The Sweet Science: Physics In Fight Night Round 4

Producer Brian Hayes takes us through the various aspects of physics in Fight Night Round 4.

I’ll be completely honest. I wasn’t the biggest fan of physics in school. There are a lot of reasons for that. My teachers probably weren’t the coolest, most interesting people in the world. The curriculum probably involved a lot of mathematical problem-solving with a pencil and paper. There were likely some experiments with wood and string and springs. Meh.

Well, things get a whole lot more interesting when you’re instructor is a virtual Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

When I first joined the Round 4 team, a small pre-production crew had already been hard at work prototyping the new physics engine. One of the first things I saw was a generic boxer model missing a straight right and shooting it just over the shoulder of his opponent. As he retracted the punch, his arm would slightly bump upwards as the other boxer stood up from a slight crouch. It may sound like a small detail, but it was a very big deal for me because I had never seen anything like it in a boxing game before. I see it happen almost every week on Friday Night Fights, but a video game? No way. The collision detection in Fight Night Round 4 sets it apart from its predecessors and sets the stage for several of the other big gameplay improvements. Most notably, the incorporation of height and reach as strategic factors in a fight, inside fighting and outside fighting and the variety of impacts that occur as two boxers punch, block, slip and move inside the ring.

Having worked on other games in the past, including the original Fight Night 2004, it was a constant learning experience to help design and tune the gameplay for Round 4. Gone were the days of simple punch damage tables: a jab hurts this much and a hook hurts that much. Because physics is being factored into every single punch impact, each time an engineer refines the shape or size of the left cheekbone (yes, there is a separate collision volume for each cheekbone – also the brows, nose, chin, jaw, temples and cranium) it has an effect on the result of every overhand right that comes crashing down. A departure from most boxing games and fighting games in general, it delivers the dynamics of a real prizefight. It creates the difference between a straight that slides of the side of your cheek and a hook that crashes full force into the side of your head.

Most importantly, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.