I see Cascadeur has updated their Ragdoll simulations for better integration with odd shaped scene objects.
but still it seems that ragdoll has not really improved in 20 years
Although I do give credit to this Unity developer
for his system.
Possibly. I haven’t really kept track of ragdoll stuff.
However, the fact that Endorphin was discontinued and the general lack of attention giving to ragdoll physics would suggest to me that there is not a lot of demand for that kind of thing outside of “ragdoll sim” videos (i.e., videos whose point is to demonstrate ragdoll physics).
To be useful in animation work, I think ragdoll physics would also need to be able to handle limited ranges of motion of joints (plus dislocation of joints) as well as breaking of bones, etc. Maybe that can be done in Endorphin—I have never looked at that program; when I first heard about this software, it had already been discontinued for a number of years and I don’t deal with that kind of software.
The technology of Endorphin wasn’t discontinued completely but integrated into game engines. They likely made much more money that way then selling it as a software for animators and had to prioritize that.
As far as I can see it, the only difference between Cascadeur and the other options are invisible forces hitting the models.
Looks like the Cascadeur simulation has the model simply falling down due to gravity while in both other simulations the characters are hit by a force into certain parts of the body, which accelerates the part into the opposite direction and the rest of the body is following it.
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However, the fact that Endorphin was discontinued and the general lack of attention giving to ragdoll physics would suggest to me that there is not a lot of demand for that kind of thing outside of “ragdoll sim” videos
To be useful in animation work, I think ragdoll physics would also need to be able to handle limited ranges of motion of joints
There is still a demand for it in the video game development
industry and for action oriented animation films and scifi.
With Endorphin I can adjust bounciness , friction “stickiness”
and most importantly not only the strength of gravity but the actual direction of gravity for realistic simulation of weightlessness in space sci-fi scenes
the is also a long list pre programmed character behavours you can invoke during the simulation on a separate track
( see pic )
and the restraint system for pinning body parts is rock solid.
the ability to import mocap and decide when the ragdoll sim takes over during the animation is a huge feature.
This software was decades ahead of its time.
The technology of Endorphin wasn’t discontinued completely but integrated into game engines. They likely made much more money that way then selling it as a software for animators and had to prioritize that.
Correct sir.
Endorphin was followed by the “ Euphoria” engine
and by that time Natural motion only offered it as service whereby they would integrate the tech into your existing
inhouse game engine for a $$HUGE COSTS$$.
The game “Dead Red Redemption” had the Euphoria engine
But now that so many people are using unity and UE5 all you really see are simple
“Go limp and fall down under gravity” type of ragdoll in games which is a step backwards.
The only other ragdoll physics engine that comes close to endorphin today is
That puppetmaster system for Unity and the Poser physics system that is nearly as old as Endorphin and is now been open sourced by it’s creator.
The Poser system takes advantage of the fact that objects with intersecting geometry during the simulation would
violently fly apart which made for some cool “IEDs”
to send your character flying with realistic collisions
so you get a different unique result every time you run the sim.
I meant as a stand-alone product at a “reasonable” price. Since I don’t play games or use game engines to render animations, I don’t really care to what extent Endorphin “survives” in that realm.
Perhaps so. But studios and large game developers can develop and use proprietary systems instead. Hobbyists can only use what is available in “affordable” software like Cascadeur or iClone. And there does not appear to be sufficient demand from budget-conscious animators to warrant the development of a replacement for Endorphin (or for someone to continue that software as a stand-alone application).
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see AI also addressing this particular animation niche. We’ll see what Cascadeur will do in that regard (not that I’m a user of that program—only potentially interested).
So a third party dev has converted the spring joints Python plugin to work for iC8. That should allow for setting the character bones to “ragdoll-ish” on the fly.
https://marketplace.reallusion.com/spring-joints-plus-ic8
Hobbyists can only use what is available in “affordable” software like Cascadeur or iClone.
No not really
Unity is FREE, UE5 is FREE
Unity has a FBX exporter package
as does unreal engine.
So actually hobbyists using Blender need not pay the $900 for Iclone/CC4.
or $300 for the “pro” version of cascadeur required to get their ragdoll features.
That unity ragdoll system is $98 dollars
As Endorphin is long dead and only exist as a “private collectors” software,
IMHO the best Ragdoll option in 2025
is to grab a second hand copy of the poser 12 software from Ebay for $47 dollars an install the free open source poser physics python plugin then run your simulations and export to FBX for retarget in other programs.
I paid more than that for my Flip Fluids addon for blender
($75)
Maybe so. But I categorically refuse to use game engines, even if they are free (I don’t really care all that much about the money I spend on my hobbies—what else am I going to spend it on?). The same way, I refuse to use Apple products and some other stuff as a matter of principle. So, as far as I’m concerned, it is either iClone (some time in the future) or Cascadeur (if I decide to go that route), or perhaps some other software not on my radar yet.
That said, I don’t really have a need/use for ragdoll animations, so it is easy for me to wait and see.
Well different people have different priorities obviously.
Unreal engine is a good free option for photorealistic realtime animation rendering but I just HATE the interface and uber complex workflow so I have no interest in using it
same for Unity TBH.
Like @Auroratrek , I like telling animated stories in the genres I care about
and as with fluid sims you really do not need ragdoll animation all that often(probably less)
which probably explains why there has been so little improvements in ragdoll simulation software options in the 20 years since Endorphin.
But between Poser physics and my “surviving” copy of Endorphin, I am pretty well covered and won’t need to wait for apps like Cascaduer to catch up.