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Stance changing is not interruptable
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

Currently, buttons for changing stances (standing up/crouch/prone) are not responsive while stance changing animation is playing. I believe that if you lay behind the rock, when you try to stand up if you will see enemy looking at you, you will not continue to stand up in the full height before going to hide again. I suppose that when you press stance changing button during stance changing, previous animation should be interrupted and the opposite one (e.g. crouch_to_prone -> prone_to_crouch) should be started from the appropriate moment. I guess that unit's height from the ground is a good synchronization point for these two animations. I mean that if stance changing button was pressed during stance changing animation and new target stance isn't equal to previous, height from the ground should be saved and animation should be replaced with the opposite one, starting from the moment when the unit have the same height from the ground.

Details

Legacy ID
1464172167
Severity
None
Resolution
Fixed
Reproducibility
Always
Category
Anims
Steps To Reproduce

press any stance changing button during stance changing animation.

actual: nothing happens.
expected: see description.

Event Timeline

Grief edited Steps To Reproduce. (Show Details)Jun 3 2013, 10:58 PM
Grief edited Additional Information. (Show Details)
Grief set Category to Anims.
Grief set Reproducibility to Always.
Grief set Severity to None.
Grief set Resolution to Fixed.
Grief set Legacy ID to 1464172167.May 7 2016, 2:24 PM

I agree. But I can see this may either:

A) Cause weird-looking animations

or

B) Create complaints of people shooting someone "right in the head", and it having no effect.

bez added a comment.Jun 4 2013, 1:58 AM

+1
But i see a different problem,
The engine which does not handle animations very good.

reminds me of the issue with the enemies in ARAM2 and below
needing to first stop their animation before they fall to the ground and die.
I don't even remember if it was ever fixed.

Grief added a subscriber: Grief.May 7 2016, 2:24 PM
Grief added a comment.Jun 4 2013, 11:27 AM

Regarding weird-looking animations, if skeletal animation system is used (I am pretty sure that this system is used in arma) it is not hard to implement smoothing between two different animations.

As for usual hardcore vs. casual debates, I believe that when it is said that this game is a real war simulation, it should be possible to perform usual movements. In my opinion, that's the same true for jumping and many other things, but it is offtop.

If engine doesn't support animations well then it should be fixed, otherwise what is the goal of this bugtracker? I am the same programmer, and I know how it infuriates to fix tons of bugs, but still.

Smookie added a subscriber: Smookie.May 7 2016, 2:24 PM

This issue is already under my scope, programmers are aware and looking for fix, awaiting green light to fix it.

bez added a comment.Jun 4 2013, 1:31 PM

thank you smookie :)
good luck!

Grief added a comment.Jun 4 2013, 2:13 PM

That sounds sweet. Thanks.

MadDogX added a subscriber: MadDogX.May 7 2016, 2:24 PM

Sounds like this has been officially "acknowledged". ;)

Does that mean that this bug is actually a feature and won't be fixed or it means that it will be fixed later?

It just means the devs are aware of the issue and are exploring possible fixes.

Grief added a comment.Jun 26 2013, 1:15 PM

OK, thanks for the answer.

Vespa added a comment.Jul 30 2013, 2:41 PM

Stance changes should be much more responsive now - best we could do.

bez added a comment.Jul 30 2013, 8:43 PM

@Grief if you ever see the skeleton used in ArmA,
you might take what you said back.

It is the most complex and outdated rig I have ever seen in my life.
And there is no need for it to be like that.

Grief added a comment.Jul 30 2013, 8:45 PM

First of all - THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I have tested:

crouch<->stand up - excellent!
crouch<->prone - brilliant too!

prone <-> stand up - works only when pressed immediately one after another in a split second, otherwise both animations are playing completely one after another. Was it intended?

Also, combitations like stand up -> prone -> crouch don't work and look a bit silly: character starts prone with poistion very simmilar to crouch, but he still continues to prone before return to the crouch.

Grief added a comment.Jul 30 2013, 8:49 PM

@bez what do you mean by 'no need for it to be like that'?

<offtopic>
And I believe that at the moment the most complex rig has the game named overgrowth. You can find demos on youtube.
</offtopic>

bez added a comment.Jul 30 2013, 10:33 PM

Overgrowth have features in it's animations and movement
ability ArmA does not have, and it for bunnies and wolfs.
Anyway, I can't compare the two, because I haven't seen Overgrowth skeletons.

I could be wrong since it could be that opening the max file I downloaded
duplicated the bones or who ever made the max file did it wrong, I don't know.

All I know it had many many bones who did not do anything to the charcter mesh.
they were just there, the thigh for example was constructed from two bones
with a joint in the middle of the thigh, but only one of them actually moved the thigh, why?
(it was hard to see with so many bones on top of each other maybe there were more then two),
And same goes for most of the body prats I have seen there.

Try to work with something like that, and you will get frustrated very quickly, on top of that try to do it
with the time constraints the DEV team have, and I am not surprised the animations are not the best.

Why do I need bones in the rig that serve no purpose?
Maybe I am wrong and they do, but compare this skeleton to a
modern skeleton from lets say UDK, and you will see what I mean.

Now I understand, thanks for explanations. I am not sure but believe that these bones are needed for different reasons - collision detection, weapon alignment, shaders etc. Bones are not necessarily must be related to the mesh itself. The are no correlations between them and animation complexity. You said that 'only one of them moved the thigh' - it can confirm my conjecture, but only developers know the truth.

bez added a comment.Jul 31 2013, 2:02 AM

So I have opened a A3_character_example.max (from a new download) again,
and all bones seem to work now and it's also much more neat,
it probably had something wrong in the previous file I tried because it was really a mess.

But still, look at this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34313938/ArmA3/skeletons.jpg

I don't understand why there is a need for more bones then necessary.
Why would I need the thigh to bend in the middle?
or the upper or lower arms or the shin bone for that matter.

Probably it does serve some purpose, personally though,
it just looks cumbersome to me.

-EDIT-
With all that said, I think it is now very responsive (the stance changes) and it's really great!
And I know I can be a very criticizing, so I feel the need to say that,
BI, you are doing a great job, and this is by far your best since OFP,
it's just that I want it to be better :) because it's my favorite game ever!!!

Also, when I think about it it's not really related to the skeleton itself.
it's more of a programming thing.

Mass closing resolved tickets from last month.