Gettin’ Jiggly Wit It - by Chris Baker - Wired Magazine

November 2002 will be remembered as the month digital breasts busted out of their bras. Two bodacious titles are here to titillate the masses: BMX XXX and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Acclaim’s XXX lives up to its billing with the first topless stunt bikers in videogame history. Tecmo’s Volleyball pours the shapely brawlers from its fighting franchise into barely there bikinis. But this is more than tits and giggles — it’s serious business. Digital breasts that move like real ones were previously impossible to achieve. An enormous amount of modeling, programming, math, and physics underlie these new, um, developments. “I never imagined that I’d be using my expertise in this manner and consider myself very, very lucky,” says XXX programmer Nick Torkos. “Hopefully this will convince others to study math.”

Programmers model the motion physics for all body parts that “hang off” the characters. This means all that jiggling isn’t just prerendered animation — the mammaries are literally obeying the laws of gravity.

In both games, the menu options and unlockable features are racy. XXX lets you fine-tune the elasticity and cup size of your 45-polygon hooters. Volleyball lets you test-drive a whole wardrobe of bikinis.

Skin and other surfaces are built as a 3-D mesh of points. Programmers assign varying weights and apply dynamic mathematical distortions that allow ponytails to flip, skirts to fly up, and bosoms to quiver in real time.

Designers scrutinize video footage to ensure that all virtual parts move properly. But ultimately they aim to transcend mere realism: “Our goal is a digital Venus,” says Volleyball producer Tomonobu Itagaki.

--God love seeing math used for extreem good!!