Official News 02/27/07

[Jordan]

This is the first official news (we think) for GTA IV in months, RATE THIS TOPIC AS GOOD so it is recognized among all of the speculative threads!

 

 

NaturalMotion, the award-winning developer of 3D animation technology based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), today announced a partnership with Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing label, to integrate NaturalMotion’s revolutionary euphoria engine into upcoming next-generation Rockstar Games titles. Rockstar’s integration of euphoria is well advanced, with today’s announcement following several months of close collaboration between the two companies.

 

Based on NaturalMotion’s DMS technology, euphoria uses the processing power of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to simulate the human body and motor nervous system, thus creating fully interactive game characters that act differently every time. With euphoria, games move away from canned animation, towards a much richer, life-like experience that is unique to the player.

 

“euphoria is about giving people an interactive experience they have never seen before. We now have the processing power to simulate humans, and the possibilities for games are endless,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “In Rockstar, we have found a partner that shares this vision, and is renowned for creating some of the most ground-breaking and immersive games in the industry. We are thrilled and honored to work with a partner of such high caliber, and look forward to helping create amazing titles.”

 

NaturalMotion Ltd. is the first company to create 3D character animation software based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human nervous system. Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotion’s euphoria synthesizes 3D character animation in real time on Playstation® 3, Xbox 360TM and PC, thus creating unique game moments and previously unachievable interactivity.

 

http://www.naturalmotion.com/files/nm_rockstar_2007.pdf

 

Edit: I just got personal confirmation that Rockstar approved this for NaturalMotion to give out, so it is not as if NaturalMotion decided to throw it online without approval, of course...

 

This is obviously going to be used for Grand Theft Auto IV. I have no doubt in my mind.

Edited February 27, 2007 by Jordan

[PyroHazard]

"Euphoria" used for twitching models and RAGE used for textures?

 

Sounds good.

[Canofceleri]

Hell yeah, sounds good. And you could bet the GTA for PS4 will make this euphoria sh*t look old school. Human nervous system replication? Awesome.

[mattymcs]

I totally agree, its bound to be for GTA4. Sounds like it will be very interesting. Its stuff like this thats going to make it look so much better than the last trilogy. I've said all along that the visual advances from the last games to GTA4 is going to be on the same level as the jump form GTA2 to GTA3.

[Greene]

I've heard alot about the Euphoria engine but I never imagined a GTA game would use it. This sounds great.

Good Find

[TonyZimmzy]

This sounds incredible. This is gonna be worth the wait, without a doubt!

[Skyline_man]

I've been refreshing Worthplaying oftenly when this one (news) came up, so i submitted it to PlanetGTA, veru interesting news indeed.

[Stuch]

Cool! Sounds like Rockstar are moving toward improving realism in GTA. Nervous System replication and i'm guessing this stuff includes ragdolls, or maybe even something better?

[ricardomun]

If they are starting this parnership(?) right now then I doubt it'll be on gta,I don't know nothing about game making and all but I think gta is already on a very advanced state for this things to be added unless they were planning a delay since they announced the release date,the truth is out there,in his mothership .

[Helsinki]

 

Thanks, Jordan!

 

Be sure to check out these videos from NaturalMotion. Awesome stuff!

 

EDIT: You might wanna check this video instead, as the ones above are of a different product (Endorphin instead of Euphoria, although they probably use the same engine). Sorry about that.

Edited February 27, 2007 by Helsinki

[Ceritoglu]

Thank you very much for the news, sounds like the next generation of GTA will deserve that title.

 

 

If they are starting this parnership(?) right now then I doubt it'll be on gta

 

I was thinking the same. Maybe they'd already been working together for a considerable amount of the project, but had decided to keep this information private, until now. Hopefully it's the publicity cogs starting to spring into action for the grind ahead in the next few months. I dream of the day I open my inbox to find a message from R* (I'm on the mailing list)...

[TWA]

ah, at last we'll see some really great physics in GTA

 

 

ricardomun:

 

Rockstar’s integration of euphoria is well advanced, with today’s announcement following several months of close collaboration between the two companies.

doesn't this mean that they've been working together for several months?

Edited February 27, 2007 by TWA

[Mike0]

The official PS3 SDK has all sorts of engines for physics, sound and all that anyway. So this can only help. This shows that Rockstar are not sparing any money for their games. Thats only good for the gaming public.

[Adriaan]

If they are starting this parnership(?) right now then I doubt it'll be on gta,I don't know nothing about game making and all but I think gta is already on a very advanced state for this things to be added unless they were planning a delay since they announced the release date,the truth is out there,in his mothership .

According to the press release: "Rockstar’s integration of euphoria is well advanced, with today’s announcement following several months of close collaboration between the two companies. "

 

Normally something such as this will be publicized by both parties - I remember T2's 2K Sports division announcing things such as engine and technologies used for their games. However, without a doubt the marketing campaign for GTA IV is immense and in my opinion I think they'd rather just keep this tight-lipped until the first round of previews comes out that will have a VERY BIG "WOW" factor packed into one.

[Mike0]

So maybe we will have to take care of the character. Of his well being, moral, etc.. I think it will be more into the RPG waters. But one thing is for sure: the animation of the main character and NPCs will be very lifelike and we can count on Rockstar North to put in also their "style". Sound good

[rebalrouser]

So this means we will actually get cops that do stuff and don't pop out of thin air, which is good. And it means that the NPC's will have a life so we can stalk them to our hearts content and that they are tottaly interactable with so that opens up various contacts for missions

[GodBen]

This is a good day for GTA fans, and all human-kind in general. It's looking like as if this truly is going to be an entirely new generation of games which is what all of us had been hoping for.

[MMFF]

Rated good.

 

This is what they are using in the new Star Wars game. I am extremely excited about this. Check out these 3 videos to get an idea of what it should be like. Here

[-/TNT\-]

Excellent news!!!

 

Wow at last a topic with some good excuses for being made. This news is very good! From the quality of the physics I think we can draw conclusions about the whole quality of the game! Maybe more dynamic characters, ragdoll physics and the like are taken as granted, gibs?

[White Flight]

This is GREAT!

 

Oh happy day!.....

[lt_yao]

Omg omg omg! I'm gonna need new pants...

 

This is just another reason to buy a PS3 or Xbox 360 I LOVE YOU

Just imagine all the possabilities(Not sure who's that spelt) creating new movies in GTA and stunts!

[Mike0]

Indiana Jones has euphoria (IGN article)

 

Euphoria official site

 

Video representing Euphoria

 

 

 

euphoria:core

 

 

euphoria:core is NaturalMotion's lightweight DMS engine. euphoria:core runs parallel to the game's animation engine and is called by the game's AI whenever synthesised motion is required instead of canned animation. This enables a non-disruptive integration and scalable use.

 

 

 

 

euphoria:core consist of a small kernel, AI controller modules (for adaptive behaviours) and a rigid dynamics module (for physics). euphoria is physics-engine independent and works with all commercially available engines (as well as proprietary ones).

 

 

 

euphoria:studio

 

euphoria:studio is NaturalMotion's tool chain for creating, testing and debugging euphoria assets (adaptive behaviours and characters). euphoria:studio is a highly modular application and internally runs euphoria:core.

 

 

 

 

Assets produced with euphoria:studio are loaded up at runtime into euphoria:core by the game engine.

 

 

 

Partners

 

euphoria is not middleware. Instead, NaturalMotion has close co-development relationships with publishers and development teams to integrate euphoria into their next-generation titles. This allows clients to hit the ground running and produce euphoria-enabled games within short time frames.

euphoria is currently being integrated into multiple AAA next-generation console and PC titles.

 

Euphoria technical summary (5 pages PDF, check out page 4 for a picture)

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis White Paper

 

Unique Gaming Moments (THIS IS ESSENTIAL READING I THINK)

 

INTERESTING BITS:

 

euphoria is a novel run-time technology for synthesizing interactive animations on nextgeneration

hardware platforms. It is designed to [/b]replace canned animation data in a selective

and non-disruptive way, and is capable of creating unique game moments during game play.

At the heart of euphoria are DMS Behaviours, which are AI motion controllers that adaptively

drive the character’s muscles in response to sensory input. DMS Behaviours are not based on

animation data. Unlike canned-data approaches (such as animation driving a ragdoll), DMS

Behaviours are fully procedural and are capable of creating new experiences for the player.

Furthermore, DMS Behaviours deliver a previously unachievable level of interactive animation

quality.

 

(its basically to reduce the mocap work of Rockstar, they get to do less animating and motion capture and concentrate on othe things IMO)

 

White Paper

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis

 

NaturalMotion Ltd, Oxford, UK

 

March 2005

 

1 Table of Contents

1 Table of Contents...................................................................................................................... 1

2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1

3 Conventional Animation – The Issues................................................................................... 2

3.1 Conventional Asset Generation Does Not Scale Up ............................................................ 2

3.2 Current Animation Assets Are Static ..................................................................................... 2

4 Animation Assets Should Be Generated By the CPU .......................................................... 2

5 Dynamic Motion Synthesis...................................................................................................... 2

6 The Animator as Director......................................................................................................... 3

7 Real-time Performance ........................................................................................................... 3

8 Summary................................................................................................................................... 3

 

2. Introduction

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis is a completely new approach to 3D character animation. Unlike

conventional animation techniques, such as keyframing or motion capture, Dynamic Motion

Synthesis uses the processing power of the CPU to create the character’s movements in realtime.

This is achieved by fully simulating the 3D character, specifically its motor control system

and physical body.

Dynamic Motion Synthesis has two fundamental benefits over conventional techniques:

 

1) it dramatically reduces animation asset production time and costs;

2) it produces fully interactive 3D characters.

 

This short white paper outlines the concept of Dynamic Motion Synthesis. It argues that Dynamic

Motion Synthesis is the only approach capable of economically meeting the animation asset

requirements of both an increasingly demanding vfx industry and the next generation of

electronic entertainment platforms. Moreover, it is the only approach capable of creating truly

interactive characters and gameplay.

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis – White Paper

© NaturalMotion 2004; www.naturalmotion.com 2

 

3 Conventional Animation – The Issues

 

3.1 Conventional Asset Generation Does Not Scale Up

 

Currently, most 3D animation assets are either produced manually via keyframing or

through motion capture.

Both techniques produce canned animation of sufficient quality, but both are also

proving costly and time intensive, requiring game studios and visual effects houses to

spend significant resources on 3D animation.

Recent history suggests that the exponentially increasing capabilities of new hardware

(both console and PC) also gives rise to exponentially increasing volumes of assets.

Therefore, as the three graphs below show, when it comes to developing titles for nextgeneration

hardware it will not be possible to cost-effectively meet the explosion of

asset requirement with current animation techniques.

 

3.2 Current Animation Assets Are Static

 

Currently, most 3D animation is canned. It is produced manually and then played back

in essentially fixed form. As a consequence, current animation assets are not fully

interactive; thus putting major limitations on realism, believability and gameplay. For

example, despite the availability of high-quality motion capture data, it is not possible to

create believable and coherent American football tackles as the infinite number of

possible character interactions cannot be predicted or produced beforehand.

 

4 Animation Assets Should Be Generated By the CPU

 

The solution to the asset problem outlined above is to decouple the asset generation curve

(graph 2) from manual constraints (graph 3), and to couple it with the continuing advances in

computing power per dollar (graph 1). This means that, for upcoming asset requirements to be

met, the CPU must generate the assets. In other words, the very cause for the increased asset

requirements should be used to meet them.

Secondly, if animation assets are synthesised by a sufficiently fast CPU, they need not be static

but can be dynamic and adaptive. This means that animations can be fully interactive and adapt

to user input and a changing or unpredictable environment.

 

5 Dynamic Motion Synthesis

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis is the process of using the CPU to generate animation assets.

With this approach, 3D characters essentially animate themselves and produce movements that

are unique every time.

The use of the term Synthesis implies that the underlying motion processes is fully understood

and replicated in simulation. Dynamic Motion Synthesis does this by accurately simulating the

3D character’s motor nervous system and physical body. When a character moves, rather than

using a rudimentary technology such as inverse kinematics, Dynamic Motion Synthesis

simulates the actual nervous impulses that move the muscle fibres that in turn move the

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis – White Paper

© NaturalMotion 2004; www.naturalmotion.com 3

skeleton. The result is extremely realistic animation produced orders of magnitude quicker than

using conventional techniques.

 

Dynamic Motion Synthesis is R&D intensive because it relies heavily on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

techniques related to those used in robotics. In addition, because the resultant animations are

designed to look life-like, biology-based or biology-inspired controller approaches are employed.

These result in a wide-ranging library of Adaptive Behaviours that the animator can chose from;

Stagger, Jump, Tackle, Arms Protect Head, Catch etc.

 

6 The Animator as Director

 

With Dynamic Motion Synthesis, animators remain in control of the animation process.

However, unlike keyframing, the animator need not create the animation manually. Instead, they

instruct the 3D character to perform a sequence of behaviours. And, unlike motion capture, the

animator does not hand over the asset production process, but remains in charge throughout.

This creative freedom is married with further technology developed by NaturalMotion, such as Active

Posing, which allows animators to set end poses that the character will try and achieve using its own

muscle power. This allows continuity between animation sequences to be easily maintained, and

provides an additional layer of control over Adaptive Behaviours.

 

7 Real-time Performance

 

On current generation PCs, dynamically simulated characters run in real-time, or faster. This means

that canned animation assets can be synthesized on-the-fly, or, we emphasise again, can be produced

orders of magnitude faster than with conventional animation techniques.

In practice, the performance bottleneck of Dynamic Motion Synthesis is the physical simulation of the

body. The AI routines (once developed) take up only a fraction of the total CPU cycles.

 

8 Summary

 

1. Current animation techniques do not scale up to increasing next-generation asset

requirements.

 

2. Current animation assets are canned and not truly interactive, thus causing major limitations

on realism, believability and gameplay.

 

3. The solution is to dynamically synthesise animations using the hardware’s CPU.

 

4. Dynamic Motion Synthesis creates 3D animation in real-time, by using a combination of

artificial intelligence and physical simulation.

 

5. Dynamic Motion Synthesis essentially uses the increasing computing power to meet the

increased asset demand.

 

6. Characters created with Dynamic Motion Synthesis are truly interactive; animations are

adaptive, variable and unique.

 

7. Animators are central to the asset generation process with Dynamic Motion Synthesis. They

instruct the 3D character, rather than manually animating it.

 

8. Dynamic Motion Synthesis runs in real-time on current specification PCs.

Fig. An Adaptive Behaviour: The character actively staggers backwards in response to a force.

 

 

Now get to reading This is interesting stuff and GTA IV will rule.

 

 

PS: More:

 

3.1 euphoria:core

euphoria:core is a lightweight run-time library that provides DMS capability to nextgeneration

games engines. It features:

• compact API

• easy, non-disruptive integration

• support for all major physics engines (So they will probably integrate it into whatever physics engine they are using (propietary, Havok, etc...)

• PS3, Xbox 360, PC targets

 

 

4 INTEGRATION

 

euphoria:core has been designed to be integrated into games engines with minimal disruption.

As such, it does not replace any existing animation system, but instead sits parallel to it.

euphoria:core is called by the game whenever a scene requires interactive animation data (e.g. a

football tackle). It can be dynamically initiated with the animation currently running, in order to

enable a smooth transition. euphoria:core will then synthesize animation data on the fly and

hand back to the animation engine when required or requested.

Edited February 27, 2007 by Mike0

[deathdealer]

ALRIGHT! man, i definetly can't wait for gta4 now.

[gamerzworld]

This might sound noobish but is RAGE dead or does this "euphoria" add onto RAGE?

[topdogkiller]

This is the first official news (we think) for GTA IV in months, RATE IS AS GOOD so it is recognized among all of the speculative threads!

 

 

NaturalMotion, the award-winning developer of 3D animation technology based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), today announced a partnership with Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing label, to integrate NaturalMotion’s revolutionary euphoria engine into upcoming next-generation Rockstar Games titles. Rockstar’s integration of euphoria is well advanced, with today’s announcement following several months of close collaboration between the two companies.

 

Based on NaturalMotion’s DMS technology, euphoria uses the processing power of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to simulate the human body and motor nervous system, thus creating fully interactive game characters that act differently every time. With euphoria, games move away from canned animation, towards a much richer, life-like experience that is unique to the player.

 

“euphoria is about giving people an interactive experience they have never seen before. We now have the processing power to simulate humans, and the possibilities for games are endless,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “In Rockstar, we have found a partner that shares this vision, and is renowned for creating some of the most ground-breaking and immersive games in the industry. We are thrilled and honored to work with a partner of such high caliber, and look forward to helping create amazing titles.”

 

NaturalMotion Ltd. is the first company to create 3D character animation software based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human nervous system. Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotion’s euphoria synthesizes 3D character animation in real time on Playstation® 3, Xbox 360TM and PC, thus creating unique game moments and previously unachievable interactivity.

 

http://www.naturalmotion.com/files/nm_rockstar_2007.pdf

 

Edit: I just got personal confirmation that Rockstar approved this for NaturalMotion to give out, so it is not as if NaturalMotion decided to throw it online without approval, of course...

 

This is obviously going to be used for Grand Theft Auto IV. I have no doubt in my mind.

just heard of it like 10 mins ago, but I really don't know a lot about natural moon, but they seem like they can bring fantastic motions. I wouldn't mind if rockstar decides to use their engine. the software looks really good to me.

[lt_yao]

It'll be combined with RAGE

 

I can allready imagine how fun the game will be but if this was surprising then what else R* have in store for us?

[Mike0]

This might sound noobish but is RAGE dead or does this "euphoria" add onto RAGE?

Its an add-on. It can be added to any engine.Good news ha

 

Its also interesting how Rockstar cooperated with Renderware which were based in Edinburgh if im not mistaken and now they are workin with NaturalMotion which is based in UK. So they can run across the street or take a short drive to the NaturalMotion studios if they need something

 

I guess the best knowledge comes from England

[jorim]

whoa this is some REALLY good sh*t, R* will impress us SO hard!!

[Mike0]

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q: What is Dynamic Motion Synthesis?

A: Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) is NaturalMotion's proprietary technology for synthesising animations on-the-fly. Previously, animation data had to be manually created (through key-framing) or recorded (through motion capture). This is often expensive and laborious, and results in static non-interactive data.

DMS is instead based on a full simulation of the 3D character, including body, muscles and motor nervous system. This creates fully interactive animations that act and react differently every time.

 

Q: What is the difference between endorphin, euphoria and morpheme?

A: endorphin and euphoria are both based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS). This means they are capable of synthesising animation data in real-time. endorphin uses DMS to create canned (or baked) animation data (but much faster than key-framing or mocap). euphoria uses DMS to synthesise animation on-the fly on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Unlike endorphin and euphoria, morpheme is not based on DMS. Instead, it is an advanced animation engine and tool chain to drastically increase the quality of canned animation in-game. morpheme is, however, out-of-the-box prepared to slot in euphoria, and natively supports endorphin animation data.

 

Q: Who are your customers?

A: endorphin is in use at game publishers (e.g. Sony, EA, THQ, Take-2, Namco, Konami), VFX houses (e.g. MPC, Sony Imageworks, Giant Killer Robots) and simulation companies (e.g. Airbus, Northrop Grumman) around the world. euphoria is currently being integrated into several AAA next-generation game titles. So far, we have announced only one of our euphoria partners: LucasArts.

 

Q: Is euphoria middleware?

A: No, euphoria is not middleware. Instead, we have close co-development relationships with our partners, which usually involves NaturalMotion behaviour engineers assigned full-time to a project. This, we have found, allows clients to hit the ground running and create euphoria experiences tailored to the specific title.

 

Q: Is morpheme middleware?

A: Yes, it is. morpheme ships with libraries, the morpheme:connect tool chain, runtime source code, manuals, and demos.

 

Q: How did NaturalMotion start?

A: NaturalMotion spun out of Oxford University, to commercialise research on human and animal movement (carried out by Torsten Reil and Colm Massey in the Zoology Department).

 

Q: What does the NaturalMotion logo stand for?

A: It started out as a wave on an oscillograph, spelling out the letters N and M, and symbolising the output from the first virtual nervous systems we created. The jumping woman was added shortly after to symbolise fluid and natural motion.

 

 

[illspirit]

I seriously doubt this is for GTA4...