Euphoria - A proper Explanation

[Rockstar*Ren]

Although nobody at RockStar first thought it was possible even to incorporate Euphoria with their existing systems.

 

Sorry to be a [email protected] lol but that is kind of lacking in detail lol, so for the who don´t know:

 

When R* first saw Euphoria Mr.Houser wanted it in his game, unfortunately they didn´t think they´d be able to have it in the gampelay sections of the game and only in the cutscenes, but some of the very very clever and brilliant people from thr R* family said they could do it!

 

voila!

[xenorevlis]

Like markymark mentioned: you are, in fact, wrong!

 

Euphoria is an advanced physics simulation system that is used to produce the animation. Also, the bodies are not "limp" all the time. They alternate between ragdoll and on-the-fly transitional animation (this means it can alternate every limb from a limp stage to the desired animation).

 

The simulated physics include a skeleton, muscle, and nervous system that causes reactions to occur within a character and blends motion-capture animation with physical attributes. It is, essentially, an advanced rag doll engine coupled with reactive-AI.

 

EDIT - Thanks for setting that straight Rockstar*Ren. Saved me some writing

Edited April 21, 2008 by xenorevlis

[Wasgood]

Yeah i'm learning Endorphin myself and ive found its real easy to use.

[gta-guru]

heres an even easier explanation, its an animation engine. Its concerned with producing animation that is correct with the given situation, or what it is told to do when something occurs.

 

 

/thread

[Royal55]

I love watching that video BTW, I've seen It many times but It's still a great watch. On topic- I think I see what your saying about Euphoria, It's simply for the characters reaction and not for the environment. The environment Is powered by the engine like havok for example. Good job though I think I finally understand Euphoria In full now.

[dme]

Thank God someone finnally described it to the people who don't know!!!

[Kenny Bones]

 

Like markymark mentioned: you are, in fact, wrong!

 

Euphoria is an advanced physics simulation system that is used to produce the animation. Also, the bodies are not "limp" all the time. They alternate between ragdoll and on-the-fly transitional animation (this means it can alternate every limb from a limp stage to the desired animation).

 

The simulated physics include a skeleton, muscle, and nervous system that causes reactions to occur within a character and blends motion-capture animation with physical attributes. It is, essentially, an advanced rag doll engine coupled with reactive-AI.

 

EDIT - Thanks for setting that straight Rockstar*Ren. Saved me some writing

I'm not wrong. Yes, traditional animation can be used to dictate how the ragdolled bodies move, but it would still be ragdolls

The transistion you mention is just the transition of the controlled animations (premade) and the ones created on the fly. But it's all still ragdolled.

 

Quoted from the FAQ from Natural Motion:

 

Q: Is euphoria a physics engine?

A: No, euphoria is not a physics engine. euphoria simulates the human (or animal) motor nervous system on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC. One can think of it as biology meeting robot control theory. euphoria integrates with a game's existing physics engine, which provides the basic body physics (commonly known as 'ragdoll physics'). euphoria adds life to the dead physics simulation. In short, ragdolls are dead, floppy bodies. euphoria characters instead are alive and adaptive

 

Edit: Premade animations in Euphoria is still fully dynamic and interactive. Just as an example, if a character is doing something, like drinking coffee. That would be a premade animation right? But if you shoot that guy while drinking coffee, the shot would interupt the character and thus the premade animation. But since it's all dynamic, the reaction will altso be dynamic because he was ragdolled from the very beginning. That's why the transitions from the premade animations and the animations created on the fly work so well. If all bodies hadn't been ragdolled from the beginning then this really wouldn't have been possible.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Kenny Bones

[xenorevlis]

Kenny Bones, I understand what you're saying but they are not limp ragdolls all the time. If you've worked with the technology you'd know this.

 

Rockstargames used propriety physics from Natural Motion - Euphoria's own physics engine. The animation system is dynamically altered on-the-fly with skeletal, muscle, and reaction animations BUT it only switches to a ragdoll body when the interactions require it.

Edited April 21, 2008 by xenorevlis

[Kenny Bones]

Kenny Bones, I understand what you're saying but they are not limp ragdolls all the time. If you've worked with the technology you'd know this.

 

Rockstargames used propriety physics from Natural Motion - Euphoria's own physics engine. The animation system is dynamically altered on-the-fly with skeletal, muscle, and reaction animations BUT it only switches to a ragdoll body when the interactions require it.

Oh, but the end result would still be the same right? Then it really doesn't matter does it?

[xenorevlis]

The key thing you're incorrectly saying is its ragdoll from the beggining. The simulated animation model switches to and from a ragdoll from various states.

 

They are not the same in that one uses altered animations based on the environment and only maintain limited physical attributes while the other physically simulates a limp object while still taking into-account their muscle and skeletal limitations.

 

EDIT - I only stress this as I work with game developers and leads and animation artists daily who use technologies like this (as well as Havok, etc.) both for dynamic cut-scenes and gameplay functionality.

Edited April 21, 2008 by xenorevlis

[Kenny Bones]

Ok, didn't know that! Just thought my own theory seemed easy to understand, even for me!

But thanks for clearing that up! Nevertheless, amazing technology!