NBA Elite 11 Video: Real AI

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by FreshPrince22

"Real AI"? judging by the video, it just sounds like a fancy term for a long two-player animation sequence. you know, the stuff everybody's been complaining about the past couple of years in bball video games...

No that's not what REAL AI is at all.

1. Real AI has nothing to do with animations. It's essentially recording joystick inputs and playing them back on AI controlled players when the player is in the same situation as when the inputs were recorded.

2. There is nothing two player about REAL AI. REAL AI sequences are played back on only one player at a time, in this case, the CPU ball carrier.

I'm sure stepsix will be in here shortly to answer all the questions in detail as this was one of his big features for the year.

Basically, when you are playing against Kevin Durant in the game when he has the ball it will be as if you're playing an online game against him since he recorded all the moves in all the contexts based on how he would want to play.

But you can still steal the ball, or interrupt what he's doing, and he can still change sequences at any time to react to what you're doing.

[NoTiCe_O]

Quote: Originally Posted by FreshPrince22

"Real AI"? judging by the video, it just sounds like a fancy term for a long two-player animation sequence. you know, the stuff everybody's been complaining about the past couple of years in bball video games...

Huh? It sounds nothing like that

[dirtypuppet]

Quote: Originally Posted by FearlessKaz

EDIT: The dunks at 1:10 - 1:16 have me worried. A player dunked out of a jab step from the free throw line.

It honestly amazes me that EA continues to put video sequences like these in their promo clips. I'm all for tech demos and WIP videos, but EA, c'mon, choose these a bit more carefully, it's very easy to turn of consumers with sequences like that.

[FreshPrince22]

so it's not an "animation," it's just a "recording" that plays back in the proper context. fine. it makes no difference to me whether some guy wearing a mo-cap suit is responsible or whether some canned joystick movements are responsible. semantics aside, how is the "recording" any different in presentation to the gamer than a typical "animation" (namely the ones in other games which can also be broken and have tendencies/AI to help the CPU adapt)? overall, i'm just trying to figure out the "innovative" part for the experience of the gamer


but it's cool to hear it's not a two-man thing. it would've been nice to see durant's move in a different context than the defender jobbing on his pumpfake though

[rEAnimator]

Quote: Originally Posted by FreshPrince22

so it's not an "animation," it's just a "recording" that plays back in the proper context. fine. it makes no difference to me whether some guy wearing a mo-cap suit is responsible or whether some canned joystick movements are responsible. semantics aside, how is the "recording" any different in presentation to the gamer than a typical "animation" (namely the ones in other games which can also be broken and have tendencies/AI to help the CPU adapt)? overall, i'm just trying to figure out the "innovative" part for the experience of the gamer but it's cool to hear it's not a two-man thing. it would've been nice to see durant's move in a different context than the defender jobbing on his pumpfake though

You're right, I can see where you're coming from now. In essence, from your perspective as a player, they may as well be animations.

The real innovation from a gameplay standpoint is in the system that detects the context in the game and matches it to the context in a recording.

From a technical standpoint though, mocapping these sequences as animations would be impossible both from a money standpoint and a memory standpoint.

It is financially prohibitive to fly out every NBA star to do massive amounts of moves in all possible situations.

And from a memory standpoint it is absolutely impossible to fit that much animation on current generation consoles.

By recording inputs, we can record 100 times more data for all the contexts needed, and do that for 1000 times more players than if it was animation.

We can also get people to mimic real life player tendencies a lot easier by using the joystick, and in the case of Kevin Durant, get the real life players to do it.

Hopefully that clears things up.

[Forever_Young83]

The player models look decent and the animations look horrible. When will ever be on the same level? Also this is nothing evolutionary, so why try to hype it.

[Tha_Kid]

Quote: Originally Posted by dirtypuppet

It honestly amazes me that EA continues to put video sequences like these in their promo clips. I'm all for tech demos and WIP videos, but EA, c'mon, choose these a bit more carefully, it's very easy to turn of consumers with sequences like that.

I see that in the clip and I just ask "Why?"

[dirtypuppet]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha_Kid

I see that in the clip and I just ask "Why?"

Exactly, even if animations and context like this somehow do make their way into the final product (god forbid) how can they honestly forgive themselves from not hiding it better, it amazes me.