Madden NFL 10 Blog - Improvements to WR/DB Interaction

[Golden28]

Quote: Originally Posted by mKoz26

Guys... I know this might sound ridiculous, and its just me throwing some thoughts around, but... I clicked on one of the videos in the blog link posted by Ian and... Unlike the other two videos, at the end of it, there was a link to a video by naturalmotion on tackling or something like that. This is just me trying to make something out of nothing, but it could be a coincidence. I probably sound crazy, but Ian said he would announce the big news after the draft and NaturalMotion said there would be big news in 2 months just a couple of weeks ago. You see what I'm getting at, so maybe Madden will use Euphoria for tackling? No... forget it... I'm crazy.

Maybe not as crazy as you may think.

I believe Madden currently uses Naturalmotion's endorphin engine as it's 3D animation tool. I think I may also be correct in saying that the news about layered blending animation is a direct result of being able to utilise Naturalmotion's new Morpheme engine. That leaves one last product in Naturalmotion's armoury untouched by EA.

Have you guessed what it is yet?...The Euphoria engine as currently being used by Backbreaker for all it's tackling algorithms. Go figure.

[Avii]

The last Madden I played was the Madden 08 for the PC, so bear with me if it was fixed.

I used some pretty good sliders, that would tire the team Without these, basically, nobody would ever get tired. The same players would play a whole game over and over, leaving all backups as benchwarmers.

A sideeffect though, is that when everybody is tired, say for example all cornerbacks, instead of putting in a safety who might be in the reserve and who might play the position (backup guy), they would sub in my best overall player, usually my first string HB or my P. Now, these guys couldn't defend. But when I get back on offense, now my first string HB starts out as tired and therefore sits until he regains his energy, allowing my 2nd string and 3rd string to play etc.

Basically, auto subbing and player tiring would be completely whacked. Look into this.

[Hotlanta]

I would guess that this is there but hopefully we'll get to see this when this topic is brought up again.

How is the transition from two players jostling when the DB is in press man coverage, and the WR is running a deep in/out route?

[marshallfever]

Jostling sounds incredible, finally, this years madden will truly set its apart from its predecessors.

[RGiles36]

I know my below inquiries will get lost in the sea of questions, but I'll throw it out there anyway. From the blog:

Quote:

Lastly, we've started to use Procedural Awareness (so far just as a purely visual thing). We recently got head tracking in pre-play for WR's so they now look in towards the ball at the snap. This has been long overdue. We also enabled Procedural Awareness head tracking for DB's. In man coverage they will directly 'track' the eyes of the WR, and in zone coverage they will track the QB's eyes, with the ability to also randomly swap targets based on proximity of guys entering their zone.

My question pertains to the zone DBs tracking the QB's eyes. What's determining where the QBs look? Obviously, the QB's eyes are following the receivers. But is there a method to it? Is the QB first looking in the direction of the primary target on the play, and making additional progressions thereafter? Or is the QB's eyes bouncing around from receiver to receiver with no direction so to speak?

Next, this isn't really a question, but this blog reinforces to me that there needs to be timing based routes in Madden 2010. The new route running is beautiful, but it NEEDS to correlate with the quarterback's auto-dropback. I no longer want to drop back and have to sit back idle as the WR gets into their route, leaving me open to take a sack.

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by Golden28

Maybe not as crazy as you may think. I believe Madden currently uses Naturalmotion's endorphin engine as it's 3D animation tool. I think I may also be correct in saying that the news about layered blending animation is a direct result of being able to utilise Naturalmotion's new Morpheme engine. That leaves one last product in Naturalmotion's armoury untouched by EA. Have you guessed what it is yet?...The Euphoria engine as currently being used by Backbreaker for all it's tackling algorithms. Go figure.

No, Madden does not use Euphoria, Natural Motion, or any other 3rd party animation engine. They use an in-house utility and animation system called "ANT".

[Golden28]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

No, Madden does not use Euphoria, Natural Motion, or any other 3rd party animation engine. They use an in-house utility and animation system called "ANT".

So much for my conspiracy theory. Damn,

Thanks for the info, I'd forgotten about ANT!

[mKoz26]

Quote: Originally Posted by Golden28

So much for my conspiracy theory. Damn, Thanks for the info, I'd forgotten about ANT!

Keep hope for Euphoria!