Endorphin

Xiao · Post by **Xiao** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:41 pm

Anyone checked out Endorphin? It's pretty much a next-generation Ragdoll physics system that actually creates ragdolls that are aware of themselves and amazingly smart. This would be AWESOME in L2, kicking an enemy back, and watching his ragoll flail his arms in midair, and try to protect himself from the fall.

Endorphin Ragdolls are also aware of each other. If a bunch are falling down a cliff, they will attempt to hang on to something while falling, or grab something, and if they succeed, help their friends out as well. All of this looks very impressive, and none of it is animation, it's all programming. It's used in many PS3 games and can be bought for $1000 dollars, so that you can use it commerically in your games.

Post by **Ninjas** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:47 pm

The only realtime footage I've seen of this is for the new Indiana Jones game. I wasn't impressed.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:57 pm

Dude, I so heard of this and I think it's extremely awesome. And I had no idea this would effect the ragdoll movement aswell. The only thing I knew was that they would reach for ledges when they'd fall.
But having them protect themselves while in a ragdoll state? That's hella awesome! Enemies in Lugaru probably won't have the time to move in the air so you'd notice, but still, that is really awesome.

Post by **David** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:01 am

You are probably thinking of Euphoria, the real-time version of Endorphin. From all of the videos I have seen, the procedural animation built-in to Phoenix is already dramatically better than Euphoria, and our animation system will handle everything from walking to fighting to falling; not just grabby ragdolls.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:09 am

But better than this? Holy smokes that is wicked!
There's just, just... crap you guys how can you make something this good? I mean, isn't Endorphin a whole company based on this kind of natural motion? (hence their name)
That is amazing stuff David. Most games like this will list off their unique features (which is only a very small handful), and Lugaru 2.. it just has way more stuff.

Man you guys really need to showcase this stuff! You practically shrugged off your AI system like it was nothing, I didn't even hear about it till now.

Post by **David** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:11 am

I did mention it, but a little less than a year ago, when I first started working on it.
First day of working on it
Second day of working on it

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:19 am

Hey, I was thinking about Euphoria! I had no idea so many designers were focused on AI. You guys made it so Lugaru 2 surpasses all of them, and thats incredible.

And get this guys, David actually changed up his post so I wouldn't look even more like a complete fool.

David (except I'm adding the time in so you guys know what I mean) wrote:PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:49 pm Post subject:
Our proprietary procedural animation system in Lugaru 2 is going to be dramatically better than Endorphin, and probably already is.

That is very thoughtful man, Thanks!

zip · Post by **zip** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:38 am

I remember seeing an article about this in 3dWorld magazine a few years ago.. coolness.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:39 am

Oh yeah, I remember that!

But I had no idea of its potential, I just thought it would be soley responsible for advanced foot placements (which is pretty much the entire thing the Sony conference had showed for the next generation basketball games). And I thought that was awesome, but now that I know it deals with everything in between like fighting and falling, holy crap! I don't think I even need to buy a PS3 anymore, the only thing I need to worry about is getting a decent computer to play this, because this game looks like it deals with everything a whole lot better than any other game is looking like.

Jeeze I still can't believe you got it so good in just two days, amazing man!
You know, I wouldn't normally believe any of this stuff. Because most game trailers and tech demos make things look a crap loads better than the actual gameplay, and I always get dissapointed in the end. But this, you would think I'd have doubts but, I've never been dissapointed in any of these games! It's always the other ways around.

And look, who knew Blackshades would be the first in next-gen FPS games? But damn, it's the only real 3rd person First Person Shooter I've ever played (And I think it's the only one out there right now too). It's the first time weapon swaying actually meant something, because it's real!

Post by **Jeff** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:48 am

I think we should update the blog soon, there have been some pretty cool changes.

Renegade_Turner · Post by **Renegade_Turner** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:05 am

Show, don't tell. Take the William Shakespeare initiative.

JLrep · Post by **JLrep** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:58 am

Dude, I saw that Indiana Jones trailer. The guy being thrown into the car was OK, but everything else looked basically like ragdolls with magnets in their hands (and for something like ragdoll physics, what it looks like is basically the whole point).

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:23 am

Speaking of the grabby ragdolls... there's this game right, and it's pretty much like Ragdoll Masters except you dodge bullets instead of fight computers. I'm not really sure what he did (I think he just attached reverse magnets to the limbs), but when you put 'limb help on' the game gets all physics based. He dodges bullets automatically (well, his limbs do), and he can grab walls and stuff pretty easily too. It's Ragdoll Matrix Reloaded

This game isn't like super 3-D fun, but it's a pretty interesting 2-D game that can occupy your time (If you're like hella bored and stuff). I thought the matrix's ragdolls were funner than ragdoll soft's, very glitchy and stale though.

Oh and I got this version of Endorphin that's being passed around when you register. It's the learning edition so you can pretty much do whatever except for things like importing maya files and exporting actual content (got a crap load of tutorials at the site. Seriously, like a ton of step by step tutorials.)
You should check out their Show Reel because it's hella sweet. All the animations there are loadable scenes you can mess with in Endorphin, pretty fun when you play with them and make them screw up their placings, which is extremely easy to make a good scene look like crap (oh, and don't even bother downloading their DMS tackles video. It might lock up your computer, but the sample one you can use in Endorphin doesn't). Anyways I though the video was pretty cool. I was hella bored today too so yeah. David's is alot better, in that it's actual on the fly stuff, Endorphin seems like it can only do nice clips and stuff (And it's not simple like David's, you have to mess with a ton of variables.). Try it if you got alot of time on your hands, well, you might find it fun to do.

Edit: type 'cheats' in the main menu if you decide to play Ragdoll Matrix. You don't get the cool sticky hands (using s and d), if you don't.

Renegade_Turner · Post by **Renegade_Turner** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:17 pm

That game is pretty poor.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:51 pm

Renegade_Turner wrote:That game is pretty poor.

Yea... it's not a game to be played with too seriously (I thought it was absolutely broken until I found the '0/Ins' key)... Nor is it optimized well at all (lugaru runs faster than that 2-D game).
The main thing I thought was cool was how your limbs dodged bullets and you could have "grabby arms" they're pretty simple but they work out neat in the game. But yes, not a very fun game to actually have fun with.

Not only that but-- hey! hdlsa discovered the endorphin program a while ago, you should have mentioned it!