I learned about something new today, inversed kinematics. Here's a small description from wikipedia "In robotics, inverse kinematics makes use of the kinematics equations to determine the joint parameters that provide a desired position for each of the robot's end-effectors."
Never knew there was a specific name for this type of animation but apparently there is, some examples 1, 2, 3, 4
Don't know how hard this is to program, but since it's in Zelda ocarina of time it can't be that hard. So I'm wondering if using this tech is in the plans, or something that the devs will do, it's just a small detail but it's a pretty cool one.
It looks as if Unity is supporting it.
Might be harder than you think, although I'm not sure exactly what Unity has that simplifies the process.
I once heard that the quality of inverse kinematics in a game is an excellent display of how much care and effort when into it, at both the design and art levels. This obviously only applies to relatively newer games, as inverse kinematics may or may not be relatively expensive performance wise.
Elder Scrolls Online for instance is a AAA MMO that only recently added inverse kinematics as a toggle in the game options. Dark Souls series (I'm a fanboy, leave me alone) is an example of the most beautiful inverse kinematics I have ever witnessed in a video game. If you want to see character animations and environmental interaction done right, play Dark Souls. The first Dark Souls game (discounting Demon's Souls, never played it) came out 6 years ago. That should give a little insight into the extraordinary level of love that went into that game (and its sequels).
On the flip side, Dark Souls is not an MMO, so the performance ramifications of inverse kinematics are significantly reduced. How well an MMO can handle well done inverse kinematics with a hundred or more simultaneous detailed models being rendered is beyond me.
I would be nice if they were able to implement it, but it's not a deal breaker just a nice adition, don't know how much unity actually helps in the implementation of it.
@Liav
You don't need to tell me about Dark Souls, I love the game series, specially the first one (it's the best IMO) if only more games had the same ammount of attention and dedication put in level design, animation and artwork.....
jpedrote said:@Liav
You don't need to tell me about Dark Souls, I love the game series, specially the first one (it's the best IMO) if only more games had the same ammount of attention and dedication put in level design, animation and artwork.....
Indeed. Those types of games are few and far between.
