Matrix Games Forums

I've been playing around with the panther animation. Tell me what you think. You will need DIVX to watch [:D]

Looks good John.  One thing though... I really find the death animations to be generally overdone... isn't the hatch flying open and the entire thing turning black enough?  Less is more in the animation world, everything doesn't need ot be so dramatic.
 
Bil

Everything turning black is a K thing. There is not much I can do about it. The destroyed.dds gets whacked on at death.

In terms of animation - I actually agree with you. The reality is sometimes it was hard to tell if a tank had been knocked out. Occasionally with an ammunition hit there was genuine fireworks but I am sure most kills were pretty mundane.

However as a first time modeller experimenting with the 'WOW' factor the truth was that I couldn't help myself. I promise if I do any other vehicles in the future I will tone it down a bit [:)] As I drag a selection box around my hard worked keyframes I find it very hard to hit delete [;)]

ORIGINAL: Bil H

Less is more in the animation world, everything doesn't need ot be so dramatic.

Bil

I disagree completly with regards to the death animations. They are actually pretty low detailed compared to other games out there.

If it where for me one track would come of, the tank would run a few more meters while doing a slight turn on the remaining track with a nerve shattering screeching sound. That would be "overdone" [;)]

"Less is more" does not generally apply to game animations. At least not to such basic "one time" object animations as we speak of here. If we would speak of character animations I would agree that less is sometimes more.

ORIGINAL: Laryngoscope
In terms of animation - I actually agree with you. The reality is sometimes it was hard to tell if a tank had been knocked out. Occasionally with an ammunition hit there was genuine fireworks but I am sure most kills were pretty mundane.

While a simple hole in the superstructure withouth any fireworks would be more realistic, it was a design goal to have it visible to the player that a vehicle actually got destroyed.

Dramatic kills, like turret flying off, the thing burning like a bonfire where pretty rare. The problem is that in a game you need to abstract this to make it visible for the player.

It's also a needed trade of between "boring truth" and "flash bang" expectations in entertainment, and after all a game is also entertainment. Yes, even a wargame [;)]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

I disagree completly with regards to the death animations. They are actually pretty low detailed compared to other games out there.

If it where for me one track would come of, the tank would run a few more meters while doing a slight turn on the remaining track with a nerve shattering screeching sound. That would be "overdone" [;)]

"Less is more" does not generally apply to game animations. At least not to such basic "one time" object animations as we speak of here. If we would speak of character animations I would agree that less is sometimes more.

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Dramatic kills, like turret flying off, the thing burning like a bonfire where pretty rare. The problem is that in a game you need to abstract this to make it visible for the player.

Sure, if the huge fireball, loud explosion, and plume of black smoke wasn't enough to tell you something catastrophic happened, I suppose you need some other queue [8|]

[:'(]

Well, in the long run I definitely want to add more variation to the death animations. I'd like to see knocked out tanks that don't necessarily explode (we do have abandoned tanks, which don't get the destroyed texture, so it's already in there to a degree).

However, that's as time allows and for the initial release, going with the bigger bangs made sense. As far as I'm concerned, doing a single animation right now, it may as well be the most destructive one that's possible in order to match up with the others. We can always add toned-down variants in the future.

Regards,

- Erik

Erik, talking about variations, is it possible to create mixed Platoons?  I mean platoons using the same vehicle type, but slightly different models?  You could then have tanks with different numbers, different death animations, TC at different heights for variety, etc... of course you would put more strain on the video card, but nothing is free, eh?
 
Bil

ORIGINAL: Bil H

Erik, talking about variations, is it possible to create mixed Platoons? I mean platoons using the same vehicle type, but slightly different models? You could then have tanks with different numbers, different death animations, TC at different heights for variety, etc... of course you would put more strain on the video card, but nothing is free, eh?

Bil

That is what I actually had on our list of eyecandy features for the initial release. It didn't make it but is on the list for the first complete sequel.

Basically it was discussed to have the engine pick random texture variations and a decal system (for turret numbers, nationla insigna and divisional insignia) was planned too. Like mentioned earlier it is one of the feature points for the first full sequel.


For the upcoming addon the scenario designer will be able to pick single specific textures for a scenario. We allready have the texture variants for that in the pipe [;)]

ORIGINAL: Bil H

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

I disagree completly with regards to the death animations. They are actually pretty low detailed compared to other games out there.

If it where for me one track would come of, the tank would run a few more meters while doing a slight turn on the remaining track with a nerve shattering screeching sound. That would be "overdone" [;)]

"Less is more" does not generally apply to game animations. At least not to such basic "one time" object animations as we speak of here. If we would speak of character animations I would agree that less is sometimes more.

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Dramatic kills, like turret flying off, the thing burning like a bonfire where pretty rare. The problem is that in a game you need to abstract this to make it visible for the player.

Sure, if the huge fireball, loud explosion, and plume of black smoke wasn't enough to tell you something catastrophic happened, I suppose you need some other queue [8|]

[:'(]

You are welcome to provide a mod that is more to your liking.

Latest move/death cycle

I think it is great what you have done. Not that my opinion has much weight here , but I really do think it is awesome and will bring a lot to the game.
And I for one am a sucker for the WoW factor, it just makes the game have more heart.

Looks great John, will fit right in with the animations already in the game.  Love the aerial whipping about.. probably wouldn't have it fly off with the death though.. but that's me  [;)]

Looks cool, thanks for the track part [;)]

Great work there.
Not an expert at this kind of thing. Looking forward to playing the game. See if I can knock out a panther or two