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Best cloth animations/physics in games (real-time or pre-baked)? And what upcoming games will/may have good billowy, flowing cloaks/capes/scarves/etc.

Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
The talk of Jedi: Fallen Order sequel got me thinking how wonderful the ponchos were in the fir at game (that Dathomirian poncho! 😩), but they were dynamic and billowy enough.

Can't find too many good examples at the moment, but I recall a good gif of a Tekken character in a long dress that was impressive (though was probably preset animations tuned to their moveset).

What are the best animations/physics for this stuff in games though? And what examples do we have to look forward to in future games?
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
can't recall any examples on-hand, but I remember Ubisoft experimenting with machine learned cloth deformation. with current gen hardware, I can see better cloth sims in the future

 
kidnemo

kidnemo

Member
Dec 11, 2017
1,159
Only tangentially related, but this topic always reminds me of the Virtua Fighter 3 Aoi demo where they showed the cloth physics.

Was a big deal at the time.
 
Sonix

Sonix

Prophet of Regret
Member
Aug 3, 2020
1,965
Its a pretty hard problem to solve convincingly as you have to check collision against the actual high-LOD msh and not some low-poly approximation like what is sufficient for normal collision detection.

I was mightily impressed back in the day when Splinter CEll hatd these really nicely animated curtains:

www.aroged.com

Amazing: In 2002, Splinter Cell's dynamic lighting and cloth physics were pretty impressive.

© Reddit user borkh1 decided to remind everyone that back in 2002, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell had excellent lighting and cloth physics, demonstrating the gameplay of the game. Also in the game it was possible to shoot at street lamps, thus hiding from enemies. It’s hard to believe that it was...
www.aroged.com www.aroged.com
 

Deleted member 110527

Mar 11, 2022
1,311
not real time obviously, but i remember being really impressed by some of the cloth physics in TLOU2... tho, maybe not quite as impressed as this person (as in, it may not be the most technologically impressive thing i've ever seen in a video game, but it's incredibly well done and the first thing that came to my mind here!!)



them rope physics too
 
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Wetalo

Member
Feb 9, 2018
724
Funny you talk about Jedi Fallen Order cause I was gonna mention The Force Unleashed was ahead of its time when it came to cloth physics.

Kinda janky looking back but I still love the look of it.
 
Temascos

Temascos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,505
Helldivers is a great one

VoTIP4d.gif
 
Rated-G

Rated-G

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,324
I'm not sure if it can be posted here but The Last of Us Part II had multiple scenes where characters removed clothing, sometimes even with multiple hands interacting, just so casually done in context, while anyone who's ever dealt with a scene like that for animation or sim was left sitting there like:
rick.jpg


Edit: beaten! And yes I was as impressed as that person, many of us were. Between that and Joel hooking his thumb into his belt loop. All simple sounding on paper, surprisingly difficult to pull off in practice. Usually you avoid it in animation, and ESPECIALLY in games.
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,274
Cloth physics still feel a bit like a holy grail

I remember a designer putting on this virtual fashion show during covid and it makes you realize how far games still need to go to reach this kind of level

 
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Indy in the Fridge

Indy in the Fridge

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
15,278
AC: Unity has some really impressive cloth animations. It also has very impressive-looking fabric if placed under the right light. Like you can really see the velvet or texture of the material


tumblr_n6zigbqwEJ1qzx7rao1_500.gif

 

Deleted member 110527

Mar 11, 2022
1,311
Rated-G said:
Edit: beaten! And yes I was as impressed as that person, many of us were. Between that and Joel hooking his thumb into his belt loop. All simple sounding on paper, surprisingly difficult to pull off in practice. Usually you avoid it in animation, and ESPECIALLY in games.
Click to expand...
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oh shit i forgot about that!! that belt loop move was super impressive too!
 
Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,397
I always liked Batman's cape physics in the Ham games. Specifically the cape; was always what you expected and wanted out of it, which is more than I can say for some of the more ambitious attempts at cloth physics for stuff like hair.
 
Teenage Fansub

Teenage Fansub

Member
May 24, 2019
22,187
Are the LOU2 cutscene examples realtime physics or precisely hand animated?

edit: I know the title asks for both. Not saying it doesn't belong in the thread.
 
KORNdog

KORNdog

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,001
I remember AC unity and the order 1886 both having real nice soft cloth physics. They had good drapery. And they seemed correctly weighted.

Weirdly AC went back to quite thick, rigidly soft cloth physics afterwards.
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,274
Hella said:
I always liked Batman's cape physics in the Ham games. Specifically the cape; was always what you expected and wanted out of it, which is more than I can say for some of the more ambitious attempts at cloth physics for stuff like hair.
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There's that trivia that one developer spend two years working on Batman's cape in the first Arkham game. And it kind of makes sense, especially with Batman's cape you don't just want it to hang there like a wet towel. It needs to be something flashy and dynamic but at the same time not constantly get entangled with the character model
 
Indy in the Fridge

Indy in the Fridge

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
15,278
Spring-Loaded said:
That looks real good, especially for a decade ago.
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Unity is still a very beautiful game. Runs great on Series X after the FPS boost patch. It can still bug out and the engine struggles at times with the population density, but when it works it looks gorgeous.

Also, Ubisoft went full force in developing really great looking outfits and weapons for the game. It is my 2nd favorite AC after Odyssey.
 
SickNasty

SickNasty

Member
Mar 18, 2020
1,250
Teenage Fansub said:
Are the LOU2 cutscene examples realtime physics or precisely hand animated?

edit: I know the title asks for both. Not saying it doesn't belong in the thread.
Click to expand...
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The character animation is used as a base in something like Houdini, which then runs cloth simulation on top of it to match the animation. The resulting cloth movement is baked out on every frame so you end up with an animation asset which morphs its shape every frame to match the simulation. You then put this in the scene and basically just press play. It's not realtime at all and it's the same basic principle as the guy pulling the cloth off the car there, anyone COULD do it, you just don't because it takes ages and is insanely expensive both on man hours and animation memory.
Thumb up emoji.
 
Kadzork

Kadzork

Has got mad skills!!
Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,733
I can only find terrible quality gifs but I loved Bloodborne's cloth physics.

Made the combat feel even more fluid - it felt like a dance at all times.
 
Phoenixazure

Phoenixazure

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,436
There is a great video on how SNK manually did the animations for Rock Howard in XIV/XV which is still some of the most impressive attention to detail in a fighting game IMO

youtu.be

ANIMATION EXCELLENCE: Rock Howard

A.B.I. talks about the excellent animation of Rock Howard, and how SNK preserved his animation in King of Fighters 14BGM 1: Character Select (Garou: Mark of ...
youtu.be youtu.be
 
Dave.

Dave.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,141
They glitch out sometimes, but Destiny 2 has excellent cloth physics most of the time on hunter cloaks (and titan towels). Very little clipping considering the vast gear possibilities.
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,605
The Order: 1886 had some pretty impressive fabrics throughout.

I remember that windy blimp section looking pretty damned good.
 
Tokyo_Funk

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
HeRinger said:
Man, this must have been a nightmare to devs at the time.
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Not at all. 3D programmes like Maya allow you to store the animation data in a cache/allembic that is then transferred over like any other regular animation in a pre-baked state. Anything that doesn't look right can be tweaked and altered until it does and then exported to the game engine. Pre-baking it like this is much less hardware intensive than something that is real time.
 
Modest_Modsoul

Modest_Modsoul

Living the Dreams
Member
Oct 29, 2017
23,554
The latest character DLC in King of Fighters XV; Ryuji Yamazaki in his coat, probably the best (& only?) character with apparent & appropriate cloth physics in the game.

c3cb95a4c5cce847766156fc5274b89879b540d4.gifv


It's not groundbreaking per se, but they're nice to see. 🤷
 
Sacrilicious

Sacrilicious

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,318
ILikeFeet said:
can't recall any examples on-hand, but I remember Ubisoft experimenting with machine learned cloth deformation. with current gen hardware, I can see better cloth sims in the future

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Hm, not bad, if it's as fast as they say. It's a little too stiff compared to the best physics-based simulations, but I'm sure that'll get better.

This has a lot of potential, I look forward to seeing this evolves.
 
Team_Feisar

Team_Feisar

Member
Jan 16, 2018
5,352
Our yup I remember this specific armor set (is it the first ursine one?) to look like a generation apart from nearly all other clothes in the game. Maybe there's one or two others that use the same material but they are definitely rare.
 
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