   Physics in fighting games?
  Modern fighting games are obviously now in 3D arenas, but I wondered - is it all done with animations still? I would expect that all your controlled movement is animated, and then it switches to rag-doll if you are knocked down or whatever?Is it feasible to have a character controlled by a model of bones, muscles etc? Is it even possible to get such a character to stand up, let alone throw punches? Have any games got anywhere in this direction - I'd imagine you'd have few choices but neural nets to train a character to balance?   
Quote:Original post by d000hgModern fighting games are obviously now in 3D arenas, but I wondered - is it all done with animations still? I would expect that all your controlled movement is animated, and then it switches to rag-doll if you are knocked down or whatever?Is it feasible to have a character controlled by a model of bones, muscles etc? Is it even possible to get such a character to stand up, let alone throw punches? Have any games got anywhere in this direction - I'd imagine you'd have few choices but neural nets to train a character to balance?Yes, animations controlled by scripts.  Same as the character's controlled movement.  There might be some physics involved in the scripts, but it's still scripted.A bone-based model using IK would be fairly and compute intensive.  It could be done, especially if you scripted the relative positions for motion, but it would not be easy.  For example, if you tried to throw a punch while your body is in a particular position, the IK system might have difficulty twisting the body around while maintaining the balence of the character. Possible? yes.  Feasable for a fast-paced, compute intensive game?  Not currently.frob.   ;  Well, check out Rag Doll Kung Fu. Its made by one of the programmers at Lionhead Studios(Black & White, Fable). It completely uses rag doll physics and is supposed to be a pretty fun game. It is played in a 2D style, despite being in 3D.   ;Quote:Original post by EzbezWell, check out Rag Doll Kung Fu. Its made by one of the programmers at Lionhead Studios(Black & White, Fable). It completely uses rag doll physics and is supposed to be a pretty fun game. It is played in a 2D style, despite being in 3D.That game looks pretty cool, at least from the screen shots.Based on the screen shots, it does have a problem with positions that are not anatomically possible. At least, not possible if the person wants to survive. [smile]frob.   ;  Here's a paper you might want to look at.  It looks quite promising for use in games, and might be a good starting point for a hybrid between ragdoll and animation-based responses.http://www.cs.ucr.edu/rgl/projects/mocsim/mocsim.html