Four Toughest Sports to Emulate Realism For in Gaming - RaychelSnr's Blog

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Four Toughest Sports to Emulate Realism For in Gaming Stuck

Posted on September 18, 2012 at 01:36 PM.

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It seems like each sport is different in how close they can get to emulating the realism you see on your TV screens and from the stands. Obviously, the more moving parts there are, the tougher it is to emulate the realism. I also believe this is why you see some games achieve greatness and others simply fall flat.

So what four sports are the absolute toughest to emulate in a sports simulation from the designer and programmers point of view? Let's find out...

4. Basketball - The thing with basketball is that there are 10 moving parts on the court at any given time, but those parts should have to be considering a lot of things at the same time. Do you roll over for help-side defense or stick on your man? Do you screen at the top of the key or do you cut to the basket? Off the ball interaction and the overall physical-ness of the game make basketball an incredibly tough thing to simulate.

3. Hockey - Hockeyis an incredibly fast sport. As such, with so much fluidity it's tough to get the AI to completely mimic what should be going on at all times on the ice. While the lack of a huge amount of players does help from a programming standpoint -- the sheer amount of motion and different aspects each player on the ice must mimic (much less the goalies and save logic) at all times is astounding. To correctly mimic hockey takes a lot of effort.

2. Olympic Sports - Olympic games have been, for nearly two decades now, running from the same playbook. Whoever mashes the buttons fastest wins. Whoever mashes slowest loses. But that's not how it's done in the Olympics -- and video game developers can't seem to figure out how to mimic the events that are unique to the games properly. Unlike the rest of the sports here, this is a control and design issue more-so than an AI issue. To be the best high jumper on the planet means you have to time your jump perfect, you have to have your full body in sync, and you have to have trained to have you physically in the best shape of your life. That's a little tougher than pushing the right analog stick to mimic.

1. Football - 22 players, each with different assignments and goals who must react to what the other 21 players are doing in order to correctly mimic the sport. Oh, and all 22 assignments must be carried out in what is likely the span of less than one second. The average football play is six to seven seconds long, and the majority of the decisions you need to make are made within the first second or two. And then, on top of all of that, there is a very physical side of the game which you must correctly model. So you not only have to program a complex AI that is more complex than any other sport, but you have to program a physics engine which requires more depth and detail than any other sport. Good luck with that.

So what about you OS'ers? Which sports do you think it'd be toughest to program for to emulate realism?

Comments

# 1 JG1986 @ Sep 18

Well, I guess this article helps defend NHL 13's marginal B- review below.

# 2 mikemulloy @ Sep 18

I beg to differ. The hardest sport to emulate is easily professional wresting. Some argue it's not a sport but considering you write about it, let's include it. It's super difficult to reproduce a sport that is choreographed.

# 3 wallofhate @ Sep 18

I have to agree with mikemulloy. Sports is difficult mimic with numerous players and with it being spontaneous but with all those moving parts it's easy to overlook or not pay attention to every moving person. Playing football you go from watching the qb to looking down field never really looking at the line or dbs much. Hockey you mostly watch the puck and soccer the ball. Wrestling it's 2 men in 1 ring and they're constantly interacting with each other and have to put an "act" on which is harder to deliver through a video game.

# 4 SHAKYR @ Sep 18

I'm glad you didn't post boxing. We will be debating harder than a presidential debate. Many game companies already put out there realism isn't fun. So, when they don't make their games realistic shouldn't a fan wonder if they truly tried to capture that sport?
Companies try to force a thought on their fans hoping it makes their job easier. They want realism to be low on their list of priorities. This is why they trick fans with graphics and once the shine wear off the fans notice the gameplay and other faults in the game.
Sports games are played mostly by adults and sports fans. So, they notice more things a kids wouldn't or would ignore.

# 5 Adzs K2 @ Sep 18

Was anyone else kind of baffled by what football was being described after reading the first two lines?? lool

# 6 cusefan74 @ Sep 18

NASCAR by far. Each time these guys go to a track they have a different setup they have to use. Weather is a huge factor and those things are not included in NASCAR games at all.

# 7 WGmatthias76 @ Sep 18

Easy... Lacrosse

# 8 Bmore Irish @ Sep 18

lacrosse is tough but theres not really any legit lacrosse video games out there and it could arguably be similar to a basketball video game. wish there was a big enough market for an awesome lax game. toughest has gotta be football though. i mean theres so many different kinds of games going on within the game on every play. line play and DB/WR interaction seem to be the toughest to nail down thus far, which is understandable given the variety of outcomes, AI for these players is tough too, for the same reason

# 9 gigadkc @ Sep 19

true, football is 1st. The other football.

You can't even play 90 minute games in Fifa and if you would do so there'd be a ridiculous scores like 20-14.

# 10 CujoMatty @ Sep 19

NASCAR? Lmao all the car models are the same, tracks don't vary much and then turn left, turn left, turn left, and then? Oh ya turn left. That's a game developers dream formula.

I have no doubt that NASCAR is complex but it rightfully isn't on this list.

# 11 Gleebo @ Sep 19

Baseball has to be the most difficult to emulate as far as getting the correct strategy....If you remove EVERY other aspect except the batter/pitcher confrontation that alone is extremely complex. Add in pitchers and batters individual strengths and weaknesses, count, outs, base runner situation, score, innings, stamina, etc...

I think Sony MLB does such a good job that we take it for granted.

# 12 cusefan74 @ Sep 19

Quote:


	NASCAR? Lmao all the car models are the same, tracks don't vary much and then turn left, turn left, turn left, and then? Oh ya turn left. That's a game developers dream formula. I have no doubt that NASCAR is complex but it rightfully isn't on this list.

NASCAR is not just cars going around in circles. And it says at the top "Toughest Sports To Emulate Realism For". Any NASCAR game out there you can make a setup for a track and when you return to that track just load in the setup and run the exact same as before.

That doesn't happen in real life, they face different weather, temperature, humidity, if it has been raining. All that changes the way the car handles. You just can't load a setup in the car and go.

So yes I do think NASCAR should be on the list. No game even comes close to having any of this happen, making it real easy to play and it's not even close to real.

# 13 teambayern @ Sep 20

I love football games, but disagree they are the most complex. Sure, they're complex, but I'd say LESS than sports like soccer and hockey, where the action is fluid.
- 22 players with 22 different assignments that must react to each other - same is true for soccer; arguably, more reaction is needed, since the process of defending and finding space involves interaction with many players simultaneously, where route running is more scripted and line play isn't as dynamic
- plays last only a few seconds; surely that REDUCES the difficulty; you don't have to worry about anything unrealistic careening out of control, because it all gets reset a few seconds later; not so in soccer and hockey
-football is more physical than soccer or hockey, but that doesn't mean it's harder to model physical interaction; madden has looked to FIFA for years, because it boasts a much more technically sophisticated impact engine; NHL has real-time physics; Madden is very rudimentary in comparison to either.

I think football is perceived as more difficult because (1) it is the most popular sport, so we know more about the details and therefore spot deficiencies easier (and also don't recognize half of the complexity of games like soccer and hockey) and (2) by comparison to other sports, we don't have a great football game (sorry Madden) and so it's easy to think that's because it is so complicated.

# 14 Bmore Irish @ Sep 20

physical interactions in football really arent that simple. you dont just win or lose a battle between linemen or DB/WR, there is often a continuous fight for control, plus you have to take into account things such as height, weight, strength, etc. and the fact that there is such an endless amount of plays as far as route combinations, blocking schemes, etc, makes AI harder than what i think ppl here are attributing to it.