New game tech promises new experiences for GTA IV
Category: Industry, Posted: 03/17/2008 at 12:46PM CDT by Frank Ling, Editorial Director
A new game technology named Euphoria by NaturalMotion promises a new gaming experience never before seen in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Rockstar Games president Sam Houser said:
"This is how we always wanted GTA to be, but it simply wasn't possible until now. And some of the technology that's gone into this new game, compared to what we had before, it's shocking."
What Houser is referring to is how Euphoria will allow gamers to see unique key animations and NPC actions based upon their decisions and movement within the game. This is called procedure role animation technology.
"I'll steal someone's car and some fist fight's kicked off, and then suddenly he'll be chasing me through the street, and I'll get in position - like, ‘I'm not running from you any more; I'm going to f*cking have it with you now, mate' - and just as I'm about to crack him, a car comes flying through the shops, runs him over, and he goes flying.
"These tiny little moments happen more per square inch - or per square pixel or whatever - than I ever dreamt possible, and it's the organic nature of all the elements that have come together, and particularly the procedural animation via the NaturalMotion content, that allow the experience to be unique. There really are lots of ways to play these missions."
While Grand Theft Auto IV will have all of the open ended feeling of previous titles, the inclusion of Euphoria technology will make the game feel more spontaneous when going up against situations that have several solutions. Do you shoot it out with the bad guys, or do you run away, for instance. And even if you run away, your enemies may try to attack you if you're within range. The possiblilites are enticing.
Will Euphoria really bring euphoria to GTA IV? We'll all see in just a few more weeks.
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It really doesn't sound any different from the past titles. Perhaps it's hard to put into words, or he's just bad at describing it?
Last I checked Lucasarts developed Euphoria first.
so if people just keep hitting people, this is even more unrealistic. i liked gta for the lil bit of realism they kept in there, youd see a few car accidents here and there, but not much.
Euphoria was first licensed by Lucas not developed.
This is very different than the old GTA games. I have followed NaturalMotion's technology for a while now and it is not AI, it is the way the characters react. Such as if you push someone instead of the programmers having to create an animation the Euphoria software creates a live animation every time, so no two people will loose their balance the same way.
Check out the demo animation on Euphoria's web site
http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm
It's sort of a mix of keyframe animation and physics from what I've seen.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bc4wfc3BGl0
Go watch that video for a sample of what DMS technology is capable of. None of those tackles are scripted animations, they are calculated on the fly.
This technology is going to turn game animation and reactive behaviors on their head.
Also, I think it was IGN that had an article that does a great job of describing some of the events and possibilities of Euphoria that they witnessed in a play test, it's worth checking out, if they're not blowing things out of proportion or over imagining the events, then this tech is beyond radical for this kind of game.
Hence, why my first GTA activity will be to go and try and shove someone in front of a car....