12 replies to this topic

[FriedIV]

First , I think you guys went too far on the ERPPC. Second, the mechs have lost their massiveness with the current animation. The speed of the steps is too fast. Maybe a revisit of the calculations that represent a step are in order. Well, I will leave you guys to figure it out. But if you want some input you can contact me.

[BFett]

FriedIV, on 09 September 2013 - 01:57 PM, said:

First , I think you guys went too far on the ERPPC. Second, the mechs have lost their massiveness with the current animation. The speed of the steps is too fast. Maybe a revisit of the calculations that represent a step are in order. Well, I will leave you guys to figure it out. But if you want some input you can contact me.

How does this post have to do with cartoon graphics?

[FriedIV]

Why do people ask such questions? If the mech has lost it's massiveness then it begins to look like a little toy marching across a field. This to me, is cartoon graphics. The look and feel of a 30 to 100 ton mech is lost. between the lack of communication directly from pgi and the constant negativity by replies like this , I find myself expecting this whole project to die sadly. MWO is not a first person shooter. MWO is a mech simulator. Mech are huge machines and the mass of said machines does not sound like the high speed rhythm of the current game. They do not go stomp,stomp,stomp. They go , ssttoommpp, ssttoommpp, ect , ect. This is the best I can do with the 26 characters I am allowed to use to describe my impression of the game.

Have any of you game programmers ever been near a D-50 bulldozer when it is started up?? The ground shakes. You can feel the massiveness of the machine. These mechs are supposed to have even more of that awesomeness.

[Girth Fillmore]

So you're not actually talking about the graphics at all, but rather the mech animations and sounds?

I agree that some of the running animations need work, and perhaps they could look into tweaking cockpit shake and engine/footfall/gyro/general machine sounds. Further to that, the lack of (at least partially) destructible maps also soften the experience a bit, I guess.

I dunno, I still feel like a big stompy robot when I play.

[FriedIV]

One thing the physics guys seem to be missing is the idea of a boat coming up on plan. As a boat travels thru the water it has to displace a lot of water to move. But once it reaches a certain speed the boat actually begins to travel much faster because it begins to slide across the surface of the water, rather than pushing even more water. A similar situation exists between a walking person and a running person. Once a person reaches a certain speed they begin to cover more ground than the measured step would otherwise cover. Right now , what I see, are mechs who's steps are being increased but the distance that they cover is not being increased. This is not correct. At some point with a relation to mass a mech will run and not just walk faster. What I said about cartoon animation is directly related to the idea that some mechs will run while some mech / Atlas can never run. Atlas will always walk. But a catapult should run. A stalker probably will not run. And what I see is stalkers walking really fast now. It is just not realistic. It is cartoonish.

[Alcom Isst]

Now I'm imagining what a cel-shaded Atlas would look like.

Edited by Alcom Isst, 10 September 2013 - 04:07 AM.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

I would have to agree with the OP and some others that the current rendition of speed to distance is not right. As well as the environmental size of terrain from inside the Mech is on the general Too big. Ground speed is not rendered correctly when "in the Mech". When the Mech reach's a certain speed, at some point, the gait should change and move to a "run mode" where the legs extend and are clear of the ground for most of the movement. These run modes showed with the cockpit sideways movements but the targeting computer and radical staying centered and stable.

I give you an idea that was done in the "other game" MW LL, there were three modes of travel for any mech that could run at speed.
1. The normal Walk,
(standard search mode and most times normal combat mode.)

2. the Trot,
(which was a rather bouncy ride but mostly both feet were in contact with the ground at all times, and if jump jets were used for a slight boost or to clear an obstacle your speed was not reduced when you made contact with the ground.)
[keep in mind that in this timeline the Mech controls itself and the pilot is there for the balance aspect and speed/direction of its movement. This allows the Mech to "know" when to put it's foot down to correspond to a jump and not lose any speed.]
- Not seeing this happen in this game.-

3. the Full Run.
(this mode smoothed out the gait and at some points neither foot was in contact with the ground, very large distances were covered in this mode, and small ground obstacles were easily bounded over.)

The engine sound and hum increased as speed was pushed, with quite a loud response when at "full Run". (and as it should be with all actuators and drive systems purring at top out-put.)
The addition of "MASC enabled" when at full speed sent speedy lights into "high octane" mode and the engine and sounds followed suit.
(ground speed and objects screamed by, but you ran the risk of blowing an actuator or leg and having your turn radius severely reduced.)
[but got the Mech up to the 200+ kph speed range and pretty well out-ran most LRM's, you do need a big map for that though.]

That "other game" also used this CryEngine model so it's a doable asset for the engineers to figure out.

All for now,
9erRed

Edited by 9erRed, 10 September 2013 - 05:46 PM.

[Corvus Antaka]

The new animations are...way worse than the old ones. Mechs are all bouncy like energizer bunnies, it is a joke.

[Alcom Isst]

So I loaded up my XL 300 engine on my Trebuchet as the build I was using still had room for one, giving me a maximum tweaked speed of 106 kph. It's hilarious seeing and hearing my Trench Bucket perform little rapid bouncy steps across the battle field.

...

I SHOULD NOT BE LAUGHING AT MY OWN MECH.

[Caswallon]

OK to anyone that has no problem with the new animations I offer this challenge.

Have "Yakkety Sax" (The Benny hill theme tune) playing in your ear while fighting a Mech battle. It is eerily appropriate and a massive laugh. If you do not find it appropriate now I apologise. But I suspect most of you that try it will fall about as I did in my Sarah Jenner last night.

No seriously try it its FUNNY. And that als is what our Big stompy robots are right now - Funny so "Cartoon Graphics" is kinda appropriate for a thread tital alas...

[Corvus Antaka]

The new animations are horrible. horrible. horrible.

[Modo44]

The way mechs explode and fall also leaves a lot to be desired. They look like plastic toys falling on carpet, not 30+ tons, multi-storey constructs slamming into the ground after nuclear reactor explosions.

Edited by Modo44, 12 September 2013 - 06:42 AM.

[Duncan Longwood]

The way that the shuffle-gait of the humanoid walkers is currently animated makes it look like they have Parkinson's disease...



...which looks "funny" when moving at speed.