OS Fact or Fiction: Real Time Physics Edition
 

Some games have done masterful jobs of implementing real-time physics. Efforts such as FIFA and NHL this year showcased what the technology could do. Other efforts, such as the one from Madden are still a little rough around the edges to be sure. But the question we're wondering today with our writers: are real time physics even necessary to have a great sports game still?

Read More - OS Fact or Fiction: Real Time Physics Edition

Physics are a big part of sports in real life and how can you have realistic sports game without something that happens in everyday life? Football especially needs physics (all the sports do but most importantly football).

You cant create accurate collisions with just animations and futhermore something like that shouldnt be confined to a animation. When you collide with someone in real life is it confined to an animation? Cant you break out of someone grabbing you or someone bumping into you? Yes! So why should a sports game be confined to an animation.

A prime example is NBA 2K13. I can still dunk on an opponent while clearly morphing through their arms. When have you ever seen that happen in a real NBA game?....Oh thats right...NEVER lol....Physics are what is needed to stop things like that in sports games. Its time. You all cant cry about realism and then not what the most realistic thing you can put in a sports game which is the law of physics, the laws we all abide by on this planet.

How can you say that Backbreaker had remotely realistic physics? They are more laughable then the oddities that popup from Madden. Physics are absolutely neccesary, you still see weird hits happen in all the previous 'success' of the archaic system. Once physics become more streamlined and devs remove the oddities (much like they did from 12 to 13 in FIFA), it is a clear necessity. NBA 2k has struggled from the interior, rebounding has its issues as does finishing (which had been improved from 2K12's 'everything is blocked' mentality). These things would be very much aided by physics, as would setting picks and the basic player movement.

Without physics there's warping (which tends to be an issue with coding and/or outdated engine). Warping was very much existent in APF 2K8 as other sports games. Neither looks good.

I hear what Jayson and Caley are saying, but backing up your point by citing games that were good five years ago doesn't really cut it for me.

Yes, those games were great when they came out.

Would you play any of them now?

The only one of them that's still playable in my mind is College Hoops 2K8, and that's only because there hasn't been a college basketball game released since EA's mediocre NCAA Basketball 10 three years ago.

I liked All-Pro Football 2K8 and College Hoops 2K8 too, but if the games on the next generation of consoles play like those two games, I'll be very disappointed.

Jayson Young: Fact. Games like All Pro Fotball 2K8 prove that you can create accurate player movement and realistic collisions using plain old motion capture animations. Obviously, the future of sports gaming lies in real time physics, but at this moment, it's not a necessity for making a believable sports simulation.

Procedural collisions can actually become a distraction and make a game less realistic if they are poorly implemented, as Madden NFL 13 has proved with its Three Stooges tackling routines and bizarre limb contortions.

Like any technology, real time physics is only as good as the programming behind it

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I couldn't agree more

Re: OS Fact or Fiction: Real Time Physics Edition
 

Well, sure, but that's a cop-out to me.

Nothing is a "necessity" if it sucks.

Fiction Physics is needed in sports games moving forward to make the AI more realistic.

Anyone who thinks the future of sports gaming doesn't have RTP at its core is fooling themselves.
Also the veiled argument that All Pro Football's animations are more palatable than Madden 13's RTP inclusion
(remembering that its the first year its been implemented) is borderline absurd. APF is very dated in most of its gameplay while this years Madden is better than EVERY football game before it almost solely due to the Infinity Engine. While its not anywhere near perfected, its still better than what came before it.
I have no problem seeing awkward limb contortions every now and again or a guy tripping over someone post-play in order to have the rest of what the Infinity Engine does right. This lack of credence given to Madden relative to the IE situation and all its POSITIVES appears to wreak of bias for whatever reason.
Funny that a game like NBA 2k13 is being praised as this pinnacle of sports gaming, while still having gameplay/presentation issues and what one could argue is a completely unintuitive control scheme, yet a game which has improved and started to remove the canned animations little by little opting for physics based gameplay is constantly criticized as shoddy...RIGHT