A Very Limber Wolf

[loboLoco]

[youtube]wWJjS9NnrIA[/youtube]
Video link:

For a 3D game, job one is creating a persuasive illusion of the game-world. We’ve got many techniques to help us do that, but if any of them fail, the illusion is broken. If you’re lucky, at least you get a funny blooper video out of it. Today’s blooper is courtesy the wolf’s IK system.

“IK” stands for “Inverse Kinematics” and in games, it usually refers the system used to make a character connect realistically to the world. For example, a “walk” animation typically assumes that the character is walking on flat ground. But of course, the ground is often not flat — especially in Yellowstone! With a good IK system, the feet recognize the actual ground and adjust their movements accordingly, whether going uphill or downhill or laterally along a slope. When it works, it makes the character’s movements much more believable. When it doesn’t, the feet can’t find the ground, so they go…other places.

There are some great tools for IK, but they’re designed for bipeds. Quadrupeds are special cases, and often rather uncooperative. Last year we configured a pretty good IK setup on our wolf. But it had a few problems, and they got worse rather than better as we tried to refine them, possibly exacerbated by changes in recent versions of Unity. We finally decided to try another tool, called Bio IK, which promises more organic IK techniques. Unfortunately, it’s not a simple swap-in replacement. Sigh. So we’re digging in to figure out how to revise our system to work with this new IK tool. We’re optimistic, but it’s another example of why we should never utter the words “coming soon” during development. We are in the noses-to-the-grindstone period where it is hard to see progress on some days. But we know that it will all come together!

On a more positive note, we’ve got the first of our two new programmers up and running with the project. Andrei, who is from Brazil, began by writing some editor scripts to manage terrain elements and is now working secondary systems for music and weather. Please give Andrei a warm welcome!

[Frodo1]

Oh goodness, it seems our dear wolfie has been spending a little too much time with our friend Floppy Moose XD
Wow, all of this rigging and programming sounds so very complicated! I bet it will look spectacular when it's done, but I hope you can get it all sorted without too much hassle.
Ah, welcome, Andrei! I hope you enjoy your stay on the WolfQuest team!

[Phasoli]

It's majestic. Hahaha, this is the best thing I've seen all day!

[xc92u3]

That wolf really needs to see a phychologist. Or he doesn't have any bones...?? Squid-wolf! That was awesome, thank you, Anderi, for helping. And thanks Dave, for this hilarious blooper! Love the music pick!

[Weylenn]

Looks totally normal here! ;D
Could we maybe have a stranger wolf that does this, and chases after floppy?

[wolf_whisperer98]

I don't know... I think the players would go for this because it's so hilarious XD Thanks for the blooper!

[Silverheart98]

Haha this is great xD Thank you for making me smile! (I wasn't havning that great day). Anyway, best luck for the game making!
And welcome Andrei! I hope you will have great time! cx
This will be such an amazing game once it's out <3

~Silver

[airbones]

Ah, the majesty of nature. x)

And a huge welcome to the WQ fam, Andrei! It's always exciting to see the team growing.

[Allikat10011]

The new Twilight movie looks good!

[Jeames]

I laughed when I saw this! Thanks for sharing this wonderful blooper!
That wolf so majestic, much wow.

[Windstrider]

=

Looks totally normal here! ;D
Could we maybe have a stranger wolf that does this, and chases after floppy?

Yass xD

Also, welcome to WQ, Andrei!

[SheWolf17]

Looks like we have a pack of coyotes now, and the map is incredible...
And the wolf dance is fantastic, Why are you going to fix it? XD

[Sunset-Light]

Has WolfQuest turned into a game about awkward yoga? Oooh, I love those majestic downward dogs. XD

[ViperBrains]

I've never seen something more majestic in my life. Such beauty, such elegance. A very good way to show off during yoga classes.

[Brinnadaze]

After a stressful day of school it was nice come home to this silly little blooper video. Thanks WQ for always finding a way to make me smile. I’m excited for WQ3! Glitches, bloopers and all!
xoxo