ugh... So annoying to repeat myself.
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What does anything have to do which form they were modeled in?"
Look, BF2's models were made in This position.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/Fatal_CobraX/cell20ref.jpg [Dave Skiwan's Cell Ref].
Once a player dies the model attempt to return to that pose for a single frame, THEN the ragdoll is in effect.
That's also the reason why the arms flail backwards.
The force from moving back into that pose then having ragdoll effects kick in once that frame is reached the model continues to move, thus the arms moving backwards.
Each of the limbs have their own ragdoll effects but all have the same weight and is attatched ofcourse to another limb which is good on paper, but not in game.
This is my explanation of why BF2's human ragdoll's suck.
A good human ragdoll example would be America's Army + Half-Life 2's ragdoll effects combined.
AA's ragdoll's have a good sense of weight and fall realisticly but the limbs are too 'loosely' attatched to each other and fling around too much.
HL2's has a good limb limiter, they cant reach too far out becoming unrealistic, but the weight system on human's is not that great and should be improved.
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If your referring to the ragdolls in Battlefield 2 then what your saying makes no sense at all since the Battlefield 2 models do not return to a "T" pose."
Look at the cell ref by David, they move into that pose.
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You cannot be talking about ESF since the Half-Life engine does not use ragdolls."
I was using the form of 'T' as an example when ESF model's are rigged like that.
but the arms were a bit lower in BF2's model's. Again, look at the ref by Dave.