Source:

http://www.guildwars2junkies.com/2012/06/28/guildwars2-junkies-interview-with-lead-designer-eric-flannum/

Interview:

Good interview. They are working on the things they should be working on and they aren't ruling out that we will see the Asura and Sylvari in the next BWE.

Originally posted by orator1970

 

GW2J: One of the most common issues players have with GW2 is its animations. Some people have complained that a character appears to be “floating,” or not attached to the ground. Some have pointed out shadows or different kinds of “change of direction” animations that take place. Can you explain what your animation team has done and perhaps some of the reasoning why things are the way they are?

 

Eric: I think there are a few different things that people refer to when describing things as feeling “floaty.” There are a number of bugs with things like player shadows, footsteps, and model position that contribute to this feeling. Those are things that we intend to fix.

 

The other thing that people point to involves our use of transition animations to make our animations look and feel smoother. In many games when they use transition animations, they will restrict movement to match the animation. Instead of doing that we opted to make our movement more responsive, so while the animation may look like the character is transitioning from one movement set to another, the character is actually moving in the new direction immediately. This may help contribute to the “floaty” feel that some people complain about, but we feel that in the long run it is a good compromise between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness.

 

This compromise will be bad for GW2.  Character responsiveness is a crucial feeling of being connected to your character.  This is why Warhammer, EQ2, and other MMOs got it wrong.  This is where WoW gets it right.  That feeling of connection just feels right.  As soon as i let go of the Forward key, i want my character to stop moving period, without anymore animations.  There was a video someone made that explained it and showed it perfectly during BWE1, but i forgot the link.

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by orator1970

 

GW2J: One of the most common issues players have with GW2 is its animations. Some people have complained that a character appears to be “floating,” or not attached to the ground. Some have pointed out shadows or different kinds of “change of direction” animations that take place. Can you explain what your animation team has done and perhaps some of the reasoning why things are the way they are?

 

Eric: I think there are a few different things that people refer to when describing things as feeling “floaty.” There are a number of bugs with things like player shadows, footsteps, and model position that contribute to this feeling. Those are things that we intend to fix.

 

The other thing that people point to involves our use of transition animations to make our animations look and feel smoother. In many games when they use transition animations, they will restrict movement to match the animation. Instead of doing that we opted to make our movement more responsive, so while the animation may look like the character is transitioning from one movement set to another, the character is actually moving in the new direction immediately. This may help contribute to the “floaty” feel that some people complain about, but we feel that in the long run it is a good compromise between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness.

 

This compromise will be bad for GW2.  Character responsiveness is a crucial feeling of being connected to your character.  This is why Warhammer, EQ2, and other MMOs got it wrong.  This is where WoW gets it right.  That feeling of connection just feels right.  As soon as i let go of the Forward key, i want my character to stop moving period, without anymore animations.  There was a video someone made that explained it and showed it perfectly during BWE1, but i forgot the link.

I haven't felt any animation problems. I assume you're pre-purchase as well? Or just speculating on what's written?

Originally posted by Magnetia

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by orator1970

 

GW2J: One of the most common issues players have with GW2 is its animations. Some people have complained that a character appears to be “floating,” or not attached to the ground. Some have pointed out shadows or different kinds of “change of direction” animations that take place. Can you explain what your animation team has done and perhaps some of the reasoning why things are the way they are?

 

Eric: I think there are a few different things that people refer to when describing things as feeling “floaty.” There are a number of bugs with things like player shadows, footsteps, and model position that contribute to this feeling. Those are things that we intend to fix.

 

The other thing that people point to involves our use of transition animations to make our animations look and feel smoother. In many games when they use transition animations, they will restrict movement to match the animation. Instead of doing that we opted to make our movement more responsive, so while the animation may look like the character is transitioning from one movement set to another, the character is actually moving in the new direction immediately. This may help contribute to the “floaty” feel that some people complain about, but we feel that in the long run it is a good compromise between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness.

 

This compromise will be bad for GW2.  Character responsiveness is a crucial feeling of being connected to your character.  This is why Warhammer, EQ2, and other MMOs got it wrong.  This is where WoW gets it right.  That feeling of connection just feels right.  As soon as i let go of the Forward key, i want my character to stop moving period, without anymore animations.  There was a video someone made that explained it and showed it perfectly during BWE1, but i forgot the link.

I haven't felt any animation problems. I assume you're pre-purchase as well? Or just speculating on what's written?

Pre-purchased.  Both BWEs, both stress tests.  The animations aren't the problem, because they look great and realistic.  It's the continued movement of the animations, after releasing the movement keys, that makes it feel "floaty".  All character movement, and animations, should stop immediately after releasing the movement keys, but Eric Flannum above says, they compromised "between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness." , which is my main disagreement with this approach.

So he's saying that despite the appearance of the animation the actual movement obeys character input? I didn't notice a floaty feeling when playing, but as long as the input is not delayed by the animation I don't see this as a terrible compromise. It's when animation has priority over actual input that a player really feels a disconnect.

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by Magnetia

Originally posted by observer

Originally posted by orator1970

 

GW2J: One of the most common issues players have with GW2 is its animations. Some people have complained that a character appears to be “floating,” or not attached to the ground. Some have pointed out shadows or different kinds of “change of direction” animations that take place. Can you explain what your animation team has done and perhaps some of the reasoning why things are the way they are?

 

Eric: I think there are a few different things that people refer to when describing things as feeling “floaty.” There are a number of bugs with things like player shadows, footsteps, and model position that contribute to this feeling. Those are things that we intend to fix.

 

The other thing that people point to involves our use of transition animations to make our animations look and feel smoother. In many games when they use transition animations, they will restrict movement to match the animation. Instead of doing that we opted to make our movement more responsive, so while the animation may look like the character is transitioning from one movement set to another, the character is actually moving in the new direction immediately. This may help contribute to the “floaty” feel that some people complain about, but we feel that in the long run it is a good compromise between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness.

 

This compromise will be bad for GW2.  Character responsiveness is a crucial feeling of being connected to your character.  This is why Warhammer, EQ2, and other MMOs got it wrong.  This is where WoW gets it right.  That feeling of connection just feels right.  As soon as i let go of the Forward key, i want my character to stop moving period, without anymore animations.  There was a video someone made that explained it and showed it perfectly during BWE1, but i forgot the link.

I haven't felt any animation problems. I assume you're pre-purchase as well? Or just speculating on what's written?

Pre-purchased.  Both BWEs, both stress tests.  The animations aren't the problem, because they look great and realistic.  It's the continued movement of the animations, after releasing the movement keys, that makes it feel "floaty".  All character movement, and animations, should stop immediately after releasing the movement keys, but Eric Flannum above says, they compromised "between smooth-looking animation and responsiveness." , which is my main disagreement with this approach.

As soon as you let go of your forward key, your character does stop moving immediately.  For functionality purposes, which i think is the only aspect of movement relevant to the issue of responsiveness, all progress is immediately ceased.  You have complete and utter control over your character the moment you press your buttons (just like in WoW--or as opposed to a game like FFXIV, where you actually lose control of your character for a milisecond as he slowly skids to a stop or pivots to turn around--looks great, feels pretty bad at times.).  The only difference is there is a realistic animation put in place to display the deceleration, momentum change and shift in body weight.

Perhaps some of it just comes down to personal preference.  I've experienced everything he and you are talking about; I just actually really liked it.  I thought it looked great and didn't hamper my feeling of control over my character in the slightest.  And I've been a part of many forum debates in the past arguing for how right WoW got character movment.  So far, however, I actually feel this is a step forward from WoW.  With this compromise, you get the best of both qualities: the good, realistic looking motion and the responsive feel.