LucasArts is pushing the limits of reality in video games with Euphoria, a physics engine that includes two new technologies that they will be using in their upcoming next gen titles. One, Digital Motion Synthesis (DMS), is a sort of artificial intelligence for character animation. It allows characters in a game to react believably to the things that happen to the environment around them. Instead of having an animator created canned movements for a character that you end up seeing repeated over and over, you have this fluid AI system that causes the characters to respond to things like falling off swaying rope bridges by reaching out to try to grab the edges of them. The second, Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), allows a developer to apply realistic physics to the materials that make up the world in the game. So, for instance, if you poke a jelly, it kind of squishes and wiggles. (Imagine the possibilities for a Pillsbury Dougboy game! Mmmmmh, fresh!)
This video can give you a better idea than me jabbering about it here, so take a look.
Time to start the next-gen console fund, I think….
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