NBA Live 10 Blog: Player Movement w/ Videos

[infam0us]

I agree with you Wolf, the ball handler movements reminded me of 2k. Not necessarily a bad thing as long as the controlling of the player is better than what we've seen from 2k.

[GSW]

help a brotha out stumblee

[blues rocker]

HOLY CRAP!!!!!! THE BALL HANDLING LOOKS AMAZING!!!! It looks so fun to control, and looks REALLY responsive and tight. Being able to change direction and stop on a dime is something no basketball game has pulled off yet!!!! This ball handling is by far the best system in any basketball game to date.

Looks like the EA guys may have finally mastered ball-handling controls - no game has ever gotten it quite right (2k's ball-handling controls are too animation-heavy and cumbersome...Live 09 was pretty good with ball-handling, but this Live 10 system looks like it's on a whole different level!!!)

[stephensonmc]

We've released two of our three pieces of info.

You'll see one more today (hopefully)

[Stumbleweed]

Quote: Originally Posted by GSW

help a brotha out stumblee

07-August-2009

It’s time to talk about NBA player movement. No, I’m not talking about this year’s crazy off season of free agency and trades (I still can’t believe how much the top teams improved). When I say player movement, I’m talking about the motion of the individual players on the court. It’s no secret that NBA players are some of the most graceful and fluid athletes in the world with their explosiveness, agility, and co-ordination.

Past versions of NBA LIVE haven’t been known for having the most fluid and authentic player movement. We wanted to change all that for NBA LIVE 10 and it all started with our new approach to MoCap. I’ll blog about that at a later date so I won’t get into details but I will say that we brought in a bunch of NBA talent to make sure we were getting the most authentic motion possible. It was critical that the guys we brought into the studio moved closer to what you’re used to seeing in real life.

So, when we were capturing movement we paid special attention to off ball motion, ball handling, and guarding the basketball. Our focus was on getting the off ball motion to a level where it was more believable and authentic than any basketball game on the market. We wanted to see the players in Live cutting to the basket, curling the baseline, spotting up for scoring chances, and spacing the court.

The videos below give you guys an idea of the type of animations that we put into LIVE 10.

Here’s a quick look at what some of the cuts and curl animations will look like.

Here’s a short preview of what players will look like when they’re spacing the court.

Finally here’s a snapshot of some of our spot up animations where guys will present themselves as scoring threats.

As you can see, the clips I’m showing you aren’t final player models. They’re what we use to get a sense for how the body motion will look in game. However, the clips do show you guys what the animations look like in game. Imagine your teammates playing any one of these animations and moving with a sense of purpose on the court.

Here’s how some of these animations look in a 5 on 5 environment.

Note: This environment is one of the tools we use to test and tune the animations before we put them into the game.

In total, we have over 175 unique animations that are built into our AI creating the sense that your teammates are playing with you and moving without the ball.

The second major focus of player movement this year was to repair our ball handling system. On past NBA LIVE titles, dribbling was linked to the right stick to break down the defense. This year’s ball handling movement gives you control to change directions on the fly with slick looking contextual crossovers and also change pace with the control to stop and start your momentum using your left stick. With better ball handling built into our player movement stick you can get some really cool looking sequences when you sprinkle in the “Quickstrike Ball handling” moves on the right stick. Controlling the right guy and given the right matchup, you can pull of some pretty deadly combinations with the ball in your hand. Imagine weaving through a maze of defenders like great ball handlers such as Chris Paul or Deron Williams by combining the left and right stick movements. I’ll leave that for Mike to show you guys next week. Until then, check out this cool sequence of a players moving around the court with the left stick.

Here’s a variation of a similar sequence with another type of player.

When we were upgrading the system, we really wanted to make sure we accounted for player differentiation so as heads up, I wouldn’t try weaving through traffic as slow plodding dudes or bad ball handlers. Quicker players are able to change directions faster than anyone else so Dwayne Wade is going to feel more explosive and athletic than someone like Yao Ming or Brad Miller.

Here’s an example of another ball handling sequence with a player that is slower and less-skilled.

Notice how each player looks when they’re changing directions. They also feel way different now that we finally have a sense of weight and momentum with our players. The second piece to player differentiation was ensuring that guys weren’t lumped into the same category in terms of running style just because they played the same position. This was so wrong since, within each position there’s a range of athleticism, explosiveness, and movement style. For example, Lebron James and Mike Dunleavy Jr. are both small forwards that shouldn’t have the same movement style like they did in LIVE 09. In LIVE 10, all our styles are fully customizable so regardless of position, our players feel like they should. DWade really is “The Flash!”

Finally, what is player movement without the ability to guard the basketball? So, we spent a lot of time improving defensive movement. As a result, we were able to move away from locking defenders in canned sequences where you were riding the dribbler around the court. This year’s locomotion system puts the control in the hands of the defender to react quickly and move their feet to stay in front. It’s all about anticipation and knowing when and who to crowd and bump, and who to gap up and play positional D against. Mike is going to get into more detail about what will happen if you do the wrong thing but I will say that this year, playing defense is way more fun now that you have to think about who you’re guarding.

That’s all I’ll say about player movement for now. I’m excited about the systems we’ve put in place this year. We’re taking steps forward to give you an authentic experience. Get ready for Mike Wang and some pretty sick gameplay videos next week.

Later,

Jeff

[Manbearpig]

Quote: Originally Posted by stephensonmc

We've released two of our three pieces of info. You'll see one more today (hopefully)

really

[KChow21]

So the gameplay blog got delayed another week?

[GSW]

judging from that youtube video it looks liek big men migh be able to handle the ball too well... i havent read the article yet so dont tar and feather me.