Plasticine face and Goblin run

[Vakka]

In regards to the face in that picture, that is just one scene where the lighting wasn't too good on the soldiers face. Since the lighting changes as the players move around the level, they look better/worse depending on where you stand in the level. All of the faces now are 3d scans of real people's faces. You can't get any more real than that. But as has been mentioned with the Heroes system the faces will change over time, and look much cleaner when the player is a raw recruit.

In regards to the running, we motion captured a professional mocap actor (we used the same studio used for Avatar, and one of the mocap actors from Avatar). He ran the same way German soldiers were trained to run. And if you look at WWII photos of German soldiers in combat, they are almost ALWAYS running with their gun in one hand like that. So sorry if you don't like the way it looks, but its historically accurate, and realistic.

Yeah, its a good feature, but more variety would be better. As i saw in the trailer, there is only one runing, walking etc. animation in the game for each side, so all russian soldier are running in the same way, and all the germans too. In my opinion it does not look so good. So it would be great to see at least 2-3 different animations for each movement (running, walking, crouching, even weapon reloading, with the same speed, just with slightly different movements). My most loved feature in Empire: Total War that all of the units (thousands!) are holding their weapons in a different way, what looks way more netural and realistic. Dear Tripwire, pls make more animations! It will be worth!

And sorry for my english.

 

[SheepDip]

No. Not at all. You got me very wrong indeed. Just automatic non-player-dependable variation. Game just automaticly decides what "sprint animation" to use, and it has none whatsoever effects in gameplay. It

 

[dogbadger]

It would be good if you could code diversity in movement animation by a random factor affecting the arc of componant bones, and slightly affect gait/cadence. A very subtle effect might give a subconciously more convincing protrail of a group moving.
In general i mean - i wouldn't expect to see that in hos or other title on the horizon.

The 2 distinctive run types are a v good gamplay idea - remember you can't always zoom in to get a realistic view sometimes needed to recognise friend or foe, and clear-cut variety of run style would render this well thought out aid useless.

 

[Mormegil]

No. Not at all. You got me very wrong indeed. Just automatic non-player-dependable variation. Game just automaticly decides what "sprint animation" to use, and it has none whatsoever effects in gameplay. It

 

[Stahlgeist]

In regards to the running, we motion captured a professional mocap actor (we used the same studio used for Avatar, and one of the mocap actors from Avatar). He ran the same way German soldiers were trained to run. And if you look at WWII photos of German soldiers in combat, they are almost ALWAYS running with their gun in one hand like that. So sorry if you don't like the way it looks, but its historically accurate, and realistic.

Personally, I think part of the problem is that they always seem to be carrying the rifle one-handed, regardless of their pace. It's likely that, depending on your pace and posture, you will carry the rifle differently. Also, one has to take into account the battlefield situation. I highly doubt German soldiers ran through occupied buildings with their rifles in one hand - in such a situation, they probably would've held them with both hands in order to more quickly raise the rifle to firing position.
I guess one thing TW could hypothetically do is have it so that the pace players will likely move at in a given situation would dictate the animation their soldier has. But that is a bit convoluted, since you would have to assume that a player would sprint in the open, when we know that some players like to just dive to the ground and take potshots at better protected defenders.

In all seriousness, though, I think that the way the rifle is held should change based on the speed the player is moving, to try and better reflect the circumstances. If the player is moving more cautiously, then the rifle would be shown as held two-handed, and if they're moving more recklessly (Such as sprinting out in the open), they would hold it with one hand to the side.
The animation would be quite a bit of work, I imagine, especially with transitions in posture, but you could also incorporate this into the gameplay by having players running with the rifle in one hand being a bit slower to raise iron sights. Thus sprinting in the open would be a trade-off: You move more quickly, but you trade reaction time in for it. So, aside from aesthetic value, you could very well use it to add to the gameplay as well.

 

[Major_Day]

If you compare the video from last year ([url]http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-09-red-orchestra/55367?type=flv[/URL]) with the latest ones, you'll see that the Axis soldiers are carrying their weapons in both hands,and the running/sprinting animations look much better than they do now.

:IS2::IS2::IS2::IS2::IS2:

 

[SheepDip]

They look almost identical to the ROOST animations...possible they were just "transplanted" during for alpha build until new anims were ready?

 

[Major_Day]

Probably were,but i think the older animations with the weapon in both hands are more pleasing to the eye.

 

[Sgt.NightFire]

If you compare the video from last year (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-09-red-orchestra/55367?type=flv) with the latest ones, you'll see that the Axis soldiers are carrying their weapons in both hands,and the running/sprinting animations look much better than they do now.

:IS2::IS2::IS2::IS2::IS2:

When you look at this old video, you will notice allot of difference between the one from PAX 2010, it was really a leap forward. So expect the current stage the game is in also to be smoothed out and upgraded... Alpha is really a rough state a game is in, when in beta, you will come in the state of smoothing things out, bug hunting, etc... And btw, the reason why the running looks weird is because till now we only have seen the A.I running, the A.I in Ostfront are pretty much retarded and from what i have seen until now from Heroes, its looking great! People should stop nitpicking every damn little detail!

 

[Carne]

I wouldn't mind seeing two or three different running animations for the Germans.

 

[Sgt.NightFire]

I just saw a video of better gameplay with allot from the remade Danzig map, and the animations looked really smooth, but it could be a little bit faster, it looked a bit to slow, but the A.I soldiers make it look really awkward, the A.I has the strange habit to turn in another direction without the animation stopping...

 

[Mormegil]

I wouldn't mind seeing two or three different running animations for the Germans.

What? And Soviet's can't have multiple run types? Maybe they want to run with the rifle in one hand like the cool kids.

 

[Major_Day]

I just saw a video of better gameplay with allot from the remade Danzig map, and the animations looked really smooth, but it could be a little bit faster, it looked a bit to slow, but the A.I soldiers make it look really awkward, the A.I has the strange habit to turn in another direction without the animation stopping...

"People should stop nitpicking every damn little detail!" lol :IS2:

 

[Dwin]

I highly doubt German soldiers ran through occupied buildings with their rifles in one hand - in such a situation, they probably would've held them with both hands in order to more quickly raise the rifle to firing position.

Well that's a matter of whether or not the player chooses to sprint, not whether the animation is correct.

I do agree though that the motion of the arms when the Germans sprint seem exaggerated. Sure, it's a motion captured animation, but that doesn't discount the possibility that the person being captured was sprinting awkwardly as well.

Individually, it looks fine to me, but seeing groups of Germans sprinting in that same odd manner with their left arms rhythmically pumping looks strange.

Although this is a very minor problem compared to the lack of conversation of momentum for death animations.

About the faces: the problem seems to be luminosity and shadowing. The the skin isn't reflective enough, thus making it appear matte like silicone rubber. The shadows are too harsh when they should be more diffuse, given the lighting conditions (daylight, overcast).

 

[Apos]

In regards to the running, we motion captured a professional mocap actor (we used the same studio used for Avatar, and one of the mocap actors from Avatar). He ran the same way German soldiers were trained to run. And if you look at WWII photos of German soldiers in combat, they are almost ALWAYS running with their gun in one hand like that. So sorry if you don't like the way it looks, but its historically accurate, and realistic.

I've found this video, which really nice represents German soldiers with historical accuracy I believe.

YouTube - Die Wartezeit - Short WW2 Movie ( Waffen SS in World War 2 ) ostfront

2:33-2:38, 3:43-3:50, 4:33-4:42,

After watching this and RO2 gameplay from PAX2010 I've got that feeling the animations aren't enough smooth. I agree both are historical accurate (thats great), but if you used motion capture studio from Avatar, imho it's too rigid and inflexible. However on "No surrender" teaser it looks quite better.

Well, it's still alpha and we base our opinion on shakecams only, we will see what future brings

 

[213]

the face is fine. all ue3 games look like that.

as for running, might want to use a better references. olympic sprinters=/=ww2 soldiers. different techniques, weight distribution, etc

 

[Poerisija]

Individually, it looks fine to me, but seeing groups of Germans sprinting in that same odd manner with their left arms rhythmically pumping looks strange.

Although this is a very minor problem compared to the lack of conversation of momentum for death animations.

).

It looks kinda funny even individually. Arm movement is not natural and the pace looks odd. I'm sure they'll smooth it out.

And death animations looked good, people DO drop like sacks of potatoes when it, they aren't thrown around by bullets nor do they keep moving forward by their own momentum very much. Just my opionion, but I'd say they aren't a problem really.

 

[Xendance]

the face is fine. all ue3 games look like that.

as for running, might want to use a better references. olympic sprinters=/=ww2 soldiers. different techniques, weight distribution, etc

Regarding the faces, "lol no". It entirely depends on the material setup of the character.

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=732232

 

[213]

it depends more on the lighting condition, really. a shot from a render always looks different than in-engine.

there are some recent batch of shots from that map which show faces that look vastly different, suggesting that it really is just a lighting trick. also, for comparison, look at americas army 3's faces. they look quite similar.

a lot of ue3 games use unnatural "fantasy" or "sci-fi" lighting to cover up how poorly the ue3 lighting system illuminates faces...basically.

 

[Dwin]

It looks kinda funny even individually. Arm movement is not natural and the pace looks odd. I'm sure they'll smooth it out.

I think part of the problem is that the players move too slowly given how exaggerated their movements are. You'd think if they are swinging they're arms around that much they'd be running really fast, but the pace appears to be rather slow.

And death animations looked good, people DO drop like sacks of potatoes when it, they aren't thrown around by bullets nor do they keep moving forward by their own momentum very much. Just my opionion, but I'd say they aren't a problem really.

No, the death animations we saw (from the trailer at least) were just wrong. A bullet will not make you stop dead in your tracks. It's simple physics. A bullet does not have enough kinetic energy to completely cancel out your forward momentum as we saw in the trailers. If it did, the shooter would fly backwards after every shot unless he was anchored to something.