Dynamic Reloads | How Battlefield Pioneered Next Generation Gun Animations

[@Slaking_]

BF1 is one of those weird cases of a AAA game that feels like a genuine passion project that used its huge budget to create something different and beautiful, rather than a cynical product that just wants your money.

[@drakep.5857]

We're starting to enter something I believe is a second video game crash akin to the ET atari one, or a crash similar to how there was an oversaturation of things like epic Roman movies in the 60s and epic superhero movies in the 2010s Nowadays, all the best gamed are made by indie groups, which is awesome for the workers and their art, but I do really miss the middle market. The collectives of workers who were big enough to have all the budget that an indie didn't, and not so big that they had to fit what the executives wanted or thought was montiziable. I think the ps2-ps3 and Xbox 360 era was the golden age of the middle market game, and I hope that soon, as these massive monetized soulless addictive toys for dumb people begin to lose money and intrest by the greater populace, we'll see people caring less about bloated content size, artless remakes of already existing art that taints their orignal vision, and graphics looking realistic to various vague standards, and more about artistry, unique ideas and every AAA game being unique again.

[@eazy___4032]

​@@drakep.5857 spot on brother

[@tim.2855]

​@@drakep.5857you're so right man, i couldn't agree more.

[@joefinley2577]

Feels like a rockstar game

[@EmilyKimMartin]

Because it was exactly that! DICE wanted to develop Battlefield 1 as early as the late 90s-- however, due to budget, technology and financial reasons, they never could do so. Post-BF4 was when everything aligned. There's a reason why most of the veteran staff left once BF1 was done. It was the game they *wanted* to make the most. A complete, total passion project, which is why it had the most stable launch of the franchise in ages. I recommend checking some dev interviews and documentaries on the making of BF1. It's incredible.

[@samhinder2224]

The jump in quality as far as reloads go from Black Ops 4 to MW 2019 is genuinely hilarious. Not quite as funny as the nose dive from MW to Cold War though

[@stepanokhrimenko9189]

Yea, animators for BO:CW seemed to try to emulate what MW did and we got what we did . At least the game itself is better in many other aspects.

[@samhinder2224]

@@stepanokhrimenko9189 in what way? When I played Cold War I found it to be almost a direct downgrade, though that may be because of how much I love MW '19

[@stepanokhrimenko9189]

@@samhinder2224 Idk, to me BOs multiplayer has been a much more enjoyable experience than MW (Although i still like that game and pit quite a few hours into it.) Plus it has arguably the last decent zombies mode and a campaign that i found to be more interesting than MWs (Although i still like it anyway)

[@ihatethatyoutubedisplaysyo8106]

​@samhinder2224 most people (me included) prefer the longer ttk of CW rather than MW. The maps were better too.

[@Xkxltxc]

Tell me about it 😮‍💨

[@Tien-Chi]

The case of the Nagant Revolver sticks out to create a gas seal, meaning it is the only revolver that can be effectively suppressed (the ammunitions is also unique)

[@cleeiii357]

Everyone kind of already knows that tho.

[@lost_legion_army9002]

​@@cleeiii357it's part of the guns codex

[@waynegriswold8953]

@@cleeiii357 i didnt know that

[@chris.3711]

The reload of this gun is still wrong. You can't unload the gun if the hammer is cocked and the ejector rod does not have a spring, meaning you need to pull the rod forward every time.

[@matthewthiele6020]

And the cylinder is pressed forward when squeezing the trigger

[@SydneySighs]

Battlefield 1 is the reason why I'm now a history major starting college right now. It started with seeing weapons like the perino that not only look unique, but also have a unique system to how they work that got me to look into the codex entries in game, then looking up more about them, and snowballing to now

[@John_Smith_]

You're in for a big disappointment if you're studying historic firearms/weapon design and started off on BF One. Let's just say you'll probably never play that piece trash again 😂

[@SydneySighs]

@John_Smith_ The game is not trash just because it isn't historically accurate. The weapons may not be 100% accurate, but I would never expect a mainstream fps game to sacrifice gameplay just so a gun is more accurate. The amount of work they did put into the guns and everything that they didn't have to do is impressive.

[@wasteurtime5677]

switch majors to something that'll feed you and the familiy before its too late.

[@huskpl3yz358]

​@@John_Smith_spot on brother

[@seindxad6749]

Don't forget Mosins and Carcano also has unique K-bullet loading, reload and unloading animation. Mosin has 7 unique animations in total. Carcano being the only rifle in BF 1 that has a unique last round reload animation.

[@10z20]

Salty I never unlocked the Mosin in BF1

[@ZonicCeasor]

Oh and the Springfield experimental!! It had a whole animation swapping out to the bolt-action to fire the K bullets

[@cornupswar]

​@ZonicCeasor You can even swap to bolt action for regular rifle rounds too. Click the same button as if you're going to "change the rate of fire" and an animation will trigger swapping from the Pedersen device to the infantry style bolt action and you get to fire good old .30-06!

[@cornupswar]

@@_Bungus Sometimes situations get tense, I trigger the swap and I quickswap through my pistol to get to the mod I want. This saved my skin multiple times.

[@swans184]

Changing out K bullets for regular ammo requires the player character to pull the bolt back to eject the cartridge, and you're left with the amount of regular ammo you had - 1. Super cool detail!

[@sturmtruppen-qt1wf]

BF1 was, and is, a masterpiece

[@professormemsclass]

Now and always

[@WSTBrenden]

I wish it was more populated tho hard to find full games and the lmg spam is annoying tho I get it support is fun

[@microwavegommmm916]

​@@WSTBrendenMake the jump to pc bro, I absolutely love bf1 and seeing multiple full servers when I first started playing on pc last year legitimately made me smile

[@LastRookie]

​@@WSTBrenden I can only speak for Xbox, so I don't know about PlayStation. It's a shame DICE couldn't go back and at least input cross-console gaming, but I doubt anyone there right now could do it. Oceania aside, I have still found a fair amount (about a dozen daily) of fully packed servers for Conquest in US E., US W., Europe, and sometimes Asia. Granted, Quickmatch searching is not as viable, and you'll be lucky to find any Apocalypse maps, but if you do Server Browser for lobbies with 'None' or '1-5' spaces available, you can still find them.

[@sovietbanana4589]

@@microwavegommmm916you don’t even need to, at least on Xbox the official dive servers are usually almost always full.

[@dark2023-1lovesoni]

I especially enjoyed the m1912 pistol reload. Where you can watch it eject however many unfired rounds are left.

[@professormemsclass]

I totally agree, but since the M1912 pretty much has only two distinct reload animations, I decided to leave it off of this one.

[@rosaria8384]

And then they implemented "saving bullets" in BFV. A huge upgrade.

[@CounterHot]

In Russian and Soviet armies reloading whole cylinder in Nagant revolver was claimed irrational and extremely unreliable and time-consuming, yet the way they made it look in bf1 was super-cool and when I saw it for the first time I was like "you did WHAT" Sadly in game Nagant was always an underdog revolver but I still preferred it to others due to coolest animations besides the peacekeeper

[@midknight9715]

Oh dude screw using meta weapons. I always base what guns I'm gonna use off what faction I'm on. It's really satisfying and fun for me. I was so happy how you could choose to have different loadouts for different factions in BFV.

[@HunterAnsorge-ok9jk]

@@midknight9715 you do realize the only country not using foreign equipment was literally the US up until soldiers wanted to hide a little easier through sound by using Nam Kalashnikovs instead of US M16’s…

[@winder1549]

It was my main revolver, high fire rate as I remember.

[@SnakebitSTI]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@HunterAnsorge-ok9jkWhat are you talking about? The US's first use of foreign weapons was the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army used a lot of British and French muskets. What wars has the US fought without using any foreign weapons? Not the War of 1812, not the Civil War, not the Spanish American War, not WWI, not WWII. The question is which foreign weapons and how many of them.

[@GewelReal]

nagant is really good tho if you ignore the reload

[@tedjones1021]

Shout-out to Red Orchestra 2 for having quite possibly the most authentic reload animations of its time. The player-character would reload G43s and SVT-40s - detachable box-mag-fed rifles - with stripper-clips and loose rounds unless the mag was empty.

[@brosefmalkovitch3121]

The game also involved minute details to an almost simulatory level: every map had a different ambient temperature which would affect how quickly your machine gun will heat up and cool off. You could also cool your MG off significantly faster by standing in water such as on Bridges.

[@MrGutty117]

@@brosefmalkovitch3121 Man, I've been playing RO2 for YEARS and had no idea about ambient level temp effecting MG barrel heat. Thanks for sharing this.

[@1230james]

@@MrGutty117 imo it's most apparent in Rising Storm if you take the Type 99 MG since that has a very high firing rate and every RS1 map is a high temp map I also have an anecdote from someone I know who did map modding, where they managed to foul an MG barrel in one shot after they cranked the map temp up to some absurdly high value since he didn't know what exactly he should have been putting in there

[@cleeiii357]

BFV also does that with the G43, Turner, Ag m/42, MAS 44, and ZH-29 with them being loaded with stripper clips by default despite having detachable magazines. But sadly its not seen much due to almost everyone using the "Detachable Magazines" specialization.

[@kylecoolage4251]

Biggest thing I've learned is that storms on the beach/ocean are beautiful.

[@professormemsclass]

I aim to inform

[@no-legjohnny3691]

I'll mention, there's one game that did this prior to BF1. Red Orchestra 2 / Rising Storm 1. These games are more combat focused than things like ARMA or SQUAD and don't emphasize team tactics, but built with a HEAVY emphasis on combat realism. Any weapon that uses rifle caliber rounds will one-shot someone if you hit them center of mass, weapons that use smaller rounds usually only take a couple rounds or so to kill as well, and every weapon is a guaranteed kill with a single bullet on a headshot. Weapon hip fire and aiming are both done semi-independent of the player camera. The whole body has a damage model that shows what trauma you've received. Etc. But for the rifles in particular, you also have this "3 reload" system. If you popped off a couple rounds, you'll single load, if you did all 5 you'll use a clip, and if you did all but one, you'll eject the unspent round and use a clip. But unlike BF1, you have an option to manually cycle the bolt after each shot by left clicking each time you fire on bolt actions like the Mosin, K98, 1903, or Arisaka. If you cycle a new round before doing a partial reload, that unspent cartridge will be discarded. Semi-auto rifles have their own unique quirks. the G41 has a fixed magazine and reloads solely through clips and single rounds. If you have shot 3 or less rounds, you'll eject one unspent and load up to 4 new ones. If you've shot 4 to 8 rounds, you'll open the action and eject one round before loading a single 5 round clip and closing it again, meaning you'll have to do a second reload if you want to fully top up. If you've shot 9 or 10 rounds, you'll either refill using two clips or eject the last round and use two clips to refill. The SVT-40/AVT-40 uses clips or removable mags. If you shot less than 4, you'll swap mags and place the partially emptied one into your reserve. If you shot more than that before but not running dry, you'll open the action and eject one round before loading a 5 round clip taken from one of your spare mags before shutting it. If you fire all your rounds, you'll mag swap, discard the empty mag and rack the action. The M1 Garand is the simplest, where if you're empty you reload a clip, or if you're not you'll discard all your unused ammo and load a fresh clip. All of this in 2011, which was WAY ahead of its time.

[@altug4404]

Severely underrated game in my opinion. Rising Storm 1 / Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm 2 are the best games I have played personally, has the perfect amount of realism where it isn't like COD nor ARMA neither it's movement is not like Insurgency where you have semi fluid movement, it has some sort of clunky movement to it, but that's expected in a realistic shooter. The firefights aren't in some insane ranges either, mostly around 60-70m. It's a shame that not a lot of people are playing. That and RS2s voice chat being broken.

[@no-legjohnny3691]

@@altug4404 I've managed to get the voice chat to work most of the time on RS2. You just need to cycle through the channels a couple times for it to start working. Some other guy also linked me a mod to a mutator that, if the server is also running it, fixes the voice comms.

[@wokmaster-q3g]

Totally agree. The attention paid to these details in Red Orchestra 2 is amazing. These realistic details combined with the fast pacing gameplay (comparing to Squad, arma etc) make it gold.

[@colonelfatass]

I was looking for this comment, and am happy to find someone give the game the detailed props it deserves. RO2 will forever be my favourite shooter, I wish we could get a revival happening.

[@queuedjar4578]

@@altug4404 The RO/RS series is one of the best selling tac shooter serieses on PC, they're definitely not underrated. In fact, most people didn't play enough to realize just how much buggy and broken messes they are, being abandoned prematurely by the devs/publishers , in some ways they're overrated.

[@HWJ40]

I love when weapons have multiple weapon animations for reloading or inspects, for example the weapons in Cyberpunk 2077 have many variants of empty and partial reloading. It also conveys character a good example is the malorian arms 3516 the realod animations just screams badass

[@matthewthiele6020]

Except the revolver right? I don’t remember anything but one speed loader reload

[@alexzhao9868]

@@matthewthiele6020all revolvers except for the metel only have 3 reload animations since they don’t have a slide or are in single action

[@Literally_Me_RyanGosling]

“Unnecessary showmanship” spins and tricks are required

[@Sarahsqueak]

me being able to tell the difference between the HK and the M4 made me happy.

[@queuedjar4578]

Yeah that wasn't even that hard of a challenge, might have been harder if there was alternate furnishing or attachments on the guns. Another fun one is identifying AK variants.

[@montythefridge195]

​@@queuedjar4578well if you know where to look then its pretty easy to know which ak is which

[@callsignomega3029]

Same

[@Exl6243]

It would be more difficult if they did something like change the handguards of both rifles. Do a comparison with the URGI M4 and the HK416 with a Geissele handguard, make them both the same color, and it will be much more difficult

[@leo_the_be0]

i could too and it just made me question if i had a life or not

[@midknight9715]

Battlefield 1 & Battlefield V were my gateway drug to becoming a gun nerd myself. All the cool weapons and unique quirks they all had were so fascinating to me that I ended up doing a ton of research into the real guns that the games were representing. Eventually led to me becoming an amateur firearms collector myself. And gun ownership has made me appreciate accurate weapon designs and animations in games even more.

[@alphaiguess2900]

I really appreciate how bf1 forces you to know your guns with some reloads being counterintuitively faster than others. It makes me think between gunfights, like -- ok I could reload slow now or try to get this next guy with 3 shots so I get the faster empty reload. its really cool mechanically

[@skyflier8955]

The reloads in BF1 were really fucking well done because even to this day I still notice the reload animations because of how good they are.

[@killerch33z]

they feel so “heavy” and real… makes the game so immersive

[@queuedjar4578]

@@killerch33z I mean when those reload animations are done on guns that a soldier in that theater would have had zero chance of having, all while a tank is flying by at 40mph and people are sprinting around at 20mph, the immersion is kind of broken to me personally. BF1 I guess looks cool, definitely not realistic or immersive.

[@nuztuz903]

@@queuedjar4578 you would have a valid point if the game was aiming for realism

[@EvanG529]

One thing that Battlefield has lost is one-in-the-chamber for tube magazines. It started with the shotguns in BF1, where you could only load a certain number of cartridges no matter if there was one in the chamber or not.

[@professormemsclass]

True, it's strange how BF ditched chamber-loading the pump actions for BF 1 and V.

[@EvanG529]

@@professormemsclass I haven't used them enough in 2042 to know if this is still the case, but it's weird that they would add so much detail to these guns but totally neglect the shotguns which they already knew how to do correctly.

[@rosaria8384]

@@EvanG529 in BF Portal, the Browning Auto-5 (1942) brings the chamber loading for tube magazines. It was then carried over to the Serbu Shorty (Mossberg 500) when Season 4 was released.

[@mauser_gewehr-242]

much love for subtly dropping American Venom during the peacekeeper segment.

[@redhawkfour]

If you like the idea of dynamic and interesting reloading, Hunt Showdown has some really interesting showcases of that. The only exception is dual wieded reloads for the most part, dropping them below the camera to reload. Only exception is an empty reload of the Dual Dolch, which has a fascinatingly hilarious reload. But check it out, there's some cool stuff there.

[@SuperDdall]

Another nice thing about Hunt: Showdown is that they go and change your animation for weapons the "bullet grubber" perk affects when you have it. It's pretty sexy to see your hunter grab the ejected bullets mid-air so you don't waste it. IIRC the devs go out of their way to fix reload animations on occasion if they aren't up to standard.

[@jointkicker]

A few months late but looked harder than I thought I would need to so Hunt brought up for its reload animations

[@BleedingUranium]

Wow, what a wonderful look at some of BF's best reload animations! I actually worked with a couple of the DICE LA guys (an animator and a weapon designer) back during, and before, the Community Test Environment days in BF4, through BF1 and into BFV (both moved on to other studios later in V's life cycle). I basically did volunteer QA work on exactly the sort of technical details you're looking at in this video, though that said I very much share your comments on certain things being extreme nitpicks (sometimes simply due to technical/engine limitations) and that it's important to keep the big picture in mind when looking at oversights or goofs (like the end of the video). I want to emphasize that I was helping out people who themselves were extremely passionate and knowledgeable about this stuff, which is why they were happy to have an extra set of hands/eyes in the first place. For example, in BF1 the weapon designer literally did the math on how much higher the Maxim action's rate of fire would become when scaled down to become the 9mm "SMG 08/18", which is why it has the particular rate of fire that it has. In BF4 there was already a solid base to work with, as Battlefield had moved to "proper" realism for reloads and weapon details with BF3, but there was certainly more to fix than in BF1, due to this combination of the passion the devs had for getting things right, and because of that the improvement of the engine/etc to actually allow these sorts of dynamic and diverse reload animations. I helped with correcting magazine capacities, open/closed bolt, cartridge (very important as BF3/4/1/V use cartridge-based damage models), staged reload save points (another wonderful animation addition), broken/incorrect animation details, and even names in a couple cases which is hard as Legal has to approve ("RPK-47M" to RPK, "L96A1" to L115, both along with cartridge and capacity fixes), and this sort of thing. For example, in BF4 it was a technical limitation that if a gun was set to be open bolt (and thus not get a +1 to its ammo count) it could only have one reload animation. This is because nearly all modern open bolt guns are belt-fed MGs, so this was setup specifically with the idea that you would pull the charging handle during the reload whether it was empty or not. However, the mag-fed Ultimax 100 is also open bolt, and we decided that it incorrectly having a +1 in its ammo count (but not pulling the charging handle on partial reloads) was the lesser evil than pulling the charging handle after every single reload (but with a correct always-30 capacity), though the animation design does at least suggest open bolt (a hard and "loud" pull rearward, but a gentle and "quiet" push forward). Upgrading the game engine to allow for proper open bolt reloads was one of the most important things done for BF1, given the drastically higher number of them in that era (especially SMGs). By pure bizarre coincidence, I was also the first person to find/record the Unica 6's easter egg reload animation in BF4... made by one of the guys I was already working with at the time, which he found hilarious. Outside of technical stuff, I also got them to pester the art/model people into allowing removal of those hideous flat colour default camos that most of the "variant/family" weapons had in BF4.

[@Niklas.K95]

Black Ops: I remember playing the Python with the scope, running empty and only having time to load one round before the next enemy pushes around the corner 5 times in a row. Hunt Showdown: You lose a round when reloading (most) bolt action as long as you dosen't have the perk "Bulletgrubber" (yes, you catch it in mid-air). Holding "fire" to reload before ejecting an empty case is possible. Gate loading revolvers load identical, but the cylinder gets spun on partial reloads before and after (if not full or empty) to mask the position of the cylinder. Swing out cylinders and top breakrevolvers will only eject when empty and cases need to be removed manually after opening them carefully (unless you play the speed loader versions which loses up to 5 round when reloading). Removing an unfired cartridge from a single shot rifle/shotgun or the 3 round clip from the Berthier to change the ammunition typ is also a thing. Weapons are being charged after being dry fired, but single shot weapons will not be after normal firing (either an overside or just something you might do on a dud...)

[@jabread8907]

Battlefield 1 till this day is a Masterpiece

[@w0lfr0gue53]

When your first FPS was CoD2, realistic animations aren’t an expectation, but when it’s done right it truly stands out

[@ianchoi7142]

Another neat detail I only noticed watching this video in regards to the SAA: While indexing the cylinder, the shooter half cocks the hammer during the process of indexing. There might be other revolvers in BF1 that also half cocks, but the way it was done on the peacekeeper shows the animators were very attentive to detail (unlike sledgehammer).

[@Tundraviper41]

10:24, i don't know why, but imagining an ammo belt being Thanosed out of existence shattered me.

[@swans184]

One of my favorite BF1 clips involved me hitting a snipe from an entirely separate island on Gallipolli. The cool thing is that first I used a K bullet to tag a passing boat. My player character inserted another K bullet, then, when I swapped back to regular ammo, all that was needed was for the player character to pull the bolt back, ejecting the K bullet in favor of the normal round. And I was left with 4 bullets in the gun! Incredible attention to detail

[@BickBoomin]

BF1 is the greatest FPS shooter of all time. The sound design, environment, and overall atmosphere is god tier

[@lochedin]

Aww man, I found and followed you for your weapon guides/reviews/off-meta playstyle for BFV, but I'm so ecstatic you decided to cover the reload animations of both games too! As an amateur view model animator myself with a bias more towards the weird and wonderful weaponry that the earlier 20th century produced, back when you'd have a dozen different experimental attempts and silhouettes at making virtually the same weapon concept, BF1, V and even Hardline to some extent have been extremely influential to me for more than just their gameplay. They've really taught me to look at and appreciate the oddballs in firearms history; see how they're made and how they parade, further helped by your commentary. From greater appreciation of the more famous weapons by learning about things like Garand Thumb, or watching the wonderfully animated transition of the M1903 Springfield from its standard bolt action configuration to the Pederson device, and same again for the M28 Con Tromboncino's grenade launcher. Again, little things like how the General Liu needs to have its gas system adjusted between semi-automatic and bolt action fire, to the Ag M/42 engaging the safety to avoid it's own Garand thumb, to the lengthy and very drawn-out animation of the Liberator (which fun fact, actually makes less rattling noises the less bullets (

[@professormemsclass]

I’m honored that you would take the time to express your thoughts so thoroughly, thank you very much!

[@Evan-or6ip]

I remember when i first played bf1 and being blown away to have stripper clip fed guns actually count out the rounds fired so far and only add the amount needed

[@OneInTheMosh]

"But I can only give Battlefield 2042 so much credit before something inside me starts to slowly die" - This is the point at which I subscribed

[@asdasdasdastsdgsd]

Fun fact, Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm did this before BF1.

[@williamtalbot5549]

Really nice video. Would really like to see the weapons of bf1 ranked like bf5. I really like the 1911 in bf1, it feels really crisp to use and reload.

[@professormemsclass]

Still in the works, promise.

[@nathanbanks7091]

BF1 is the greatest game ever made. The details are amazing.

[@jabread8907]

Best representation of the 1911 in gaming period

[@ExtantPerson]

I love the 1911 in BFV as well, although it would be way better if the TTK weren’t slower than in BF1

[@lucashilsendager5187]

not the random bullet devation@@nathanbanks7091

[@jts0221]

This video gave me Ahoy vibes. Like an American-narrated version. Good job

[@jjvillalobos1244]

The funniest thing about 2:50 is that COD WWII came out a year after BF1

[@crupsock5166]

These are the types of videos I ADORE. Math, programming, and reloads. Thank you so much for making such a great analysis on viewmodel animations as of late, a lot of work is put into them and the coverage is great! Keep up the great work!

[@lizardizzle]

This is a fantastic video! One thing that I hope you cover in the future is how games have largely endorsed animating weapons more correctly when dealing with empty or non empty chambers, but almost always ignore actually counting the round in the chamber in the gameplay! Best display of these failings are felt in any weapon with a small magazine like 5 round magazine bolt fed sniper rifles. You should have 1 round in the chamber plus 5 in the magazine, and the animation reflects that, but the ammo count in gameplay just ignores it.

[@professormemsclass]

That's an excellent point, and a very good idea for a video, so good in fact that I've already written a script that mentions it ;P

[@SnakebitSTI]

As a broader topic, most games magically save unfired rounds which would otherwise be lost when reloading, and most track a generic pool of ammo rather than individual magazines/clips/belts. It's especially complicated with magazines, since they can be retained or not. I'm not sure which game started it, but some of the old Tom Clancy branded games did track ammo by individual magazine. Shoot one round and reload, now you have a full magazine in the gun, a round in the chamber, and a magazine which is 2 rounds short of full. Then there are games like Receiver 1 and 2 and some survival horror games which track ammo and magazines separately, often giving you too few magazines and forcing you to take time to reload them.

[@thehauntedpants2201]

Wow. I never gave that much attention to the feed strip reloads. That hopper fed MG is pretty wacky. It's amazing the lengths they went to get around the limitations of their time. Great video as always, keep up the good work! Also I saw a hunt showdown vid mentioned below... Maybe that should go higher up the list :P

[@OneInTheMosh]

That hopper MG probably had more jams than Smuckers If it even existed

[@Nutty31313]

@@OneInTheMosh The Japanese were using the Type 11 machine gun in WW2, which used a similar hopper feed system. Granted, it was an outdated design by that point, but it was still used by the Japanese army in frontline combat, and some captured and used by the Chinese too. And yes, it was pretty unreliable due to it being very easy for dirt, mud, etc to get into the gun and jam it. However, it did have the advantage of simplifying logistics by using the same 5-round clips that were used with the Type 38 Arisaka rifles, which at the time of its adoption was the standard rifle of the Japanese army. It meant there was no need to make or supply belts just for the squad LMG, and during combat the Type 11 operator could literally stick clips from the rifles straight into their LMG. And hey, at least BF1 actually reloads these hopper feed machine guns how they were meant to be reloaded, instead of whatever the fuck CoD Vanguard did with the Type 11 by just treating the entire hopper system as a magazine that would be ripped out the gun and a new one inserted.

[@SnakebitSTI]

An important note on pretty much all light machine guns is that (until the Cold War or so), they were almost all intended to be operated from a bipod or tripod by a pair of people, one shooting and the other loading. The strip feed and hopper feed systems made some amount of sense at the time, as they made it easy for the assistant gunner to keep the gun topped up. Video games almost never even attempt to depict this.

[@Nutty31313]

@@SnakebitSTI It is a little unfortunate from a realism perspective, but I can understand why there isn't usually an assistant gunner in games. It wouldn't exactly be fun for most people to have their job be "load belts into the gun so the other player can have fun shooting stuff."

[@SnakebitSTI]

@@Nutty31313 Yeah. Though I'm a bit surprised it's never even an option, given all the sim-lite games out there. Faster reloads, a second load of ammo, and a second pair of eyes would make a real difference in some games.

[@stupidweasels1575]

Thank you for hilighting this, im sure a lot of time and effort went into making those reloads look good, and it's good to seem them getting the attention they deserve

[@attilarischt2851]

So one note about the Gewehr 95 in BF1. When the game came out, that gun erroneously had a partial reload, where the character loaded single rounds. People pointed out how that just flat out wouldn't work (you can check C&Rsenal's short clip about it), and in resposne Dice jury rigged the current reload. And then never got around to fixing it, by say replacing it with other similar reloads.

[@rosaria8384]

Thank God they fixed it in Battlefield V. They clearly learned from the Carcano and made the M95/30 reload properly.

[@Micky96]

A very very different game and setting, but one of the revolvers in Darktide has 5 different reload startups as the player character will block the unfired rounds with their thumb. While very much the odd one out (every other gun only has one reload animation and we had to beg Fatshark to make the Bolter unhostler animation not be a bolt cycle) it is a subtle touch in a game that's about as subtle as a brick to the face.

[@professormemsclass]

Oo nice!

[@Kuemmel234]

Red Orchestra had dynamic reloading (and firing) animations in 2006, and there's probably other games that came before it. It's cool to see this in a AAA, but praising BF1 seems a little tone deaf, although that detail on the colt single action is very cool - even hunt:showdown doesn't do that, and that one is super detailed in most aspects.

[@jcameronferguson]

Excellent video, your signature attention to detail really shines. I was a tiny bit sad that, regarding the lMG 08/18 Suppressive, you didn't mention the Easter egg reload you get with 13 rounds left. The devs obviously entertained themselves by putting inconsequential details into the game along with the extremely relevant-to-combat ones. BF1 is the GOAT.

[@BleedingUranium]

Oh so _that's_ what triggers it, neat haha :D

[@stevemc6010]

Don't forget Red Orchestra really pioneered the clip/individual rounds back in 2011 or so, and tracked rounds ejected at the start of the reload.

[@professormemsclass]

Indeed, it was one of the first if not the first to do so.

[@Cam64viper]

18:29 Interesting thing about this! I've found that, while messing around with my M95, the clip doesn't like to eject (using the eject button in the trigger guard) with less than 4 rounds left in the clip, and ejects the best, like the one in the animation, with all five rounds still loaded. This is because there is less built up spring tension on the internal spring that feeds the rounds from the clip when the clip is closer to empty. There's a little tid-bit you might not've known!

[@professormemsclass]

Ah, I did not know that, but it makes sense.

[@nightmarechameleon7502]

I randomly got this in my recommendations (literally never touched the battlefield series in my life) and I just wanted to commend you for the sheer attention to detail present here. The use of H3VR's lovingly implemented gunplay goes really far to demonstrate simulation done right, and all the tiny, easily overlooked facets you pore over really highlight your dedication. Amazing video.

[@nathanmitchell7961]

Amazing video, truly explained why i felt like my operator in BF1 felt like he had more masterful skill over the guns he was operating.

[@MidnightCrescent]

Fun thing you could do in bf1, if you were recon and had the k bullets gadget in it would allow you to pop the top round out and put a k bullet in the chamber. The cool part is if you had a gun you wanted to clip feed and only fired 4/5 you could use k bullets then cancel the animation before he loads it in thus allowing you to clip reload now. It could be used as a manual eject. Love that game.

[@simonstaysnclr]

when i first played battlefield 1 and took notice of the reloading dynamic, it felt so natural i was surprised it wasnt the standard

[@totalmadnesman]

I really enjoyed that video, it was so interesting to watch, as I stopped playing after BF4, I never knew DIVCE was giving so much effort still. While staying on the topic of reloads, you could also take a look at Crysis 2 and Crysis 3, as there are dynamic reloads as well. The player will change its animation depending on what suitmode it is on, meaning depending if the player is in normal mode, Stealth and Amour, it will change the animation of the gun.

[@professormemsclass]

Very interesting, I'll have to take a look

[@TheCopyNinja733]

This is exactly the reason I like using weapons of the nation you’re playing as, it makes you use these guns and experience all these details

[@AlexKS1992]

11:42 I love hearing the old Red Dead Redemption soundtrack, I still play it to this day but hearing that soundtrack brings back memories.

[@GuggZugg]

I always try to play BF1 with the Nagant revolver* because it adds flavor to fights, not just with reloads, as it also creates risk/reward situations where you have to evaluate when to reload and how many rounds you've fired.

[@endorito]

Still remember using the double barrel in W@W for the first time & getting hyped over the single shot reload lol. How far we've come.

[@TheBowlerHatGuy-dm2gr]

Strange how every gate loaded revolver has the same lazy and looping animations when cycling through the chambers and reloading them. Except the Peacekeeper in Battlefield 1.

[@incursus1401]

this all was already a commonly established things in the PC only community in various games with the biggest example just being the Red Orchestra series lol

[@guilhermecampos4479]

Fun fact, battlefield 4 already had what i call "step reloading" (i don't what is normally called) but as an example, if you start reloading a rifle, and cancel the reloadimg animation after your character changed mag, but before he pulled the bolt, when you start reloading again, just the bolt will be pulled, something cod only implemented in mw2 2022

[@professormemsclass]

I see, I always called it segmented reloads, and I think it's a pretty neat feature

[@blackbirdredwing8182]

Recently passed 11000 kills on the peacekeeper, its nice to finally see someone do a real technical breakdown after so long

[@booker9816]

The runtime is even 19:18, what a lad

[@sbraypaynt]

Darktide has the most satisfying revolver reload animation I’ve seen in a game to date.

[@dekatonkheir]

Great video. I remember the first time i noticed different realoads was in Crysis; all guns have a standard set of animations for reloading, an aggressive set for when the suit is in Armoured Mode, and a more delicate set for when in Stealth mode.

[@DeadGothicRed]

Still one of my favorite guns in a Battlefield gane and one that I spent almost 2 full days straight getting, is the Colt SAA Revolver. I LOVE that gun, it's such a mark of status and I am so thankful the Battlefield Easter Egg community helped me get it. I did this when BF1 had the apocalypse DLC. This and the Annihilator SMG was my go to combo.

[@redwed6]

This is why I love the Model shotgun in the finals, every shell has a unique animation. Shows it was this team that worked on the Finals

[@canertwo]

Playing Half-Life music ever so faintly in the background, nice.

[@user-Xx0xxxxx]

One game that did this before battlefield 1 was planetside 2, basically all the "revolvers" in it have some type of dynamic reload, along with a few other guns, although being sci-fi designs many of the reloads aren't really conventional at all, and many are downright dumb anyways, they still feature it

[@squashiejoshie200000]

There's actually another thing you missed regarding BF1 and BFV reloads. When reloading some snipers, the scope blocks the bolt, preventing the use of stripper clips. In those cases, the player will reload bullets individually. When you remove the scope, the rifle loads with the stripper clips instead. It's been a while since I played BFV and longer since I played BF1, but in BFV I believe it was the case with the recon versions of the Kar98k, No.4 and Springfield rifles at least.

[@professormemsclass]

True for BFV, but I didn't include it because it technically limits the dynamic elements of the reload itself, although in a general sense that does make it more dynamic. In BF1 all of the scopes are offset to the side, and from what I remember do not affect reloads at all.

[@Pikachu790]

It seems like it's not completely limited to first person shooters at the moment, Helldivers 2 has a couple of pump action shotguns that feature two loading tubes that the gun is loaded from. There's holes in the side of the gun that let you see the tubes and how full or empty they are, and when reloading, the character will accurately fill up one tube before going to the next one to top that one off. It even is accounted for in first person, and they even included a little switch on top to show which tube the shotgun is being loaded from. This also goes for the Senator revolver too, to a point anyway. You'll eject any empty casings and reload them one by one, but if you interrupt the reload and fire again, you won't magically produce more casings than what you spent. (Sadly though, the spent casings are easy to eject since they shake the revolver to get them out). I do love these small details!

[@llmkursk8254]

A small thing that I like is how some games have added a reload for shotguns where the player inserts two shells at a time. It’s a competition shooting technique if I understand correctly, but it’s still a nice touch. Even Payday 2, a game not exactly great at reloads (hides away akimbo weapons and both return fully loaded, the Colt SAA has to have each round ejected and reloaded with the same gate-loading fudge, the M32 has the heister unload and reload each round individually in a buggy reload that sometimes doesn’t receive the reload speed buffs), has a shotgun that loads two shells at a time when possible, and has a faster reload from empty than from 3 or less shells left.

[@professormemsclass]

I also really enjoy seeing that in games

[@GamesforCykits]

Glad to find someone who loves these reloads as much as I do

[@jakepat8603]

I just want to say that was a fantastic video. Absolutely gave me a greater appreciation for detail and quality in battlefild.

[@glomorailey106]

Another to mention in unique relaods is COD Ghosts' FP6 shotgun. 7 total animations. All with one of the best loading sound designs ever.

[@callumgodden5707]

bf1 will always be legendary to me, was the only reason i upgraded my xbox 360, it was bold and took risks that no other franchise had and it paid off due to the effort, love and passion, whenever i played this game i was happy, if any dev that worked on this game sees this, thank you♥

[@FallensAnger]

Bro has never played Red orchestra/darkest hour mod, but the game who takes the cake is hunt showdown has the best sound in any game and the animations is hard to beat for being few years old now

[@russellsnc1337]

This is why I enjoy more playing Battlefield 1 than other FPS games. Literally masterpiece.

[@Iona_Roe_Deer]

I think the next step will be adding more animations for the same gun in random order, but with same reload time. It’s more realistic and still competitive to not rely on random reload time speed.

[@professormemsclass]

That would be a pretty cool feature, sadly not present in a ton of games, but the one that springs to my memory is Cyberpunk 2077, has 3 animations for every reload.

[@commandernomad2817]

Also i want to give a fun shout out to the reload animations in Cyberpunk 2077. despite every weapon being a fictional sci-fi gun, each one has *_SIX_* reload animations (with a handful of exceptions), three reloads for empty, and three reloads for partial. It'll randomly pick a animation when you reload.

[@codylego]

The glock reload in 2042 with the carbine stock conversion thing is also pretty cool

[@MackieLevyn]

Check out Hunt Showdown. The reloads are not only dynamic and quite well done, but they also have consequences to gameplay. You can reload a gun prematurely at the cost of ejecting a precious live round and not having an empty enough magazine to use a stripper clip. Or you can reload only when empty for a faster stripper clip reload but never be topped off. This mechanic extends to many of the bolt actions, crane revolvers, break action revolvers, and top loading lever actions.

[@APS_Inc]

Catching a round is not that hard. It seems weird to me that you wouldn't either catch it as it ejects, stop it from ejecting, or simply retrieve it from the ground.

[@aleksstankovic5690]

@@APS_IncGameplay balancing, so the perks get use

[@MackieLevyn]

@@APS_Inc theres a perk that you have to purchase with in-game xp just for that 😭

[@APS_Inc]

@@MackieLevyn oof. I can do that with my rifle and I'm not even that good. Also it's neat when it works out.

[@BrabyTheCool177]

5:47 speaking of wasted rounds battlefield 1s version of the Repetierpistole M1912 reload animation just ejects all the rounds all over the place even if your only loading 1 bullet lol but battlefield 5s Repetierpistole reload animation fixes this problem where the character will actually eject all the rounds into his hand instead of wasting them all

[@llamallama1509]

Okay this was cool. I've not played any of these games, but I do love the idea that some games are paying this much attention to little details

[@GasparGa]

I'm pretty convinced that everyone, including the BF devs were copying Escape from Tarkov in the case of "weapon realism"

[@Novapeeg]

Thanks for covering this- I felt that these details really helped make BF so immersive. Would get such an amazing feeling when playing

[@Shadowhawkdark]

I think it should be pointed out, that Killing Floor 2 did the "double barrel, but pumps only on the second shot" thing a couple years before even BF V.

[@professormemsclass]

Always good to see

[@vincem9468]

Nah I think battle field one should get credit for being the first main stream game to get dynamic reloads. Small companies have done this for many year before this. For example the game Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 which is a 2009 mod to a 2006 game. The svt 38 had 3 completely different reload animations. One where it would take the mag out of the gun a reload bullet by bullet, one where it would load a single stripper clip into the gun, and one where it would load two stripper clips. The one with two stripper clips had a differnt animation that just a single stripper clip. The predecessor red orchestra 2 (2011) to this game also had similar animations. I would call those games pioneers not BF.

[@bigchickensandwich]

It was nice to see Battlefield pushing this sort of reloading style to become more mainstream, but I remember being wowed when the first game I played that introduced dynamic reloads to me, Titanfall 1, released in March of 2014, it really made the game feel ahead of it's time with almost no other games doing the same

[@notabandit4766]

Please make a video about Hunt Showdowns reload animations. Aside from the revolvers not using the ejection rods so many of the animations are beautifully done. Not to mention the addition of the bullet grubber perk.

[@XxBadDragonxX]

I think what they lacked in quantity of guns, they made up for with the quality of the weapon. I absolutely loved playing as support and seeing all the different reloads and even overheat animations!

[@FishyBoi1337]

4:48 correction, you technicially *can* reload them by topping off a stripper clip already in the gun, there are stories of it being done out of necessity when resource scarcity meant troops would only have their one clip, and to avoid loading via sticking a round in the chamber, they would have to top off their clip or remove it and reload it outside of the gun. I've also done it with my carcano (which I've since sold, unfortunately, thanks economy) It is simply very fiddly, hard, and sometimes painful. Would not recommend it. Just my two cents EDIT: 16:15 Also not necessarily true. Obturation is a very complex phenomenon and stickiness of spent shells can be a factor of how many times the brass has been reloaded, whether or not it wae annealed during it's last reloading, if the brass is coated in any way, (as such is common with 5.7x28mm ammunition as the case taper is very slight) the dirtiness of the cylinders, the powder charge of that specific load, the innate taper of the specific cartridge, etc. Relying on not sticking or sticking is often a gamble unless you have a clean, very high quality firearm with quality ammunition. Also, the heritage rough rider cylinder used in the clip earlier to demonstrate the phenomenon is pretty infamous for developing a slight ding in the cylinder even if never dry fired, which can make loading slightly harder and sticky, and cause all shell, live or not, to stick and require sometimes substantial force to remove. Also, BATTLEFIELD 1 GOATED RAAAHHHHHHHH 💪💪💪🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@professormemsclass]

Maybe not necessarily true, but broadly true. This is a good explainer of those elements more in depth.

[@matthewbalberchak9510]

My first experience with dynamic reloads was in BF4. When you are in the middle of reloading and have to change weapons. Your animation is “saved”. If you removed the magazine, switch to secondary, and go back to your primary, the magazine will still be out of the gun, and all your character has to do is insert the new magazine. If you inserted a magazine but didn’t quite hit the bolt catch before swapping to your sidearm, your character would pull the gun out and immediately hit the bolt catch. In a lot of other games you’d either have to redo the whole animation or it would just reload cancel. But not in BF4. It really gave you the impression that you were going “oh shit” and just dropping your weapon and letting it get slung while you swapped to your secondary. This also worked for pistols as well. Really cool stuff.

[@doorsareforopening]

13:43 It actually only has 5 animations. The K Bullet loading, 4 rounds left, 3 rounds left, 1 round left and no rounds left. The 2 rounds left reload just plays the 3 rounds left animation then the 4 rounds left animation. K bullets are actually loaded into the gun slightly differently than 1 regular round being loaded. The K Bullet is "rolled in" instead of being pushed in like the 4 rounds left one. The obrez actually does have a different 2 rounds left reload for some reason

[@WilleViberg]

CP2077 has like 3 variations for reloading each weapon. It's something that makes weapons feel more immerskve IMO, since it just isnt repeating every time ypu reloading.

[@fafflytailslogisonicuite104]

Loved the Red DEad Redemption music at 8:35 , that is pretty much it, you just get a like for references, because you're EPIC.

[@professormemsclass]

Heck yea thanks

[@moistman6302]

If you love all these animations and what not hit up Killing floor 2 they have multiple seperately animated reloads based on reload speed of classes chosen for some gun and appreciate nuance to said reloads and fetures a few older type guns too many lever actions and revolver gun for you to enjoy

[@sil3ntsp3ct3r]

Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm did it even better 5 years earlier

[@professormemsclass]

"Better" I am begging you to go back and look at the Nagant revolver reload in that game

[@TheTrueJNR]

randomly found this through the algorithm. very precise, very satisfying. nice video

[@jimbovitikan4848]

10:07 ive actually kind of noticed this after spending a lot of time with the peacekeeper. im pretty sure i noticed how having certain amounts of rounds left was faster to reload than others, but i dont quite remember anymore

[@motorolah8107]

wtf Muv-Luv Alternative soundtrack... very based

[@JSterling812]

Knowing that a lot of the team that worked on BF1 left after its conclusion, and even more after BFV, just shows how much the passionate few can really affect a game

[@seaweedstache1501]

Such a great video, and battlefield 1 is my favorite fps still, so glad to see it talked about :)

[@Gust2000]

There is antoher game called Hunt Showdown wich i think is very underrated in dynamic reloads, especially with the "bulletgrabber" and "ambidextrous" talent