Development Update 07/24/2024 - Graphics, Movement, & Fans

Hi Folks,

First, I apologize for the delay in the updates. My original goal was to post one update roughly every month, but we’ve been battling some malware on our website, and that delayed this update.

In the previous two updates, I mentioned that we would be unfolding a three-part series of related updates. In lieu of unveiling the last of the three parts, we’re going to pivot slightly, as the third part of that series isn’t quite finished. Instead, I’d like to share some of the other changes we’ve been working on.

First, our graphics got a nice boost due to some lighting and rendering changes we’ve implemented. The shadows are crisper and more realistic, there’s now realistic lighting glares and reflections, and there is much better contrast between the colors. Overall, the game looks better than ever and really raises the overall quality of action on the field. Additionally, we got a brand new field with updated graphics that make everything look much more realistic.

Second, we spent a large amount of time refining player movement. We focused our efforts across three main areas: initial moves / acceleration, avoidances, and pivots. For initial moves, we added dozens of animations that players will use when the ball is snapped as they are coming out of their initial play stances. We have received a lot of feedback regarding the unrealistic and unnatural acceleration that players often have off the ball. These new animations create much more realistic movements off the ball and make the game look a lot better. This also allows for much better player interactions on the line and more natural pockets and holes to form. For player avoidances, we wanted to address some of the logic and movements related to players surrounding the ball carrier and tackler. We’ll now see that players will hop to the side (or sometimes even over) players involved in a tackle to avoid them. These movements – like a lot of the other changes – add a level of detail and realism that helps bring everything together. Finally, we added several new transition and pivot animations that players will use as they change directions – especially on defense. Previously, players that were strafing in pass coverage would often pivot unrealistically to change directions. We’ve added a series of transition animations that not only make the game more realistic, but provide accurate timing for reactions.

The final part of this update relates to stadiums and crowds. We are happy to announce that we have a brand new crowd system coming in Axis 2026. In order to understand the benefit of this new system, it is necessary to explain the way the old system worked. Previously, we were using GPU instancing to render thousands of the same spectator model in the stadiums. GPU instancing allowed us to have large numbers of fans but required us to essentially bake the animations beforehand instead of having them play dynamically. This limitation prevented us from being able to change the colors of the fans – which is why all stadiums in Axis 24 had fans wearing the same generic colors. On top of that, fans played a continuous loop of cheering regardless of what was happening on the field. Additionally, because each of the spectators was an individual object, the file size of each stadium was really large. Spectators made up more than 90% of a stadium’s file size. The new system is a completely different approach and allows us to do a lot of great things. First, the file size of the stadiums is now unaffected by the spectators, which essentially reduces their size by 90%. This allows us to have different stadium variations for different times of day and weather types – something we did not have previously. We can now have changes to the stadium and specific lighting settings based on those conditions. Second, spectators can now be colored based off of the home team. This is a great addition that allows for increased levels of immersion. Finally, the new crowd system also allows for some new features. The crowd will now animate based on what the players on doing on the field – sitting idle if they’re bored or cheering for something exciting that happened. There’s also a density control parameter where the population of the crowd can be controlled by how popular a team is.

As I’ve mentioned before, these are just some of the updates we’re working on. In the next update, I plan to reveal the third part of our previous series. Until then, we would love to hear what you think about these changes!

Discord: https://discord.gg/YFuF9TSZKV
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/axisfootball?lang=en
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Best,

Danny Jugan
President & Lead Developer, Axis Games