell of a lot better.

Spore is the future.

[parabola]

Actually from what I understand parts of Elder Scrolls IV are animated procedurally.

I have no doubt thought hat there will be multiplayer games with procedural animation. I agree its the future, but i think the technology is still in its early stage.

[Denkim]

I agree with Maerius here.

Although we may see proceedural animation in a few singleplayer games in the near future, it most defenently wont be in WAR. I doubt there will be any MMOs that use Procedural animation for a very long time because we are just finally coming into the peak of the current animation and graphics techniques. We havent even seen a MMO that fully utilizes the full potential of those current techniques. So why would a company want to go out on a limb when there is no demand for that type of stuff?

However, I really like to think about what you could do with enviroments of games with this kind of technology...

[darkblade_the_Great]

That looks awsome, but I seriously don't think we are going to see that in WAR, or any other MMO for a while.