May 10, 2006
Highly anticipated Vanguard: Saga
of Heroes MMORPG using the EMotion FX Character Animation System at E3
Mystic Game Development, a pioneer
in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that Sigil Game
Online’s Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was built using Mystic’s EMotion FX real-time
character animation technology as a core component. The MMORPG game, which
received coverage in all 3 major US PC magazines recently, is being shown at E3
in LA this week.
“Having met and worked with the
Sigil team since 2004, we set out to evolve EMotion FX as it was then, into the
production SDK it is now. Put it this way, imagine having 2000 different
characters and having to animate them all individually. Instead, you animate
just 1 character and play back the same motion data on all characters, so saving
a huge amount of animator time" said John van der Burg, Development Director at
Mystic Game Development. "We are delighted to see what Sigil has been creating
and look forward to playing the game".
“To give a character over 500 unique
motions and very detailed character customization down to a per bone level needs
a special Animation product” continues John van der Burg, from Mystic Game
Development. “When you are creating a game with the scope and scale of Vanguard
you need the right animation engine and the right support"
“EMotion FX has given us the ability
to have myriad distinct player character models while allowing us to share most
of the mesh assets and animations,” said Kevin McPherson, Senior Programmer at
Sigil Games Online. “I have found the API easy to integrate, well written, and
it supports the variety of complex features we needed for our character and
animation systems. These systems include asset sharing through retargeting and
shrink-wrapping, customization, look-at controllers, and motion blending/mixing.I
recommend EMotion FX to developers that are looking for a total character
solution.”
