Making the Believable Horses of 'Red Dead Redemption II'

[@arsenymun2028]

This is pretty rare. Rockstar rarely does public presentations.

[@ericpalacios920]

I would love to hear them talk about the development of the open world, environments, weather systems, etc. The beta maps people have found are really interesting to me

[@colin-campbell]

That's because they're too busy crunching to do any.

[@morriswein2386]

@@ericpalacios920 Not exactlly what your looking for, but you might find it interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmOagpVoZaaMo8U&ab_channel=GDC

[@mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm3153]

@@ericpalacios920 I would like too but i think all the mistery around Rockstar way to do things is one of the various reasons that made them so unique in the industry.

[@DinaricUbermensch]

@@ericpalacios920 No one cares about beta maps, I care about pre alpha, alpha and beta Builds of this game

[@mtpro2412]

Finally rockstar devs opening up about their masterpiece for generations, Love to know it all.

[@squidstone8399]

They've done this rarely in GDC and siggraph for GTA 5 too.

[@youngknight5589]

@@squidstone8399 what did tbeh talk about in siggraph

[@squidstone8399]

@@youngknight5589 Atmospherics in rdr2

[@wifine1951]

Do they have any behind the scenes? They’re very secretive

[@GodWarsX]

Imagine having "Lead AI/Gameplay Programmer" for Red Dead Redemption 2 on your resume? This guy is brilliant

[@MikeyTux97]

Sadly he left Rockstar and is at Tencent now

[@GodWarsX]

@@MikeyTux97 tencent?? Yikes

[@MikeyTux97]

@@GodWarsX Yes as Animation expert, his name was found in those Gta 6 leaks ,so he did work on GTA 6.

[@MikeyTux97]

@@Nick-kb2jc In debug screen from one of those testing clips

[@MikeyTux97]

@@Nick-kb2jc According to forums the debug UI is ImGui which is open source and has name and build dates for each script. Rest you can see it yourself in the leaks

[@zafhalasdfn3324]

Now you know why this game took 8 years to make. The amount of logistics and planning is insane, especially when they’re designing these massive new systems from nothing. Imagine how long it took to even choose what ideas to commit to all the way down to the level of detail we see in the game. And then coordinating the ambiguous, broad ideas like in the video across more than a thousand people to turn it in to something so expansive and polished, very impressive.

[@Nick-kb2jc]

Agreed. It’s so impressive and fascinating.

[@Senpaiaproves]

Intro 0:00 Starting out 1:15 Rdr2 first pass 2:27 What's different about a horse and a vehicle 3:38 Freedom of movement 4:55 Gaits, speed and responsiveness 12:30 Environmental awareness 25:24 Personality 40:25 Breeds 44:30 Wrap up 47:43

[@Senpaiaproves]

Why we crash into trees so much 35:00

[@gleam6370]

The horses are one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a game. Can’t wait to see what technical boundaries Rockstar will push for their next game

[@Makrillo]

Nothing gameplay related, thats for sure.

[@gleam6370]

@@Makrillo I love the gameplay. And the animations that compliments it are top notch. R* games are grounded in reality, and the gameplay works for what it’s trying to do. I don’t need Arthur Morgan to do backflips and Run on walls as he’s shooting lawmen

[@Makrillo]

@@gleam6370 Im fine with its controls, but I hate the rigid mission-structures and would like more freedom in how I solve quests, RDR2 was extremely limited in how to take on missions and often when I took two steps to the side it failed. Which I find incredibly boring.

[@nonaborhan7269]

@@Makrillo you probably mean combat, as gameplay is alot of things it's not just the gunplay, so hourse riding, walking/running , animations, interactively, etc is all gameplay, and R* will suerly push that to new levels in there next title, as in RDR2 they introduced many gameplay systems like interacting with NPCs, improved melee combat, and animations in general, these are just a few examples.

[@Makrillo]

@@nonaborhan7269 combat could be fine, its more missiondesign and the freedom you have to resolve the missions in a manner that is entertaining. Rockstar has designed them in such a way that you either resolve them as they had planned, or not at all. Which is boring to me. The open world, while beautiful is also rather pointless to do anything in. Sure I can ride around and steal a carriage or whatever, but there's not any tangible rewards for it. The only thing that was mildly worth pursuing was the legendary animals, but hunting them also felt more like a chore than anything. The best part of the game to me were some of the smaller more personal quests.

[@senshai1267]

Good to have this team talk, they deserve the praise

[@servancastillo986]

The Horse animations in this game is what made me buy it day one, and their horse and The Last of Us II' horse are the best in games. Really impressive work from the devs here.

[@ammarqureshi2347]

f

[@helloitsbella8161]

Absolutely. I'm so glad that they picked up on lead changes and lateral turning movement -- extensive procedural horse movement with varied "styles" is something that no game has really had the ability to explore fully before due to budget and hardware constraints, and the lack of it will always leave virtual horses feeling "off." It's something that even non-horsey people will notice, when a horse in RDR2 turns, it feels dramatically different to how a horse in RDR turns (ie: their turning circle is no longer larger than the circumference of the moon). The changing posture when going up/down hill, the different speed and animations in deep snow/water/mud... it all paints a picture. Procedural foot placement on differing terrain was so exciting when it started coming to games. I remember the first time I played a game where you could put ONE foot on something, and have the leg bend to adjust. Mind. Blown. But all these extra plains of movement are the next step. It's so exciting. It can't be overstated how much believability it adds to the horses, which are so vital to the genre. I'm so glad that R* put budget and time behind finding such great solutions to this, and of course, it's not perfect. We could see more improvements in the future, and personally, it makes me very excited for a next-gen RDR title in the far-future and what that could accomplish with horse animations and personality, breeds and just more, more, more variation and individuality. It seems that this guy especially has an idea of how much players loved this attention to detail, which makes me hopeful that if/when R* makes an RDR3, they'll go with the same idea (the one that makes me so happy I could cry), "the horses inform development." When I played RDR2 for the first time, I could not BELIEVE how alive the horses felt. It was the most unexpected gift. I never expected a game not *just* about horses to care so much about how the horses came across. It was surreal. I still play RDR2 and am amazed by the way the horses turn. It never gets old. I've got a new-found appreciation for certain features after watching this, too. This presentation meant little to me in a game development sense -- I did learn some, but I'm sure a lot went over my head. I knew that the animations of the horses were WAY too varied to all be hand-picked transitions, and that they were procedural, but it's so cool to see HOW that works. Plus, this guy actually shed some light on some horse features that players have been arguing over the existence of since release. I hope that in the future, they make these features even more obvious, like various things slowing the horses down (including horse type -- it could be so much more extreme and it'd be better imo), horses not always doing what the player asks them to, etc. I'm amazed that they didn't hype some of these features more. Horse balls, shitting, great. But lead changes? That's what got me at release. And the uphill animation. I STILL walk uphill in RDR2 for no reason, just to see it. The horses in TLOU2 are absolutely stunning, especially considering how little time they're in the game. I was so surprised and amazed by them, too, again, ESPECIALLY because they're not in the game for that long. It's cool to see devs taking horses seriously and having some fun with them. It's like they're all collectively realising that horses are pretty and move in interesting (and from a game production standpoint, no doubt challenging) ways, and putting budget and time into adding it into their games. It's so cool to see even non-horsey people realising that it DOES add to the game to have believable horses, even if it's not *essential* to function. I had to laugh at how happy this guy seemed abut the article of the "big stupid" Belgian. That article is a favourite of mine. Made me so happy, and it's exactly what I mean when I say that even non-horsey people loved RDR2's horses.

[@LiquidSnake1988]

Have you tried shadow of the colossus ps2??

[@bobstatesman]

@@LiquidSnake1988 Glad someone brought this up. There's no way the horse movement/physics/AI in Shadow of the Colossus did not influence RDR 2's dev team. It still holds up to this day. I wonder if the PS4 remake changed any of the underlying horse animations? The mane/tail appears somewhat less floaty, but that might possibly have more to do with updates to the physics rather than animation.

[@IsatisAngel]

@@bobstatesman I dont' have the impression of modifications with Agro on PS4. With Wanda, a little, but not with our trusted mount, I think.

[@aadipie]

Awesome to see Rockstar showing off how their game came together. Hope to see more.

[@grahamwebster8913]

In horseback riding it's a common tendency that people get on the horse from the left side of the horse. Also called "The Near Side". I think it's really neat they threw that detail in there when players mount onto their horse.

[@LiquidSnake1988]

The horse gameplay sold me!!! The rest are just icing on top of the cake as big as the iceberg.

[@thedofflin]

I will always remember the first trailer I saw for this game, it was the horse animations which got me really hyped for the game. Incredible work. I don't know how you guys deliver such consistent quality games, but let's just say it doesn't go unnoticed.

[@FafaGamingYT]

the hard work paid off. Red Dead horses are the best horse models ever made in a game, the personality, the animations and the model..everything..its a masterpiece

[@midnightkaty5130]

I feel like the devs behind RDR2 are really, severely underrated. I am so sad that Rockstar has done RDO the way that they did. Anyway, thank you Tobias and everyone else behind the beauty of this game, for all of your hard work! This game has served as a major source of relief for me. A place to go escape the horrors that are reality lol. Just amazing work you've done here!

[@SAerror1]

Very disappointed they skipped over the slide going into great detail on how to calculate optimal horse testicle size based on terrain data :( Next time maybe.

[@banjomir519]

The devs did an incredible job with horse animations. It remains very satisfying even after more than 1K hours playing the game.

[@akunpremi015]

Those gta 6 leaks looking exactly like this

[@myfatassdick]

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people They’ve obviously never seen videos like this before

[@alexandermoyle9034]

The animations are so beautiful in this game, great to see these clever techniques. So fluid. GG

[@squidstone8399]

34:53 That blew my mind! Next level AI system right there

[@wolfsbane1991]

I want to stress that the horse animations and behaviours are THE reason I bought this game. I do play games in my freetime, but it's not my main hobby. I wasn't gonna buy this game, until I saw the horses. Wow. We as horse people are absolutely starved for good horse games; we will take anything. As luck would have it, I ended up adoring the game and Arthur's story. It's up there as one of my favourite games ever.

[@henrietta9394]

Same !!!

[@Camisimluva]

Same here, my friend called it “GTA with horses” and I tried red dead for the horses alone. It’s now my favourite game of all time, which knocked the sims off of its throne after being there since I was 6. Sometimes I will literally go in game, get on my horse and take them for a hack in first person to get the feeling like I’m really on a horse. I’m aware that’s sad of me lmao, but that’s really how good the horses are.

[@VadimID]

This guy says he is from Rockstar North, the studio that developed GTA5. So until 2018 they were working on RDR2 to make this masterpiece. And everybody wondered where GTA6 was. They started making it only in 2018 I guess. I hope they make it the same masterpiece as RDR2.

[@Ram0nAlan]

Rockstar, when are you going to make a historical medieval game, swords instead of guns, you already nailed the horses.

[@John-996]

would be amazing

[@lepersonnage371]

Rockstar is making games about america specifically, and about more or less modern times to reflect on society and satirize. Medieval game would be very out of the left field for them

[@JayHPatel]

Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to understanding the magic behind the horses in RDR2, simply unmatched in my opinion.

[@00Linares00]

I bonded with a horse only to have it instantly killed by a swamp ambush, shortly before killing it me too before I even understood what was happening, meaning he stayed dead after the game reloaded T-T

[@DCFatCat]

I was hoping for an hour on the pooping schedule of the different breeds. I swear my crappy horse would make plops every 10 minutes if I let it.

[@AndreyRomanenkov]

It is impressive how they had a very good result even on a first pass (similar to Witcher 3), but they didn't stop and continue to an almost perfection.

[@yuu34567]

Saw this show up in my subscriptions and I got really hyped. RDR2 has the best looking horses I've ever seen in a video game, by far. The animations and appearances of the horses are just so lifelike and realistic, it's honestly the main reason I have 500+ hours in Red Dead Online.

[@Lythaera]

The only thing that is incorrect/unrealistic about these animations is that at the trot, and especially at the canter and gallop, the front legs should fully extend and lock in a completely straight position well before the hoof strikes the down the ground. Shock absorption doesn't happen with bent knees in horses, but via flexion in the pastern (the section of leg directly above the hoof, basically the part that connects the hoof to the 'ankle' of the horse.). If horses bore weight on a bent leg like that in real life that leg would crumple beneath the sheer weight and force of the horse, or quickly develop structural problems with the knee. It's a small thing, but if you ride horses or know how they move in real life, this small thing is glaringly obvious. It holds the animation cycle back from being truly realistic and phenomenal. I hope they fix it one day. Or maybe someone can make a mod for it. Either way, Rockstar really knocked this out of the park!

[@AllMnM]

this game made me fall in love with video games again, thank you so much! and thank you for this amazing detailed talk

[@John-996]

Horses are Amazing in this game also would love a talk about the NPCs and how they did the wild life system. I would love a talk on Maxpayne 3 Physics.

[@iminumst7827]

I just started playing this game this week, very impressed by the animation, visuals, gameplay, story, and really everything else.

[@robo_t]

It’s a shame how much effort was put into the game, only to see it suffer because online isn’t getting as much attention as GTA does.

[@maxcarlsson8334]

Doesn’t need any online features

[@mainerider2046]

Absolutely brilliant. Fascinating to watch. Thank you very much for sharing. Love this game and hope to see more development details in the future. Awesome work.

[@SeanMarshallSM]

I love the GDC. So much complex and interesting information.

[@IJaba27]

Wonderful to see Rockstar opening up about their technologies and allowing their developers to speak about them.

[@fburton8]

I would love to have heard something about their future plans, especially regarding horses. Of course, there's always room for improvement, but I have to say what they have done so far is pretty darn impressive.

[@HeroVax]

I remember when GTA 6 animation testing was leaked. I literally came to this place to check the fonts and everything matches.

[@MrEdcar007]

20:06 Small gameplay snippet from an early 2017 alpha build.

[@user-mt4ny2zw7t]

What he is talking about is really hard to do to make it look right. Not only is it complex motion but people know in their head what looks right and what looks wrong. The same thing is true with showing characters just walking, it never quite looks 100% right because your brain knows what right looks like.

[@alperen194]

Very cool, i always wanted a detailed behind the scenes or insight of the development of the game.

[@johngalactus4014]

To this day, RDR2 to me remains the most detailed game ever made. The amount of thought and work that Rockstar put into the game is insane. If there's a GTA 6 (...eventually we'll get one), it is going to be monumental.

[@thedevilhimself1728]

The old HUD and stuff, wow, epic!!

[@thejimd]

Hell Yea been waiting for this talk to drop! Ty GDC

[@suvamk]

If ubisoft made video about their horses , the video would be 1 min long.. ok mayb a little less than a minute

[@dzr4421]

47:12 is exactly the kind of video I've been looking for. It's no surprise that these horses truly FEEL DIFFERENT in such subtle ways, that players might get attached to a singular one throughout their gameplay. I've modded horses in every game I've ever played (that had horses and allows modding), and I was baffled to dive into the depths of RDR2 horse coding. It's not just that you can swap some clusters in code and get a full experience. For example, I swapped the coat colors and body models of my custom Andalusian for the starter horse (that unique Mahogany Bay Tennessee Walker), and something just felt off. It didn't feel like the same ANdalusian horse as in my older save file. Something about the controls and the responsiveness, all down to the idle animation (which I found out there are several different ones, with subtle changes, not just the obvious Arabian one). Well, this video explains in great detail, why. There's so much more to what makes the horses in this game feel like they do.

[@nekokna]

having no money to play modern games i find this ULTRA impressive! amazing horses!

[@lewisnorth1188]

Holy shit, I never thought I'd see a technical GDC talk from Rockstar, this is amazing

[@JonasTisell]

Same tools as seen in the GTA 6 leak.

[@myfatassdick]

12:16 42:04

[@jay4ymar1]

Here due to the GTA6 leak

[@tsycho1619]

FINALLY! Thanks!

[@lucifer_69960]

The first pass reminds me of RDR1

[@bluenovacorgi8230]

That painted horse with the white n tan/brown in the demo looked amazing af omg put that on in online wow, at 5:48

[@Makeybussines]

This is the talk we've all been waiting for! Internet peak right here 💪

[@justinkase8669]

Considering the fact that every breed used in the game is based on real breeds and is pretty accurate, I'd say they're believable regardless.

[@Flogitto]

Es ist sehr schön zu sehen wie die Pferde gemacht wurden und wie viel liebe dahinter steckt, ich wünschte der Konzern dahinter würde die mühen auch so schätzen :( #NoFronttheDevs

[@bretmackay5340]

MORE OF THIS

[@saltyyolk9934]

Love you rockstar

[@MendessRafael]

#SaveRedDeadOnline

[@DukeNuggets69]

sadly never gotten saved nor it will ever be

[@campos3452]

Man, when you lose your horse towards the end game. It’s painful. R.I.P Dumbass my horses name 😆

[@dr.peppersgeronimo4133]

Ubisoft could take some notes on this

[@malvonanaliseiv8629]

I can't believe he just talked about the horses balls for one our straight.

[@phlegios]

Awesome tech breakdown. Too bad this kind of work can only be done by big budget teams. No way this would've been possible to achieve on a small to medium budget.

[@Spider-Pope]

2021: About 1 hr of Rare footage of beta RDR2 2022: About 1 hr of Rare footage of beta GTA 6 2023: ???

[@lordeddy05]

Wow, a Rockstar dev?

[@vamsikrishna6142]

Waiting for so long 🤠❤️

[@djblsky6784]

Wonder how long did it take to put this all together (just the horse animations mechanics together) 🤔

[@lmk_nathan42915]

WOW, this is very rare, I said nobody making vídeos of theses beta rdr 2 videos.

[@cyberpiok439]

Where can I find more about this compositional locomotion system he briefly talked about?

[@crymsun]

I am beyond impressed by the absolute commitment to the horse characters. Should further refinement be done, I would like RG to know: - The gaits are slightly wrong - walk is a four beat, trot is 2, canter/lope is a 3-beat and the gallop is a 4-beat. - Since RD adopts the Western style of riding, I would recommend using Western riding footage (instead of the English style they relied on) - there are significant differences in movement, especially as Western focuses pivoting on the hind, and English tends to more engage the front or both at once. - Some of the breed specific conformation is off... Again, I absolutely applaud the effort.. they are by far the best equine representations I have seen in any video game. Bravo!

[@elgoblino859]

TOBY ur famous now

[@BrotherO4]

me within 5 mins of watching, hmmm interesting... so about horse's balls physics?

[@wildwest1832]

sheesh I didnt realize how complicated it was to make a horse and animate it.

[@BleachBasket108]

Horse biomechanics are quite complex; I see why it'd be difficult to emulate realistically to any degree. I've certainly seen many many poorly created horses in gaming over the years lol

[@John-996]

@@BleachBasket108 Witcher 3 is a good exsample.

[@Tapeizys]

Make it an option that you can remove the horse link bullshit (jump to horse)

[@Nikkes02]

Great game, great horses :)

[@Pazikon]

This is the peak.

[@KhanShafkat]

"Creating the vast open world of RDR2 was a monumental task, requiring a careful balance between realism and engaging gameplay." "The dynamic weather system and day-night cycles were designed to enhance the sense of realism, impacting both visuals and gameplay in meaningful ways.

[@camilorivera4241]

The horses in this game are by far the best I’ve seen in any game, and that’s coming from an equestrian. However, the horse’s movement gets very repetitive after a while, also they usually don’t walk at such a fast pace or with their heads that high. RDR1 nailed the walk best.

[@agatach87]

As a horse owner I can confirm that the amount of poop is usually a concern

[@UCoif3lJEaoA4y6-vxcQQhkA]

Jakey sent me

[@UnityAgainstJewishEvil]

Same here, I can never get enough Red Dead content.

[@matinprsd]

Let's not forget the most important factor here: the horse's balls shrinking in cold weather

[@philipblom9072]

I just wish horses started grazing and layed down etc once in awhile. It looks stupid idling like a living statue imho

[@rahtsnake144]

they do graze

[@cjeff99]

I’ve seen wild horses laying down, can’t remember if the camp horses do

[@rahtsnake144]

@@cjeff99 caught my horse in rdo laying down after a blood money mission

[@relaxed70]

They graze, lay down, roll in grass

[@PersonalAccountIndeed]

Yo is that Bill Williamson on a BMX at 3:53?

[@chattychatotchannel]

it's cool hearing about but at the same time hearing about the extreme crunch to get this game made makes it not feel worth the human suffering..

[@thepradeepplays3034]

Fantastic video 👏👌

[@PTurtle]

While my horse throws itself into a tree once in a while

[@סטסאנטיפוב-ק9ב]

Why you ignore red dead redemption 2 online????

[@jonclark4328]

Nice! A much better topic than discussing "masculinity in video games". You may not have to turn off the comments on this one! Progress.

[@jonclark4328]

@Maxim N Edit: sorry. I was going to refer you to read the comments because it would make more sense, but I forget they really had to turn them off because they didn't like the results. Did you watch that video?

[@Thomas_Angelo]

Rockstar north is the core of Gta and Rdr games.

[@John-996]

GTA and Manhunt more like. Of course they played a Big role in RDR2 as all the devs at Rockstar worked on it.

[@Thomas_Angelo]

@@John-996 they are the core of Rockstar and they do the magic. Rockstar south just takes the credit.

[@ivanshevchuk1699]

This is man a genius and a revolutionar.

[@BleachBasket108]

Very cool talk, combines two of my favorite things - gaming and horseback riding. Makes me wanna buy the game lol but maybe not since the RDO community is pissed stm

[@loztpm]

Story mode is amazing and deserves to be experienced. Online is a whole different can of worms. We are very pissed rn, but definitely play single player if you want to. It’s on sale on PlayStation rn

[@newportangels]

i cannot stress this enough buy the game for the story its amazing don't worry about RDO

[@relaxed70]

Yes a huge part of the community is irritated about RDO, myself included. ( For good reason may I add) But the Single player game is jaw dropping . It's truly a generational game. The best I've played imho, and as an older adult, I've been an avid gamer since pong. Rockstar is unparalleled in the detail they put into it, as this presentation shows. The rest of the game is just as detailed. They do single player amazingly well typically, and this is the pinnacle. They need some help w/ online though. Sorry R* take your lumps too lol.

[@joshuatealeaves]

Rise of Ronin devs punching the air rn. Game development is hard 😅

[@faris_diz]

He didnt mention the balls shrinking lol

[@RadeonVector]

Imagine if they would've put this much thought and effort into other aspects of the game, it would've been a masterpiece.

[@nerad1994]

It already is a masterpiece

[@maiku3741]

Please gdc, i would reali like to see a video about, capcom - monster hunter world animation system video. ( even rise would be interesting ) Or kinda like a video that talks about how they make the monsters. It would be a really cool and informative video to look at.

[@masensen3020]

The balls were pretty believable

[@joebob8713]

Finally

[@cxlciummmiv]

GTA 6

[@darkstars4695]

Rockstar india?

[@origamibulldoser1618]

I'm on a horse

[@liquidsodyssey6762]

Is this somehow gonna makes us forgive rockstar the fact that they ruined online portion of the game.