Creating First Person Movement for MIRROR'S EDGE

Jonas Åberg, Lead Programmer, DICE

Tobias Dahl, Lead Animator, DICE

Agenda

• Intro• DICE• The Vistion• Team structure• Prototyping• Tools and pipeline• Iterations• Final Thoughts• Questions

Mirror’s Edge

• Intro movie

DICE facts

• Founded in 1992 by 4 guys in high school

• Owned by Electronic Arts since October 2006

• 260 employees- 17% non Swedes- 13 nationalities- 10 % girls- 25 % of Sweden’s games developers work at DICE

• Battlefield series sold 17 million copies

DICE Studio

DICE timeline

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Pinball Dreams is published on

Comondore Amiga

Digital Illusions Is founded

Pinball Fantasies wins ”developer’s

choice award”

BenefactorIs published on

Comondore Amiga

Pinnball IllusionsIs published on

Comondore Amiga

First Office opened in

Gothenburg

True Pinball is published on

SEGA Saturn and Sony Play station

Bonnier MediaInvests in the

company

S40 RacingIs released on PC

(for VOLVO)

Digital Illusions CEIs listed on the

Stockholm Stock- exchange

Motorhead is published on PC

and Sony PS

DICE aqures Refraction Games and major part of

Synergix Interactive

Rally Masters, STCC and Arvet

från Rosemond hill are published

Canadian Sandbox Studios

is aquired

STCC 2 is publishedRally Masters is awarded ”Racing game of the year”

Ralli Sport ChallangeBattlefield 1942

and Shrek Xtra largeare published

BF 1942 - awarded ”best game of 2002”Six titles from BF X-

packs to Barbie

EA aquires up to 19% of DICE

BF Vietnam and Ralli Sport

Challenge is published

Dice aquires Trauma St. GBG moves to STHLM

EA offers to buy all shares in DICE

EA aquires up to 70% of DICE

BF2 is publishedNumerous awards

Over 2 million copies sold

BF2 MC is published

Xbox PS2 Later on 360

2006

Dice Studios and EA holding merger

Dice an EA Company

BF 2142 is publishedIn October

The Vision

• First person free running• Rather run than fight• Highly stylized• A new take on first person gaming

First person free running

Rather run than fight

Stylized world

Through the character experience

• Redefine Battlefield’s ”Throught the gun”

• Feel the presence• Put the person back into

first person

Keys to success

• Team structure• Tools and pipeline• Prototyping• Iteration

Team structure

Team structure

• Scrum– Product backlog– Sprint backlog– Sprint Planning Meeting– Daily Scrum– Sprint Review Meeting

Team structure

• Perfect fit for the scrum format• 2 Week cycles• 5-6 people• Team seated together• Always one designer, one animator and one

coder assigned to a feature at the same time

Prototyping

• Initial concepts• First previsualisation• First Person Mesh• The Whiteroom• The Game

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

Initial Concepts

First Previsualisation

• Playblast Early Version• Playblast Iteration Version• Playblast Final version

First Person Mesh

• Blendshapes for knuckles and wrist, keeping the volume

• Blending normal maps for vains and muscles• FOV• Deformation Movie• FOV Movie

Animate First Person Perceivement

• First idea, do some mocap, parent the camera to the head, done!

Animate First Person Perceivement

• Second idea, put some aim constraint on the camera.

Animate First Person Perceivement

• Third idea, animate it by hand and make it look cool and believable

The Whiteroom

• A fast loading level with all the moves available

• Instead of an Animation Editor• Example Movie

The Tools

• We developed our own Maya tools and Pipeline tools for the project.

• High demands on functionality• Short iteration times• Reuse animations for all projects• Support all projects on DICE• Support different engines like Frostbite, BF2

and Unreal3

The Tools

• Develope our own animation format (.curve)• Import Mocap as well as handle hand

animated animations• Deal with many characters for Cutscenes• Facial animation system• Animation in Layers• High framerate (no playblasts)

The Tools

• DEMONSTRATION VIDEO OF THE TOOLS AND THE PIPELINE ~5 min…..

Iteration

• Movement was a key area of focus

• Camera motion• Motion sickness• Most moves iterated on 5-6

times

Jumping

• Context sensitive animations• Layered landing animations• Heavy landings / skill rolls

Wall runs

• Impact animation• Guided camera• Aiming• Dynamically triggered

Vaulting

• Fixed metrics at first• Became fully dynamic• Choose animation based on height /

speed /obstacle shape

Grabbing

• Impact / Different into animations• Shimmy• Aiming

Final Thoughts

• Successful production methodology• Strong belief in the game concept from the

beginning to the end• First person restrictions sometimes very

challenging.• The whole production – a learning experience