FEATURES THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010 Sports games come of age

Ever wondered how characters are able to replicate the unique technique of a David Beckham free kick or a Tiger Woods drive?

ory McIlroy is looking which is handling today’s shoot for uncomfortable. Earlier EA Sports, explains: “We’ve been to By Keith Stuart this month, the hugely Manchester for Rooney, equestrian The Guardian, London promising young golfer centers to capture horses, ice rinks for The Sony PlayStation 3. from Northern Ireland set skaters ... We took over 60 cameras to Photo: Bloomberg Rthe world alight by playing a course- Barcelona for Messi. It takes a lot of record 62 in the last round of the Quail planning and co-ordination but we can Hollow Championship in Charlotte, do anything-ish!” North Carolina. Today he is standing The result of these technological reactions. According in the clubhouse at Wales’ Celtic improvements is an exponential rise to NaturalMotion CEO Manor, wearing a skintight bodysuit in scale and ambition. Ten years ago, Torsten Reil, the technology covered in small balls. Mercifully, this game developers could only hope to was originally developed within isn’t a cutting-edge new direction for record basic movements, but nowadays Oxford University’s School of Zoology golf fashion; McIlroy is taking part they can capture the most intricate to study animal movement. “We in a motion capture session for the nuances. This might mean the way simulated simple stick figures on the forthcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 that David Beckham leans back when computer and hooked their muscles video game. Having grown up playing delivering a set-piece ball, or the way up to randomly generated neural these ultra-realistic simulations, he will Tiger Woods shields his eyes to watch networks. The best of these, in terms sure you get every bit of kinetic now appear on the cover alongside his ball take flight of performing a task such as walking, energy transmitted through to the his lifelong hero. And when this game over the were selected by an algorithm and ball, and rehab or injury prevention. use in video games. With camera- is released, on 2 July, gamers will get eighth hole at allowed to reproduce, with Also, baseball’s National Pitching based control systems such as the to enjoy a perfect digital copy of what the Augusta variation. These were Association in the US is very concerned Remote and the forthcoming some reckon is the best swing in the National Golf evaluated again, and with how a player rolls his shoulder PlayStation Move and Microsoft Natal sport today. Club. to avoid rotator cuff injury.” It turns devices, games consoles can now view Superstar motion capture, or In today’s out McIlroy has just returned from and record the users’ own movements. mocap, sessions like this are not session with a specialist mocap center in the US, Due out in December for the Xbox unusual in modern sports games. 21-year-old Rory where his swing was being analyzed for 360 console, Natal is perhaps the most The graphics processors in the latest McIlroy, Brian Mitchell, even the tiniest inefficiencies. ambitious, consisting of an array of consoles are capable of rendering director of Audiomotion, is This, in some ways, harks back sensors (including a camera and an environments of almost photorealistic arranging takes of the golfer to the origins of optical motion infrared lens for depth perception) quality, but it’s the integration of real simply approaching the ball, capture technology — as a that sit below your TV and track your human movement into computer then reacting to several scenarios: clinical tool for gait analysis physical actions without the need for a animation that has really driven the a disastrous slice, a moderately — but it may also hint handheld controller or joy pad. You’ll genre. Every major sports title will now successful shot and, amusingly, a at a possible future be able to actually kick the ball in capture data from leading players, both hole in one, with McIlroy raising his soccer sims, or cast a line in a fishing as a way to add authenticity and as fists to the sky in glory. Mitchell even A model tries out Ninten- game, and, of course, you’ll swing an part of the marketing campaign. Wayne asks for separate takes with different do’s Wii Fit. Photo: Bloomberg imaginary golf club at a virtual ball. Rooney, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi clubs, because McIlroy’s action differs It’s basic stuff beside what the Vicon have all had their signature moves slightly between a wood and an iron. cameras can capture, but comparisons digitized into games — not only is it a Of course, none of this has an effect on between the two data sets are possible. handy source of extra income, but as the gameplay, but it means enhancing It’s likely, then, that we’ll see games most soccer players are fans of games the fiction. that take stats from McIlroy’s swing such as FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer With more cameras and markers and compare them with your own, it’s also a badge of honor among peers. available, the complexity of each take showing where your technique is Of course, mocap technology is can also grow. Ten years ago, the falling short, and allowing you to not new. Optical motion capture game makers would have concerned improve your real game while taking systems were first developed in the themselves with a single athlete on the likes of Tiger Woods. 1970s, primarily for use in clinical gait performing a few basic moves. Now, analysis, and they have been a part mocap teams will capture several of video game development for more players interacting with each other, The best games around than 15 years. During that time the tussling, tackling and jockeying for principles have remained remarkably the ball. For each FIFA soccer game, By Tom Lamont Top: Tiger Woods demonstrates a trick shot consistent. An actor or athlete dons EA Sports’ mocap producers run a The Guardian, London at Chelsea Piers golf club in New York for a skintight suit covered in reflective film-style schedule, capturing 150 the launch of his EA Tiger markers and performs a sequence of moves a day over a five-day period. The so forth. This artificial Woods PGA Tour 08. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa actions. The movement of the markers studio now has a database of 12,000 evolution process resulted in Above: Pete Sampras puts the Grand Slam Tennis PS3, , Nintendo Wii, PC is recorded by a series of specialist animations to which it will add about biomechanically simulated stick video game through its paces. Photos: Bloomberg video cameras placed around the 1,500 new clips a year. figures that actually learned how to It is tempting to complain about performer and the data is spat out as Motion capture staff also have to be walk.” EA’s habit of releasing two or a set of 3D co-ordinates. This data is flexible to meet the unique demands Applied to video games, this more iterations of its soccer then checked and cleaned up before of each sport. “The playing surface has is leading to computer-controlled games every year, forcing fans being fed into the game to generate the always posed a bit of a challenge,” says characters with genuine muscle and continually to shell out for animation of the character model. Craig Koehn, a mocap specialist at EA motor nervous systems, who are able updates. But EA’s soccer games Beyond these essential components, Sports’ vast studio in Burnaby, British to make their own in-game movement are generally too good to miss, however, the detail and accuracy of the Columbia, Canada. “The studio floor decisions. NaturalMotion has now both in terms of superficial polish mocap process has evolved hugely. is concrete with rubber mats — that developed its own American football (this version, released for the World “In 1995 we’d use seven cameras, works fine for games like basketball sim, Backbreaker, that makes full use Cup, includes great animations of real- each with an effective resolution of but it’s not great for performing sliding of this system. “Previously, athletes life managers on the sidelines) and 150k pixels, or 0.15 of a megapixel,” tackles. The original artificial turf was and their actions weren’t simulated at gameplay mechanics, better than any explains Nick Bolton, CEO of Vicon, horrible stuff to work on so we tried all,” says Reil. “They were just hollow other on offer right now. a UK company that makes motion installing live turf for shoots, which skeletons playing back animation data. capture equipment for the games and was fantastic but expensive. Today, Our technology gives these athletes a Wii Fit movie industries. “Those cameras we use the latest type of synthetic turf physical body, awareness and motor were running at somewhere between with a sand and rubber pellet base. control. In Backbreaker, players Nintendo Wii 30 and 60 frames per second, and we We had custom-made square pallets of autonomously decide how to take their On paper it shouldn’t have worked: give could capture about 25 markers at a the stuff made that can be interlocked target down — we don’t control it. One people an electronic board to stand on time. Today, we use 200 16-megapixel together to any configuration we want.” interesting consequence is that we’ve and make them do aerobics moves in cameras in our LA studio and we’re Importantly, though, modern had to implement a real-world penalty their living room. But work it did, and up to 2,000 frames per second. We can video games do not rely solely on system, which analyses the game as it Wii Fit — less a game, more an exercise also capture 3,000 markers at once.” motion capture data to produce unfolds because the computer players guide — has been a huge hit since its The process is also much more ever-more realistic human movement. will try illegally to grab the facemasks release in 2008, adopted by institutions portable. In the 1990s, mocap was The problem is, while the resulting of their opponents.” as varied as health clubs and military confined to specialist studios, but now animations look authentic, as pre-built Meanwhile, back in the more rehabilitation clinics. Joshua Bryant, 11, of Wallingford, Connecticut, Audiomotion can grab an array of loops they can’t react in real time to serene atmosphere of Celtic Manor, plays the Nintendo Wii Punch Out game at the cameras and a few computers to work unique events. In recent years, however, what’s interesting is how comfortable Forza Motorsport 3 Nintendo World store in New York. in any interior location. Matt Rank, developers have begun merging Rory McIlroy is with the mocap Xbox 360 Photo: Bloomberg systems manager at Audiomotion, mocap data with increasingly complex technology — if not the suit itself. “procedural animation,” which uses Over multiple takes he’s able, A racing game of enormous scope, physics calculations and biomechanical perfectly, and beautifully, to allowing you to burn around a dozen detail to generate authentic movement replicate his trademark swing, even real-life tracks (plus more made-up ones) on the fly. In a soccer sim, for though he doesn’t usually compete in everything from an Aston Martin to a example, this might mean a player in full Lycra bodysuits. Partly, this is Renault Twingo. Critics have praised its being tackled, then tripping over and down to training and muscle memory realistic physics: unlike games in which colliding awkwardly with a nearby — the need to mechanically cars remain pristine from the beginning to teammate — a string of events that recall the perfect swing as the end of a race, Forza’s vehicles get the would be impossible to anticipate in a a matter of routine. But hell beaten out of them and show it. motion capture session. The trick is in there’s something else: segueing seamlessly from mocap loops over the past decade, Punch Out!! into physics-based animations — it’s motion capture has also something that developers such as EA become a vital element of Nintendo Wii Sports are continually refining. professional sport itself. Gratuitous exclamation marks aside, Some turn to third-party solutions. Nick Bolton explains: this update of an 1980s arcade boxing A leading example is Oxford-based “We’ve got three systems up at game is excellent. Making perfect use software company NaturalMotion, Loughborough which are used by of the Wii’s motion-sensor controls, whose physics-based animation the sports science group and by the players shadowbox in front of the screen, engine, Euphoria, is used by dozens England Cricket Board — they’re seeing their movements translated into of game developers seeking to build trying to achieve two things: uppercuts and jabs in the game. Tiring, characters with more realistic in-game performance optimization, making but very, very fun.