How to implement a possibly stupid system.

[pmartin]

A week ago I was just finishing my OROW game (which is also the first game I've made in years of messing around with AGS that had a little playability)  and it got me thinking about how static and 'dead' my character looked most of the time, except maybe in some animated sequences, for obvious reasons. This is common in most games, character that don't move a pixel unless they're doing something (like walking, talking...). And that's okay and you'll understand why if you watch this video. Of course this isn't the best source of explanation of the uncanny valley in video games theory, but it was the first that came to mind.

If you watched it or just know what I'm talking about you'll know that a character that looks like this
won't look off if he doesn't move at all because he's a cartoon. But this:

(sorry AJA)
looks off most of the time.

Now that you understand what the hell I'm talking about, let's go to my question.

I'm making a horror game that uses live action video for the cut scenes but for the in game characters, in order to avoid what I just explained, the game uses cut out animation from photos of the game's actors. This Idea really improved the way the game looks and feels since the cut-outs fits perfectly the theme and tone of the game EXCEPT the scenes where the character isn't animating or is going from static to, let's say a pick up animation. I know I could use Idle views for making animations while the character doesn't move, but most of the time what would someone do while standing around in a scary place? Tap his foot? No, I don't think I like the idea.

Then a couple days ago I had a idea to avoid the character being static most of the time without using just Idle Views. I'm not sure if I can explain it, but I'll try:

>The character moves depending of the mouse X, Y coordinates. If the mouse is over the character, then he doesn't move. Depending of how far the mouse is from the character the faster he walks in that direction.
(And yes,  I know that this makes interacting with anything besides the player character impossible. I could set some key on the keyboard as a 'Interact Key' or make the same system I described above, but instead of just moving the mouse to walk the player would have to click  and drag the mouse on the screen, but this would be the same thing as the default walking/not walking system)
                  This 'solves' my problem because it reduces a lot of the time the character stops moving, and it could possibly make the character seems a lot less calm and peaceful, since he's supposed to be scared or something. BUT this can be VERY VERY annoying if not done right.

>IF  the system I choose is the one I described inside the brackets above, where you have to click for the character to move, his eyes, head, body and, I don't know, flash light if his holding one turn to face the mouse position.

How do I go about implementing it? Is it possible?
And a unrelated question: I've read in several places that too many objects on screen causes slow downs on the engine. Can someone say about how many objects with an alpha layer it would take for this to happen in a average system?

(Christ, every post I make is HUGE)

[Grim]

I see your point but I still think a right idle animation would solve your problem. Instead of tapping a foot or juggling coloured balls or picking his nose, make sure you get the breathing done well. It's very simple, really, but it makes characters in your game look so much more alive. We all breathe and hardly ever think about it.

  I watched this documentary once about making of a War Horse, some kind of play that featured actors dressed as WWI horses, and it was then when I realized how important that is for a puppet to breathe. Now, a game character is like a puppet, right? Especially in a horror game, the anxiety and fear can be very well expressed by a person's respiratory rate...

  I can't help you with the technical side of what you described in your post, though I'm pretty sure it can be done with a bit of effort. I don't have enough knowledge myself for that I'm afraid... But I've notcied this post has been largely ignored for some reason so I thought I'd drop a word of advice. So, in two words- reconsider this running around the screen following mouse cursor idea and maybe try to get a transparent background for your sprites, use a bit of push/ warp to get few frames of idle animation and see how it looks. It sure works for me!:)

 

[pmartin]

I bet you just answered my lonely dying post because I started playing Downfall today. No kidding. Okay... Yesterday.

Anyway, THAT WAS SO OBVIOUS AND YET SO GENIUS that I feel like an idiot. Really Grim. Thanks.  I'm sure that the characters will look so much better with just a couple frames for a breathing animation.

Sometimes the most simple way to do something is the better. 

[TheraHedwig]

I think there's a second bit to think of: How often do we stand somewhere and stare into the distance?
I bet a whole lot of games would benefit if the npcs were shown leaning, or having a looking/examining animation, so you won't have those kind of scenes where you enter a room and see anna the npc just stare at a wall unmoving.

I mean the second screenshot your showing, would that guy not look better if he'd been leaning against the wall? Now he's just unaturally neutral. Not to mention this kinda stuff tells you about the npc as well.

[monkey0506]

I believe Khris made a module for multiple idle views (IdleIdle I believe it was called). It might be useful for major characters to have 2 or 3 idle views. Minor characters would probably be fine with just one. That would help resolve your original issue with idle views becoming too generic and unrealistic looking.

[pmartin]

Might as well try more idle views.  Thanks monkey.

And TheraHedwig, great point.

And slightly off topic, I don't know about everyone, but I would LOVE if someone implemented in the engine something like 3 part's characters, when the open sourcing of AGS is completed. Something like they had back then in Quake engine 3, where the body, head and torso could have different animations. It would be great for a lot of things, like, making a NPC or charater face something without fully turning around. It would save animators a lot of work and I guess it would reduce file sizes greatly.

Yes, I would be eternally grateful if someone did that.