Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV will be implementing NaturalMotion's Euphoria engine for its character AI. Hmm, where have we heard that name before? Oh, yes, it's the same engine being used by LucasArts for their Star Wars: The Force Unleashed title. So, if you want to get a grasp of what this means for your car-jacking, hit-and-running, and rampaging destruction go check out the tech demo videos we have for the engine. Although, we doubt this means you'll be able to get your hands on a R2-D2 cannon. How do you think the use of Euphoria will play into the gameplay style that is GTAIV?
GTAIV going to Unleash "euphoric" experience
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV will be implementing NaturalMotion's Euphoria engine for its character AI. Hmm, where have we heard that name before? Oh, yes, it's the same engine being used by LucasArts for their Star Wars: The Force Unleashed title. So, if you want to get a grasp of what this means for your car-jacking, hit-and-running, and rampaging destruction go check out the tech demo videos we have for the engine. Although, we doubt this means you'll be able to get your hands on a R2-D2 cannon. How do you think the use of Euphoria will play into the gameplay style that is GTAIV?





Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-01-2007 @ 11:51AM
Toph said...
...Cops scrambling to get away from your rocket launcher, civilians running in a panic, pushing people away. When you fight some gang, they swarm you and try tactics to take you down other than just stand there..shotgun blasts affect them realistically..the list goes on.
I just hope you can 'unlock' weaponry you'd WANT to use right away and not have to use some cheat code. Crackdown did this excellently...all I ever want to do is explore, kill people and blow the crap out of stuff..let's see that embraced right away with GTA 4 and less of a forced narrative beforehand.
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3-01-2007 @ 12:51PM
KillerGreen said...
^ You make it sound pretty good in that first part... I especially like the notion of the cops scrambling to get away, instead of just standing their waiting to get blown up. There have been enough decent to very good sandbox games in the past year or so that GTA really has some actual competition now, so they need step it up. Last rumor I heard was that they were considering Asia as the locale--- anyone know some new info?
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3-01-2007 @ 12:56PM
joe said...
the best part of this....
Euphoria supports full deformable environments.
and simulation based animation.
when you add that together with photo realistic graphics of rockstar Ping pong, you got your GTAIV
im glad their making a this game i just hope its massive, bigger then crackdown please, ill take two discs
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3-01-2007 @ 1:20PM
Jack the Ripper said...
BRING BACK RAY LIOTTA! Ahem.
I'm really excited about seeing what finished games that use Euphoria will play like. I'm so glad we're finally moving ahead from the stupid ragdoll physics that make me feel like my enemies are a bunch of slightly sentient action figures. I really miss the elaborate death animations of Turok and Goldeneye, so here's hoping Euphoria makes killing fun again.
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3-01-2007 @ 1:51PM
Banjoker said...
It's funny, as soon as I read the story yesterday about Rockstar looking into using the Euphoria engine, my thoughts immediately turned to how much it could add to the GTA games.
I'm pretty stoked. It'll be awesome seeing a more realistic response from your enemies - from police to drug dealers to that whore who just jacked you for $100 and only left you with 25 extra health points. That bitch.
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3-01-2007 @ 3:46PM
Pragmatick said...
Euphoria just provides better (intelligent) rag dolls. As cool as it is, the characters still react and move like puppets. There potential is enormous, but none of the videos I saw really convinced me. So no deformable environments, joe, that's DMM and developed by Lucas Arts, if I am well informed.
And I still think it's mysterious that GTA4 is dated for October 17th, 2007 and I haven't even seen a screenshot, much less a video. And the implement Euphoria now? What's the point in announcing a game more than one and a half years ahead? I just hope they take quality over meeting the deadline.
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3-01-2007 @ 4:26PM
Adam540 said...
DMM is developed by Lucasarts and Pixelux Entertainment. It is completely separate from Euphoria. All Euphoria does is properly animate characters based on their AI. Its technically not an engine either. Its just an animation and AI program. Basically in real-time depending on what the characters AI wants it to do the animation is made. So that animators don't have to define preset animations for things like falling over or getting shot or limping etc. It will definitely make GTA a lot cooler from a killing people aspect. However the AI is still dependant on how well Rockstar implements it. If they want cops to work together and program it properly then Euphoria will animate it properly. Should be interesting to see how Rockstar uses it.
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3-01-2007 @ 4:34PM
Michael Leonardo said...
Exact comments from the thread on SW:TFU's euphoria engine (not by me):
6. Cool, this is the same engine that was originally demoed with the Indiana Jones game. If they can get that kind of interactivity running in realtime, it will be awesome.
Add it to some kind of sandbox game and the possibilities for shenanigans (and youtube vids) is endless. How big a chain of people can you get hanging off a skyscraper? :)
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3-01-2007 @ 6:48PM
Pragmatick said...
First Trailer will be out on March 29.
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3-02-2007 @ 3:57PM
King Keepo said...
Thanks Michael Leonardo, that was me :)
Can't wait to see it running for real, and I can't say how happy I am that it's ended up in a sandbox game!
Hopefully it'll be a sign of what can really be done with next-gen consoles, something that's clearly way way better than anything that's come before it.
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