Madden NFL 11 Blog: Catch Tuning

[SageInfinite]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

I just remembered something that that used to happen in the old NCAA game that used to bother the heck out of me. Sometimes, the WR would try make a sideline catch, even though he was nowhere near the sidelines. The animation looked really crazy because he was nowhere near the sideline. I hope that doesn't happen with this.

I was thinking the same thing.

[shadthedad]

Not to get too far off the catch thread, but I will bet anything that this year's Madden will be heavy on customization (game-play and character design). This is a main draw for Backbreaker and Madden will be forced to compete. In regards to the thread, it all comes back to quarterback play. The quarterback is the primary focus of the game and receiver animations should mirror this fact. Please explain more Mr. Cummings, because I'm officially worried.

[Valdarez]

I really baffles me as to why the devs had to wait until M11 to have a proper debugging tool. They should be able to look at the context at ANY point in time to determine what is going on, and it should not be limited to catches. No wonder they have such a hard time fixing the game. I can't imaging debugging a system without a debugger that allowed me to step into and step back/over each line/segment and even change values on the fly to see how it affects the results. I know there are debugging tools for C/C++, why are the EA devs not able to use these effectively to do the same task?

[nyj721]

Hopefully this fixes the calls where the reciever would clearly get 2 feet inbounds only to have the catch ruled incomplete by the ed hochuli like refs.

[TDogg09]

Quote: Originally Posted by shadthedad

Not to get too far off the catch thread, but I will bet anything that this year's Madden will be heavy on customization (game-play and character design). This is a main draw for Backbreaker and Madden will be forced to compete.

I hope you're right. Customization is one of my favorite aspects of the game (besides actually playing it ). Madden has been somewhat lacking in customization lately. I hope there is a lot more in M11

[Valdarez]

Ian responded via Twitter and said that the ANT (EA Animation Toolkit) was selfcontained and it was easier to write debuggers on top of it as stepping through the code for each frame was very inefficient. I imagine the CDT is simply giving a snapshot of the contextual state for each frame. Personally, it still seems troublesome in the sense that you don't have the ability to see everything and lose the control you have at the language level, but then I don't have a clue what these guys are dealing with in regards to the animation + physics + code logic + whatever else I failed to list so while it clashes with what I have learned over the years of development it may be just right for what they need from developing / tuning the game. It's always interesting to see how the business / gaming worlds align and/or clash.

[Hova57]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

I really baffles me as to why the devs had to wait until M11 to have a proper debugging tool. They should be able to look at the context at ANY point in time to determine what is going on, and it should not be limited to catches. No wonder they have such a hard time fixing the game. I can't imaging debugging a system without a debugger that allowed me to step into and step back/over each line/segment and even change values on the fly to see how it affects the results. I know there are debugging tools for C/C++, why are the EA devs not able to use these effectively to do the same task?

alot of the middle ware and tools they use received an big update to things there were using.the problem is that it was too late to implement by the time the game was released . so they had the time to implement it and mess with for the next cycle.
i did some research based on what Ian had said about the games engine on one of his blogs. i ran across quite a few upgrades to systems they used and the date also ran with the developement cycle in 10 which most was too late to put in the game.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

Ian responded via Twitter and said that the ANT (EA Animation Toolkit) was selfcontained and it was easier to write debuggers on top of it as stepping through the code for each frame was very inefficient. I imagine the CDT is simply giving a snapshot of the contextual state for each frame. Personally, it still seems troublesome in the sense that you don't have the ability to see everything and lose the control you have at the language level, but then I don't have a clue what these guys are dealing with in regards to the animation + physics + code logic + whatever else I failed to list so while it clashes with what I have learned over the years of development it may be just right for what they need from developing / tuning the game. It's always interesting to see how the business / gaming worlds align and/or clash.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hova57

alot of the middle ware and tools they use received an big update to things there were doing the problem is that it was too late to implement by the time the game was released . so they had the time to implement it and mess with for the next cycle. i did some research based on what Ian had said about the games engine on one of his blogs. i ran across quite a few upgrades to systems they used and the date also ran with the developement cycle in 10 which most was too late to put in the game.

Whaaa? lol Good job, I guess.