Technology behind Star Wars: Force Unleashed

[Kalexon]

I looked at the vidoes on the site for this game. Sounds like an awesome step in realism. What do y'all think?

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/theforce ... ology.html

[invertin]

Awesome, although the DMM isn't that revolutionary, wood broke in different ways when Dark messiah was a demo, and that was before this was announced!

[rudel_ic]

It's interesting. I'd love to read the code..

invertin, I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that DMoMaM wood breaking is not a material-description-based simulation, but more a break-structure-based one, just like it's generally made in the Source engine.

[David]

Their "DMM" tech is nothing new. They basically just have a bunch of pre-made broken parts that are connected with spring constraints. Euphoria is essentially basic ragdoll technology with 'magnetic hands' that are attracted to specific points, and random flailing.

I guess it is a step over most 'next-gen' physics (big piles of barrels and crates), but it is nothing revolutionary. Basically they are justifying their investment in over-hyped middleware like Havok, Euphoria and DMM by passing on that misleading hype to consumer media in order to get free publicity.

[rudel_ic]

So it's also based on a pre-made break structure? Well, there's no significant additional believability in simulating break physics on a molecular level.

They've made it really beautiful though, I'm still impressed. I guess they have way finer spring constraints than usual. And they seem to be different each time, so they seemingly change the spring grid based on some conditions.

Edit: Oh, and I wouldn't call Havok overhyped, it's a neat solution imho.

I mean, look at that, that's pretty impressive for a realtime simulation and such big numbers.

And the interesting part is that physics are (partly) realized on shaders, I wonder about the details here as well.

[Nayr]

rudel_ic: what was that about shaders? it made no sense

[rudel_ic]

Yes, it makes sense. You probably didn't know that you can run separate programs on the GPU. You can call parametrized programs and get results from them. There are different languages to do this, for example Cg or GLSL.
Such programs are called vertex-shader-/pixel-shader-programs.
The names are misleading though, it's possible to write a shader that just computes stuff without displaying anything. That's how physics on shaders are done.

Edit: For further reading, I recommend "OpenGL Shading Language, 2nd Ed." by Randi J. Rost. Look at Chapter 2: Basics, Part 2.2 (Why write shaders?).. Shaders are available for general computation, not only displayable results.

[Kalexon]

Euphoria is essentially basic ragdoll technology with 'magnetic hands' that are attracted to specific points, and random flailing.

I noticed that looking at the movie again. Near the half way point through the movie there is a point where he throws a storm trooper at a break point in a beam, part of the break had a long splinter potruding out in front of the storm trooper. While I don't know much about the technicality of Euphoria from what I understood of how it was described the storm trooper should have been able to grab onto the splinter. What happens? He bounces off and falls to his death. Adam aims another storm trooper just to the right to a whole part of the beam. Storm trooper grabs hold.

I guess I should make a meantal note 'look over hyped games and game mechanics more then once before making a post about it'

[Googlegrid]

I'm loving that Euphoria thing, can't wait to see this game when it's more polished

[rudel_ic]

Here's a longer vid: Link

[Silb]

The way the wood breaks in the first video does look good.

But the second one?

"Euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings", and the commentary clearly suggests that the technology models the nervous system, spinal cord, and muscles... everything from the high-level brain AI down to the nerve.

...and then the video just shows stormtroopers grabbing the middle of a wooden beam, all at the exact same height, where funnily enough there is clearly nothing to hold to; and then randomly flail around. Apparently they enjoy flailing a whole lot. I also imagine them shouting 'wooooo' as they fall to their death.

It's like they got mixed up and created Artificial Inanity. Did you like how hapless the stormtroopers felt in the previous Star Wars games? You will love the new one. In the new Star Wars, wood breaks realistically and stormtroopers act even more like spaced out lightsaber fodder.

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

[invertin]

created Artificial Insanity. Did you like how hapless the stormtroopers felt in the previous Star Wars games?:

Misspelling! Before, if there is enough stromtroopers they could kill you, but now, from the looks of it their just put in there for lightsaber slaughter

[Usagi]

Here we have an example of inanity.

It's like they got mixed up and created Artificial Inanity.

created Artificial Insanity

Misspelling!

in·an·i·ty n
1. meaninglessness or senselessness that suggests a lack of understanding or intelligence
2. silliness or foolishness
3. something such as a silly remark that demonstrates or suggests inanity
4. emptiness such as the imagined void of outer space (archaic)

Synonym: stupidity

in·san·i·ty n
1. extreme foolishness or an act that demonstrates it
2. legal incompetence or irresponsibility because of a psychiatric disorder

Synonym: madness

Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

They're close, almost alike, but as Mark Twain said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." (He was like a shark, too.)

[wormguy]

Don't be too skeptical - I think the potential for this system is good. Even if the ragdolls are just grabby, it's better than pre-scripted animations or general ragdoll.

[Silb]

It's not that the system is bad, it's just that the commentary really blows things out of proportion. David explained that better than I could.

(Also I sometimes like to make fun )