Salvete amici mei,
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I’ve never been on a rollercoaster. I don’t need that kind of thrill in my free time—I already get plenty of it at work.
Last month was supposed to be a triumphant event. I had already written about it in a previous blog. We met with the sport fencers of the Gladiatores Berolinenses in the halls of the S4G School for Games to record their authentic movements for Lost Legions. My expectations were very high. I knew that with the Rokoko Smart Suit we had good technology and that the pipeline to process and bring the recordings into the game was working. The dress rehearsal went excellently, which in theatre is considered a bad omen. The gladiators came in a group of four with great enthusiasm and loads of equipment. I was sure this would be a grand slam.
Then everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The WiFi connection broke down. The Rokoko Studio software had trouble recognizing the suit and its components. The sensors acted up, and eventually we had a total failure because the right hand was permanently stuck in the same direction and one finger wouldn’t stop twitching. The three of us on the team tried everything to debug the problems, but time kept passing and we eventually had to abort. A big thank-you here to the team and especially the gladiators, who endured the situation with angelic patience.
What went wrong? The WiFi failed because someone on the team unknowingly swapped the router’s power socket with a fan. It took a while to figure that out, but that was the least of our problems.
The connection problems with the suit were certainly a consequence of the WiFi issue. I knew the sensors in the suit were sensitive to electromagnetic fields. But it didn’t occur to me that holding a real sword or shield—because of their metallic composition—would also cause significant interference.
When we changed performers, the most serious error must have occurred: the sensor in the right hand was damaged and, despite all efforts at restoration, only delivered incorrect data.
Time to call it off. It was terribly frustrating for everyone involved—but most of all for me. These events, by the way, happened on Friday, June 13. (No joke)
So far in the development and production of Lost Legions, I think we’ve done more things right than wrong. Not everything we plan works out, and when we get unlucky, it’s important to learn from it and do better next time.
The outcome of that day wasn’t great, but we did gain a few insights. My understanding of the Rokoko Smart Suit certainly improved. Thanks to Rokoko support, the problem with the hand sensor was solved quite easily a few days later: a plug had come loose. I had to open the little box on the back of the hand and reconnect the cable. (I try not to think too much about how the day could have been saved by using rubber weapons and plugging in a cable…)
What stuck with us most were the conversations with the gladiators. This club, led by their lanista Daniel, loves and lives their extraordinary sport. With great understanding of our goals and deep theoretical and practical knowledge, they had in-depth discussions with the team about martial arts and ancient Rome.
Since then, the suit has been in use with us almost daily. The recordings are the best and cleanest I’ve ever gotten. During performance, we remind each other every time of the gladiators’ tips and rules to get the best possible results.
After this detailed experience report, here are a few quick updates on development:
Unreal Engine 5.6:
Felix has done it again. Immediately after the weekend upgrade from 5.3 to 5.5—which brought us motion matching and Meta Humans in the engine—5.6 went from beta to release. Since we noticed significant FPS drops and 5.6 promised many optimizations, we decided to upgrade the engine a second time within three weeks.
Cleaning and optimizing:
These upgrades, along with the ever-present memory waste and instability, led us to invest two weeks to bring the project back into shape. It wasn’t a lot of fun, but the results speak for themselves. We’re quite happy.
New playable demo:
Our plan was to share a big new demo with our Discord community at the end of July. Due to recent events, we’ve pushed that target back by a few weeks. A specific announcement will follow from Bat El.
Smooth Moves:
Motion Matching is awesome. The new system that blends animations with stances/poses has taken my animation work to a new level. For the first time, with Felix’s technical support in the animation blueprint, I managed to depict the typical Roman combat stance with a large scutum shield in our game. The game now recognizes states like “in combat,” “carrying shield,” “in cover,” and adjusts the player character’s posture accordingly. This results in convincing dynamics and a true legionnaire feeling.
Furor Teutonicus:
A major new addition to the game is the changed game opening. We’ll throw you straight into the action and let you experience the end of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. You start in a makeshift marching camp that can no longer withstand the assault. A desperate fight for survival in the burning forest begins.
This is a relatively linear set-piece that gives you a taste of some content that will later have to be painstakingly earned in the open world.
In my next life, I’ll learn to be brief. Until then, have fun reading and thank you for your support!
Jens