What is Euphoria?
Euphoria is a game animation engine created by NaturalMotion based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis, Natural Motion’s proprietary technology for animating 3D characters on-the-fly “based on a full simulation of the 3D character, including body, muscles and motor nervous system”. Instead of using predefined animations, the characters’ actions and reactions are synthesized in real-time; they are different every time, even when replaying the same scene. While traditional physics engines uses ragdolls (like the Havok Physics Engine) for animations generated on the fly, Euphoria employs a more complex method to animate the entirety of physically-bound objects within the game environment. According to its web site, Euphoria runs on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC hardware platforms.
In February 2007, NaturalMotion and Rockstar Games announced that Euphoria would be used in future Rockstar titles. A press release that was enclosed with the second trailer eventually confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV is the first of Rockstar‘s games to feature Euphoria. In April 2006, LucasArts announced that their next Indiana Jones game would use Euphoria.The current Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 title Star Wars: The Force Unleashed also uses Euphoria.
In August 2007, NaturalMotion announced Backbreaker, an American Football game for next-generation consoles that employs Euphoria to generate tackles in real-time, as opposed to playback animation. [Infos from Wikipedia]
Engine Tech Demo:
GTA IV Tech Demo:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Tech Demo:
