The university's technology transfer company then teamed up with Natural Motion, the company the two students, Torsten Reil and Colm Massey, created to build and sell the engine. As such Oxford retains a share in anything Euphoria and Natural Motion should earn down the road. Such as ... Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Oxford's student newspaper (shout out to student media!) has the story. It couldn't get word on exactly how much the university will reap. But considering this is a breakthrough character modeling engine that eliminates the need for pre-made animations, I bet it didn't come cheaply.

Time was, video games were written on old mainframes during after-hours downtime. Now they're coming out of fully approved research and backed by funding from a world class university. Remember that one next time someone complains that this is a frivolous pursuit of ours.

Oxford to Profit from GTA IV [Cherwell, Oxford's student newspaper]

There is a drinking mini-game in very detailed form where you can get drunk and he can actually then stumble around and you have to get home. But all of that is fully simulated. So, it is not based on animation any more. It is actually all synthesized on the CPU. Which means that it has a completely different outcome every time you play.

New Indy 2007 footage from LucasArts, in a faux German WW2 propaganda-flavored shell that calls to mind the flippant and endearing flavor of the old adventure games. If they can preserve that feeling while imbuing it with fistfights and car chases, I'm going to be extremely pleased. Computer and Video games, where I got this clip, says:

LucasArts has of course spilled the beans on the euphoria technology previously, explaining that, in a nutshell, it imbues in-game characters with more 'natural' behaviour. It not only adds an extra layer of authenticity to proceedings but additionally, because it all works in real-time, we'll never see the same behaviour or action or reaction from an NPC twice. Just watch the game footage - which features lots of Indy punching people - in the trailer and it'll all become crystal clear. Hopefully.

It looks better on CVG than YouTube, so head over there for a closer look if you haven't seen enough above.

I wonder if the graphics have been slowmo'd a little for this trailer (aside from the obvious slow motion sequences), because everyone still looks a bit floaty. I'm hoping for snappy combat, more like the feel of GTA, where cracking a bat over someone's face felt more realtime than this trailer makes Indy look. Everything looks gooey and rubbery, and needs to be sped up by about 10%.

Still, I love the idea of never-the-same-way-twice combat. This makes reloading at checkpoints and fighting the same guys, or replaying the game at all, far more interesting.

Eliza Gauger

Better quality vid here [Computer and Video Games]

If you read my last update you'll know that things are a little unstable at the office today, so I did my best to check and see if we'd already posted this (sorta old) little movie demonstrating the post-ragdoll physics being used in the new Indiana Jones game. And I don't think we have. Be sure to write outraged e-mails to the tips address if I'm wrong, 'kay?

I think that might be Bashy scrabbling at the door just now, so I'll make this quick. This here video was made using the Endorphin engine, which LucasArts has mysteriously appropriated and renamed euphoria (yes, it does have to be lowercased and italicized)

The video is neat-ish, but I would have liked to see some clearer representations of the "same scenario, different results" thing being trumpeted in Game Informer's June Indy article. The screenshots look promising, if a little over-lightbloomed. But it sounds like Lucas himself has been a key part of the project from beginning to end, so I'm already resigned to be enraged by the story and dialogue. Sigh. Eliza gauger

Imagine a swaying rope bridge. With euphoria in action, characters visibly attempt to balance themselves, their feet stumbling, their arms flailing, and their hands reaching for security as the unpredictable movements of the bridge threaten to send them plummeting to their doom. Perhaps they all survive. Perhaps they all fall. The use of euphoria means the action isn't scripted - it's simulated - so you'll never be able to predict exactly what will happen, no matter how many times you've experienced a certain scenario.

Note that apparently euphoria is properly spelled in lowercase italics. When speaking the name out loud, LucasArts requests that you lean forward approximately twenty degrees.