Next-Gen Madden NFL 25 Features TrueStep, Phase Matching, Immersion & More

[ballymenasteve]

EA Sports has posted a quick Q&A session with Madden NFL 25 Creative Director for Central Gameplay, Rex Dickson. Listed below are some of the items of interest, but make sure you read the entire session, right here.

TrueStep.

Quote:

...No matter what you do with the stick, the player will respond with accurate steps and weight transfer. It is not only more responsive, it is also more realistic than any running animations we have ever had before.

Phase Matching.

Quote:

...Phase matching allows us to blend seamlessly from locomotion to other animations without 'popping' the legs into place. This results in significantly smoother animations.

Conservation of Momentum.

Quote:

...where we take weight, center of gravity, and momentum into consideration. That’s something we worked on heavily this year so we didn’t see players bounce in the wrong directions. ...if you hit a blocker from behind, you can push them forward. You can also truck into an engaged block and break it apart, so it’s a much more natural physics reaction based on momentum and center of gravity.

Immersion.

Quote:

...We built a whole Player Chatter feature this year so you’ll hear quarterbacks call out protections and the defenses will yell out formations.

Sidelines and crowds.

Quote:

...it’s not just going to be a static crowd and looping animation. They’re going to react to things happening, whether it’s exploding for a big play or deflating.

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by ballymenasteve

Just some info about Madden 25 on the next gen systems. Not much but a little info better than nothing.. http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/n...ps-4-interview

I actually thought this was a good article, at least to show the thinking behind what they are trying to accomplish, what their priorities are, and how they go about it.

Making my usual caveats, in the end, it's all about execution. I'm not saying they will achieve what he is talking about.

What I will say is he's saying some very welcome things that are not the same as what we heard during the Ian Cummings era and before.

Yes, we heard in the past lip service to the EA "it's in the game" mantra, but what this guy is talking about is a lot more time and people and unique technology developed to help the game become a more genuine sim game.

In the past, they use the "it's in the game" mantra to explain why they were doing things like pro-tak. Yes, group tackles are part of the game, but the implementation was bad, and then a dice roll would occasionally have the HB run through 7 guys to squeeze out and break a big run. That's because the gang tackle was a mass animation of its own.

Now, with Gen 4 technology, each individual player on the field can (in theory) have mass, weight, momentum, physical attributes, and independent judgment to produce a more organic result.

This is also the first time I have read about this "conservation of momentum" and "phase matching" technology to allow for smoothing between animations, to deal with that herky jerky stuff we are so used to seeing.

I have no idea if it will work. But what this interview does say is 1) sim matter to them and 2) they are willing to back that up with significant investments in new technology specifically to address the fundamental building blocks of game play. And that not the same as vision cone or those "weapons" (madden 08) gimmicks.

An encouraging interview, not because of the words themselves, but because of what it says about how they've been preparing and investing for a year or two in game play, and adding staff.

[SageInfinite]

Some NICE nuggets of information there! We will be able to push the line, I love it. Recognizing their animations hitches were a big a problem. I really hope the game takes that next step, because Tiburon is saying ALL the right things right now for the most part.

[Big FN Deal]

As much as I like what's being said concerning next gen Madden and choose to be optimistic about it, I still wonder why all this special tech is needed to get Madden to do stuff other games seem to already be capable of. Now it could be that this stuff is more advanced than anything ever done in gaming or that they had to do unique things to account for the whole shorter branching animation tech Ian started. Either way it's odd the way things like "contextual awareness" get a fancy title and label when that was just something run of the mill in that other football game in 2004 and got patched into that other football game with physics.

I will stop there because I don't want to come across as if I'm complaining about the things being touted, I don't care what it takes to get a solid football game done at this point as long as they do. It's just over these last going on 9 years I have come to realize I just don't like the way EA Tiburon does things and I miss when there was other licensed games on the market and I couldn't care less what Tiburon did or didn't do.

[ghettogeeksta]

There’s also an additional technology called “Phase Matching.” People have complained about sliding, popping, and skating. The reason that has happened is because we’re transitioning from countless animations on the fly. Keeping the legs perfectly blended and 'in phase' during these transitions was historically one of our biggest hurdles. Because we are no longer bound to looping run animations, we can now treat each step individually. Phase matching allows us to blend seamlessly from locomotion to other animations without 'popping' the legs into place. This results in significantly smoother animations

This was my favorite part of that interview, can't wait to see how it turns out, if they can improve over NCAA Football 14 then that would be satisfying.
I am not going to judge this game by that E3 video anymore, as so many aspects of the game were not available in that demo, will just wait and see how this game turns out, NCAA Football 14 has me confident that this game could be really good. Now if they can squeeze in better WR/DB interactions im sold.

[Jeter2]

Im really interested to see how they implement the immersion factor. Sidelines, crowds, atmosphere, on field chatter and player mannerisms is a huge deal to me.

Hopefully they develop player tendencies next year. Maybe something as small as players who trash talk on the field or volatile guys like a Brandon Marshall type who's ratings could go up +5 during a game if they are getting the ball and are involved or -5 if they are being ignored, sulking and arent giving as much effort

[green94]

**** yes


When we introduce our new sidelines and crowd on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it’s not just going to be a static crowd and looping animation. They’re going to react to things happening, whether it’s exploding for a big play or deflating. It’s a huge focus for us, and something we’re going to blow out in Generation 4.

[SageInfinite]

I know it hasn't been touched on yet but I really hope they try to finally recreate a broadcast presentation wise. I know they still have Jim and Phil, but with all this talk of player chatter and atmosphere I hope they don't try to do some mash up of broadcast and on the field.