Animated basketball players, the kind you see when playing games such as NBA 2K, are currently teaching themselves how to dribble thanks to research work at Carnegie Mellon University.
With a lot of practice repetitions—millions upon millions—digital players are learning how to dribble between their legs, dribble behind their backs, do crossover moves, and transition from one skill to another.
The research, pioneered by Carnegie Mellon researchers and DeepMotion, a California-based developer of smart avatars, is based on motion capture data. Avatars are learning by watching videos of real people dribbling basketballs.
Over time, researchers say their work will help make basketball video games, such as Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K (the game that powers the NBA’s official esports league) and EA Sports’ NBA Live, look even more realistic.
“This research opens the door to simulating sports with skilled virtual avatars,” said Libin Liu, chief scientist at DeepMotion, in a report. “The technology can be applied beyond sport simulation to create more interactive characters for gaming, animation, motion analysis, and in the future, robotics.”
This is the first time real-time physics-based methodologies are being used to teach avatars new skills, according to the report. The trial-and-error learning process requires millions of reps, but the result is that arm movements closely coordinate with physically-plausible ball movement. More simply put: video games appear more realistic.
Whereas balls in basketball video games sometimes follow impossible trajectories, according to Liu, the Carnegie research is attempting to use “deep reinforcement” to teach these digital basketball players how the actual physics of basketball work.
The avatars eventually learn more nuanced skills, not only how to dribble and transition, but also how to anticipate how the ball will move once it’s released. Trajectory calculations predict the ball’s most likely paths for a given hand motion.
SportTechie Takeaway
Advances in technology are fostering more realistic digital experiences, which are seeping into various aspects of the sports and gaming industries. Making esports more realistic, particularly esports based on traditional sports, such as NBA 2K and EA’s Madden, will help validate such leagues further as they work to increase their fan bases and thrive alongside traditional sports.