Character Animation Evolved Edit
GTA4's Euphoria Engine

Character animation is becoming more evolved than ever before, as proven by the latest teaser for Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4).  The game, to be released next week, uses a new Euphoria Engine, thought to be among the most realistic at rendering character animation.

What does this engine actually do and how does it help the gamers reach ecstasy. For starters it makes animation more realistic and the games more hard to predict. Something which gamers are looking for all the time.

Initial games employed a strategy known as rag-doll which employed the notion that as soon as a person was moved around, the body would react only at the body joints.

Well this really isn’t the case.  However, the euphoria engine gives each character in the game a sense of emotion apart from a muscular skeleton and the standard skeleton to react. This means that when you get fired at you don’t go all limp, but react to the shot in a more realist manner, such as tumbling backwards. Similarly when falling over objects, you get a much more realistic fall. Check out the video for a comparison between the ragdoll and euphoria models.