With our coverage of this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, we brought you word that Naturalmotion had introduced euphoria, a new character animation tool designed for use in video games. Now Naturalmotion informs us that LucasArts has adopted the behavioral simulation engine for use in Indiana Jones‘ first expedition on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. As one of only two publishers with early access to the run-time animation technology, LucasArts is well advanced in integrating euphoria into the 2007 release.
For the first time ever, characters in a video game will move, act and even think like actual human beings without the limitations of traditional game animation, according to Naturalmotion. Indie and his foes will all adapt realistically to their given situations on the fly, resulting in unique gameplay moments that will never be repeated. On a swaying rope bridge, for instance, characters will attempt to balance themselves, stumbling and grasping for stability as they try to reach the other side before plummeting to their doom. The action isn’t scripted, so the possibility that some characters may fall victim to the physics engine lends a level of unpredictibility to the game.
‘With euphoria, A.I. drives character behaviors so that there’s a different payoff every time,’ says Peter Hirschmann, VP of product development at LucasArts. ‘The depth of this character interaction gives us true next-gen gameplay that you simply couldn’t do with earlier generations of hardware.’ Hirschmann notes that LucasArts has been working with NaturalMotion since 2004 to help bring their groundbreaking technology to games.
‘LucasArts is an excellent partner with a real passion to raise the bar for next-gen games, and we look forward to working with them to apply euphoria technology to its games for years to come,’ adds NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil.
NaturalMotion is the first company to create 3D character animation software based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes adaptive behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human nervous system. The company’s first product, endorphin, synthesizes off-line 3D character animation in real time and has rapidly become a tool of choice for many leading games and visual effects artists. NaturalMotion’s euphoria will be demonstrated by LucasArts when it debuts its next-gen Indiana Jones game at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Calif., taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center May 10-12.
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