Bohemia Interactive has posted an interview with Zdeněk “Vespa” Vespalec, the man in charge of Arma 3’s animations. As could be expected, Vespa promised that Arma 3’s new character animations will be “better, faster, smoother and more authentic than ever before.” Some of the highlights from the interview have been posted beneath the accompanying teaser trailer.

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According to Vespa, one of the new features will be “alternate poses” that go beyond standing, knelling, and prone position. Bohemia has added a “high/low or left/right variant to each stance.” This will change gameplay in terms of “finding effective cover and being able to fire from it.” He also spoke about focusing on smaller details like hands “gripping things properly,” to improve immersion.

Characters aren’t the only beneficiary of the new animation system. Firearms are getting an overhaul with each individual gun receiving animated parts and “tailored reload animations.” Coupled with this are general improvements to how the weapons behave. Now things like fatigue and injury will affect a weapon’s precision and sway. The goal behind these changes is to “improve the feel of firing guns” and to “make firefights flow as close to reality as possible.”

The Arma series thus far has offered the best military sandbox around, although it’s animations admittedly weren’t top of the line. The teaser trailer doesn’t show very much, but if Vespa can deliver on his promises, then it will go a long way towards making the characters look more like human beings. However, the greatest immersion killer is probably the procedurally generated voice system where NPCs convey information and orders in a monotone voice: “Oh no… one is down… two, three… target that… tank…twenty meters…in front of… us.” Here’s hoping they improve on that aspect of the series as well.

Check out the E3 Demo footage below for a more in depth look at Arma 3.

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