What is the new ProPlay Feature?

[bigE819]

2K describes ProPlay by saying “NBA 2K24 will introduce ProPLAY - a groundbreaking new technology that directly translates NBA footage into NBA 2K24 gameplay. ProPLAY delivers animations and movements via on-court NBA action for a generational leap in authenticity on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.” But what does that mean for us the user?

[Andrew]

That's about all we know about it at present, but it seems to be promising more authentic animations and player movement; something that's been touted in previous games obviously, but with some new tech and methods of striving for that goal. It sounds like they're going to be able to take NBA footage and use it as additional mo-cap.

To that point, it could mean that they can capture and add new animations throughout the year. For example, if a player does something rather unique, they'll be able to create an animation from the footage, and then put it in NBA 2K24 via an update. On top of a general aim of more authenticity and better feel on the sticks, I imagine that'd be one of the main benefits for us, since we'd be able to pull off something cool that happened in the real NBA during the season that wasn't accounted for in the animation packages at launch.

That's just my speculation, but that's what it sounds like to me: additional mo-cap technology and techniques that aims for more authenticity, and can add new animations post-launch based on real life highlights.

[bigE819]

I hope this means we can get different shooting forms for say Current and 2013 LeBron, and 1986 MJ vs 1998 MJ.

That's about all we know about it at present, but it seems to be promising more authentic animations and player movement; something that's been touted in previous games obviously, but with some new tech and methods of striving for that goal. It sounds like they're going to be able to take NBA footage and use it as additional mo-cap.

To that point, it could mean that they can capture and add new animations throughout the year. For example, if a player does something rather unique, they'll be able to create an animation from the footage, and then put it in NBA 2K24 via an update. On top of a general aim of more authenticity and better feel on the sticks, I imagine that'd be one of the main benefits for us, since we'd be able to pull off something cool that happened in the real NBA during the season that wasn't accounted for in the animation packages at launch.

That's just my speculation, but that's what it sounds like to me: additional mo-cap technology and techniques that aims for more authenticity, and can add new animations post-launch based on real life highlights.

[Andrew]

They could presumably do that already if they wanted to, but perhaps ProPLAY will allow them to do so with more accuracy. We'll have to wait and see what it is, and how impactful it can be.

[BuckCity]

however this feature works. Do you think they could use it for body collisions and contact between players. If so they could use some late 90s games and use some of the footage to create handchecking chucking off player. Player interaction inside the paint. For example Dennis Rodman never box off 4 rebounds. He would just turn his body sideways and grab the opposing player and jostle for position then breakaway for a rebound. That would be great to implement into 2k my eras.

[Andrew]

Possibly. I'm guessing that would be tougher and they'd focus on single player animations first, like some kind of unique dunk or layup that doesn't involve contact, or shooting forms. The Rodman scenario sounds like it'd be challenging to implement as I imagine it would require player-specific logic and animation packages for rebounding, but maybe in the long run that kind of authenticity for past and present players will be possible.

I highly doubt we'll see the full extent and potential of ProPLAY in the first year, and obviously we're still speculating on exactly what it does. Whether it's what I've said or something else entirely though, I'd suggest the first iteration will only scratch the surface of what it can possibly do, as it does sound ambitious.

[bruce2k4u]

I hope this means we can get different shooting forms for say Current and 2013 LeBron, and 1986 MJ vs 1998 MJ.

That's about all we know about it at present, but it seems to be promising more authentic animations and player movement; something that's been touted in previous games obviously, but with some new tech and methods of striving for that goal. It sounds like they're going to be able to take NBA footage and use it as additional mo-cap.

To that point, it could mean that they can capture and add new animations throughout the year. For example, if a player does something rather unique, they'll be able to create an animation from the footage, and then put it in NBA 2K24 via an update. On top of a general aim of more authenticity and better feel on the sticks, I imagine that'd be one of the main benefits for us, since we'd be able to pull off something cool that happened in the real NBA during the season that wasn't accounted for in the animation packages at launch.

That's just my speculation, but that's what it sounds like to me: additional mo-cap technology and techniques that aims for more authenticity, and can add new animations post-launch based on real life highlights.

This dude gets it. You can add 2002 Kobe and 2016 Kobe, also.

[ThePointForward]

Speculating here, but I think that under the hood it's some AI driven tool that analyzes real footage and outputs basically mocap data they'd get out of a mocap session.
Human would then go over the results, filter out or touch up results that are incorrect and there we go, animations.
Presumably this is for a fraction of the cost of one mocap session with an actual NBA player.

But we don't know the limitations - games these days are recorded in 4K if not better.
Maybe this system doesn't work well with less crispy 2000s footage, let alone 90s or 80s.
So I wouldn't get my hopes up for old jumpshots etc.

But it does seem promising, especially going forward.

[Andrew]

From what Beluba said in the developer blog, it also seems that it can account for authentic multi-player situations and smaller/less remarkable moments that weren't easy or a priority to mocap in the past.

[Mahmood]

From what Beluba said in the developer blog, it also seems that it can account for authentic multi-player situations and smaller/less remarkable moments that weren't easy or a priority to mocap in the past.

It'll be interesting to see how ProPLAY anims and MoCAP work hand in hand