New animations: What does it mean for gameplay?

[4 IN 1]

To understand whats wrong with the old system simply do these in ARMA2:

1.place a squad leader(those who have side arm and binoculars in their gear) in the editor
2.once in the game, switch into binoculars
3.now, without putting away the binoculars, change stance, prone or kneel will do
4.look what happen

If that is not enough, switch into your sidearm, then repeat 2 and 4

[Choki]

The problem has never been the animations, it has been the choppy, archaic system underlying the animations. You can make your anims as nice as you want, if the underlying structure is unsound, characters still will play like they have their pants full of bricks.

I agree

[deathil93]

Actually the whole core of the problem is the lack of a proper physics component in the game. ArmA3 now has a proper physics engine that can simulate anything they want using motion capture as a guideline. I've seen PhysX in action in plenty of games, the most impressive usage of the software being with Mafia 2. PhysX is also somewhat superior to physics engine of BF3 since it is an all-in-one package. It can simulate organic animations (soldiers), destruction, vehicle collision/driving, trees etc...

But at the end everything is summed up to the budget. If you want to get a truely realistic game you need a hell of alot of money, cash that I doubt that BI has (I'm talking @ 100 million dollars plus). GTA IV had that kind of budget and it managed to accomplish it beautifully. But with BI's budget constraints I doubt they'll be able to go all out and bring gaming realisim to a new level, but it will still be amazing to watch and play.

[Intezar]

Good animations adds to the entire experience I feel. If you love troops running around, well, now you can see them running around looking better than ever. That's just love.

[CarlGustaffa]

PhysX won't be implemented like that. And I don't expect PhysX synchronized over network to work out well for the number of players we're typically talking about in Arma3.

[djfluffwug]

To understand whats wrong with the old system simply do these in ARMA2:

1.place a squad leader(those who have side arm and binoculars in their gear) in the editor
2.once in the game, switch into binoculars
3.now, without putting away the binoculars, change stance, prone or kneel will do
4.look what happen

If that is not enough, switch into your sidearm, then repeat 2 and 4

My god, I just tried steps 1, 2 and 3. I don't even understand what is going on o.O

Especially with prone. Jeez I am suprised that has not been fixed.

[Mokojiro]

New animations can only be a good thing. While the old animations have grown on me over the years, they are a lot like Bethesda Softwork's animations in Oblivion (stay with me here). The animations in Oblivion are somewhere between funny and sad at times, as well as ARMA. Some look great but at other times it looks as if your soldier has no sockets in his shoulders and his arms are attached by twine. While it will probably take a bit of getting used to, the new animations will only make ARMA a better game.

[Smurf]

it looks as if your soldier has no sockets in his shoulders and his arms are attached by twine.

Yeah, would be really nice if the soldiers do this instead of this.

[Vultar]

I think that fluent animations are mainly what makes games like Battlefield 3 strange. Especially when you shoot at someone, he's given a chance to jump a few times, sprint for a while and even sometimes escape.
I dont think that you'd like to jump about under heavy live fire - but maybe Im wrong, who knows.
Arma's "not fluent" animations (although, after months of arma2 pvp I find them perfect) and the inability to just jump (why would you want to jump anyway? Do you often jump in real life without a reason?) are what ensures the feeling that Arma series give, starting with Ofp. Possibly one of many things that makes me play the game even after all those years.

Think about it, there must be this something we dont know about that makes us play this game even though all the bugs. Wonder what it is, though.

[Whirly]

I dont think that you'd like to jump about under heavy live fire - but maybe Im wrong, who knows.

I have footage of Charles Taylor's troops 'bunny hopping' during firefights in Monrovia in 1993, but it doesn't end well for them. It's heartbreaking to see untrained young men sent into battle against hardened combat veterans, as the saying goes 'untutored courage is no match for educated bullets'. Bunny hopping certainly isn't a tactic I'd recommend.