War of Rights - Progress Report: Cavalry Locomotion

Field Report at: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/424030/view/5009714462577579365

To dust off this field report, we will take a look into how Hershey and his fellow horse friends are doing. Cavalry is one of the most anticipated features in War of Rights, and as such we have been taking our time with it and giving it the care and attention it deserves.

As we inch towards its initial release, we wanted to give you an insight into the work that has gone into the locomotion of horses. Our animator has been solely focused on bringing the horses to life over the last few months. His work includes the different horse gaits, animation and deceleration blends, jumps, slope posing, and of course the player mount/dismount.

Beneath the horse animations is the programming tech that ties it all together. While very much a work in progress, a lot of consideration has been given to how the horse manipulates its body to control its center of gravity while traversing complex surfaces. The video above showcases the aforementioned tech. You will also notice our IK solver in action, keeping the hooves aligned to the surface. Again, we stress this is a work in progress, but we know you are all eager to see how Hershey is doing.

We still plan to roll out the horses in a phased manner, the first of which will be to give them to infantry officers with the option to spawn as mounted or on foot.