23 réponses à ce sujet

[damoose1]

I have been watching some gameplay videos and noticed that animations - especially during cutscenes - are very stiff and unnatural. The lip-syncing is pretty bad too. I was wondering if this was a result of the early build, and that they will be fixed on release.

 

Another point is with regard to shrub and grass animation. The plants do not seem to animate or react when a character pass through them. Almost all other games for years has had some basic form of this. I cannot believe that this was overlooked and hope that this too will be fixed.

 

Lastly, on the point of plants, I noticed that the leaves on trees look incredibly two dimensional. The sprites often point at a 90 degree angle from the character, making the plants look like they were made in the early 2000's. Again, I hope this is addressed too.

 

Otherwise, the game is looking good. Not a fan of some of the DA2 art-style chosen, but I can live with it.

[The_Prophet_of_Donk]

You're poorly animated.... lol

No I agree....

[LonewandererD]

Yeah, as much I like the improvements over DA2 the cutscene animations, especially when in casual talk, always throughs me off. I notice it a lot in many games, unless something is scripted the talking animations seems very stilted; awkward arm movements and what not.

 

Not complaining though, I'm glad we got the colour green this time around than 50 Shades of Brown

 

-D-

[DAJB]

Well, given how long a game like this spends in development, trying to animate computer-created models was probably still the norm back when work on DA:I started.

 

What we've seen over the last few years is a growing use of motion-capture using real actors (especially in action games), so the animations are starting to look more and more fluid. I suspect DA:I may be one of the last AAA titles to use computer models in this way. As the new gen consoles establish themselves, any games made using last gen techniques are going to look increasing dated compared to the competition. 

[Kantr]

Lip synching is never going to be great unless you do MO-cap
 

Well, given how long a game like this spends in development, trying to animate computer-created models was probably still the norm back when work on DA:I started.
 
What we've seen over the last few years is a growing use of motion-capture using real actors (especially in action games), so the animations are starting to look more and more fluid. I suspect DA:I may be one of the last AAA titles to use computer models in this way. As the new gen consoles establish themselves, any games made using last gen techniques are going to look increasing dated compared to the competition.

Allan talked about it months back and said because of the amount of dialogue they can't get perfect lip synching as it's not mo-cop. Plus mo-cap is a lot more expensive

Animation receives a ton of time and energy. It's a game of cost vs benefit, because you start to get a logarithmic scale in terms of how much effort and money you are going to put in into something like lip synch.

We have too much dialogue to motion capture every person speaking, so our FaceFX system is done procedurally via algorithms rather than explicit data collected from someone speaking the lines. Either motion capture needs to come down in price, or the technology needs to continue improving in order to procedurally set up the animations.

(Despite being procedurally generated, they are still tweaked by the CinDesign team as necessary too, so the procedural system certainly isn't immaculate)

[xyzmkrysvr]

Yeah, I thought lip syncing looked pretty terrible, actually. Especially Mother Giselle, but that's mainly because her lips look ridiculous...

 

But, to be honest, I don't really care. I mostly read subtitles when characters are speaking anyways. As long as there is plenty of dialogue (with Bioware's fantastic voice actors), I will be more than happy!

[Solid_Altair]

For an RPG I think the animations are pretty good. I just get bugged by when the attack downed enemies with high horizontal attacks or thrusts that clearly don't hit him. A simple solution to this would be to not have downed states, but rather having 'stuns' that look different and keep the victim standing... like  alittle stagger and stuff.

[Zatche]

I've come to expect these things from big RPGs with mountains of dialogue, a character creator, and no resources left over for expensive motion capture.

[Kantr]

It would consume a lot of time to set up the VO's for mocap anyway plus all the different mouth options would it redundant for the main character

[ReelRipper]

I need to check this out for myself. I hope the rest of the game doesn't suffer from other issues.

[Grimmdead]

Its not as bad as some would think, there will be clipping issues that rise up no doubt,

 

I was more concerned on the twitch stream when I saw that some of the foot prints left in the snow came from the wrong foot that was there. a brief moment it looked like the right foot left a left foot footpint and vise versa.

[veeia]

I think the mouths while talking look jarring because of how detailed everything else is...but yeah, mo-cap is not an option, so what else can you do? It's not poor animation, it's just budgetary things.

[Jetblackbird]

Maybe if DAI does well enough, they can afford mo-cap for DA4. They would also have a lot less work to do, right? Since they have already built the necessary framework in Frostbite. Oh, it would be awesome to have that for major cutscenes.

[DAJB]

Maybe if DAI does well enough, they can afford mo-cap for DA4. They would also have a lot less work to do, right? Since they have already built the necessary framework in Frostbite. Oh, it would be awesome to have that for major cutscenes.

For AAA titles I suspect mo-cap will quickly become the norm going forward into this gen. Yes, it's more expensive obviously but games that don't use it will start to look last gen very quickly.

 

Gorgeous visuals aren't everything, of course, but they can and do affect sales.

[Kantr]

Maybe if DAI does well enough, they can afford mo-cap for DA4. They would also have a lot less work to do, right? Since they have already built the necessary framework in Frostbite. Oh, it would be awesome to have that for major cutscenes.

 

 

For AAA titles I suspect mo-cap will quickly become the norm going forward into this gen. Yes, it's more expensive obviously but games that don't use it will start to look last gen very quickly.

 

Gorgeous visuals aren't everything, of course, but they can and do affect sales.

read the quote from Allan. The amount of dialogue meant they couldn't do it with mocap. The reviewers seem to be impressed though.

 

Plus mocap only works if the characters face doesnt change.

[DAJB]

read the quote from Allan. The amount of dialogue meant they couldn't do it with mocap. The reviewers seem to be impressed though.

 

Plus mocap only works if the characters face doesnt change.

We're not just talking about dialogue. All the characters movements are clearly modelled in-computer, so the characters often look like puppets made from stiff tubes, rather than flesh and bone. That's the point the OP was making, I think, and I agree with it. It's not a criticism per se, it's just a fact. And, yes, I've been looking at some of the reviews (while trying to avoid spoilers at the same time!) and the stiffness of the animation has been flagged as one of the few negatives by a couple, so we're not alone! 

 

It's not a big deal, especially this early in the life of new gen machines, and I've certainly no intention of cancelling my pre-order. Assuming the next instalment of DA is another 3 - 5 years down the line, though, I doubt this style of animation will still be able to hold its own against other AAA titles that will be out there by then. We shall see! 

[Kantr]

Ah right. Definitely you could mo-cap the companions (although that might get a bit expensive) but getting an actor for each race and gender? Probably not.

[LiquidLyrium]

 

 Either motion capture needs to come down in price, or the technology needs to continue improving in order to procedurally set up the animations.

 

 

All I can think of is seeing an infomercial 20 years from now for your very own MOTION CAPTURE KIT COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE! (For just 3 easy payments of $29.99)

[errantknight]

I also noted that the movement seemed stiff and belabored. I suspect it's the engine. Good voice acting will go a long way to making use forget that, though. I'm disappointed to find the once again we don't control when and where conversations take place. That was something I loved in Origins that it seems we will never have again.

[RenAdaar]

I still play neverwinter so animations don't bother me much lol

[damoose1]

I understand the size of the game and cost of motion capture kind of work hand-in-hand. I was just hoping that certain major characters and scenes in the game made use of it. I remember GTA4 did that. The engine already supports mo-cap. I would also think it would be quicker to do than manually animate each character in every scene. I am not asking them to rig up every single VO actor for each scene, Perhaps use some basic video capture like "facerig" does. It is not perfect, but it is better than the synthetic animations.

 

Perhaps, in later patches, they could manually edit some of the animations in certain major scenes. Just need a few extra frames added in so it is not so jarring.

[LiquidLyrium]

Now that I've watched a lot of streams, they're not as bad as I initially thought. There's a bit of stiffness, there, but you get used to it after a bit and you stop noticing it. I don't think I'll be quite as bothered by it as I thought I was going to be.

[Enesia]

I've come to expect these things from big RPGs with mountains of dialogue, a character creator, and no resources left over for expensive motion capture.

 

One word, well two games: Witcher

 

Nuff said.

 

Otherwise I agree the animation does look a little said

[Zatche]

One word, well two games: Witcher

Nuff said.

Otherwise I agree the animation does look a little said

I feel like Witcher 3 would be the one that would set a precedence for having both openness and the good animation and expensive mocap that linear shooters have. Witcher 2 was pretty linear and small in scope compared to either DAI or W3. Never played W1. But I'm fine with DAI prioritizing putting its resources towards character creation and customization over W3s realistic hair and fur and speaking animations.