The Ultimate Challenge

[venikx]

I would like to give the ENTIRE modding community the greatest challenge you have ever had!
I challenge you to create the first mod(or an all new game) with a video game character that is truly capable of thinking, and is able to go beyond their pre-made animations by learning all new ones, and on top of that they are able to achieve both on any PC. That is my challenge, pure and simple, and I wish you all the very best in everything that you do. Good luck!

[ElPresidente]

As much as I hate being Mr Negativity, prcoedural animation is an area that major development studios pour tens of thousands of man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars into; not really the kind of development project that is going to find much response on a forum largely made of modders.

You might be interested in what Natural Motion have created with the Euphoria engine though (first seen in Grand Theft Auto IV). The engine is effectively a inverse kinematics AI, a central nervous system for movement that is environmentally aware.

To see the impact of the animation get Nico drunk in GTAIV (if you have it) and intentionally walk him into the gutter, the sides of cars and so on. You will see Nico's body react to loss of balance in a disturbingly realistic way, even putting his hand on the side of a car to lift himself up if fallen over.

Here is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi5adyccoKI) of the engine in action as part of a tech demo released last year. This has been a major project for the studio which was based on technology developed by Oxford University.

Again, I don't want to be a negative nelly but that is the kind of resource allocation that is being put forward to create just what you are after.

On top of that your challenge has pretty much already been accepted and achieved. Just not from a community of games modders. :)