Virtual RoboCup is a real-time 3D visualization tool for 2D simulated soccer games as played in the RoboCup simulation league. Players are modeled as anthropmorphic gures and animated step-keepingly with the underlying 2D simulation. Important aspects of player animation concern the generation of natural 3D player movements and realistic player-ball interactions during kicks. A key contribution of Virtual RoboCup is its novel approach to task-level animation in which task-level directives for 3D animation of anthropomorphic characters are generated via on-line classi cation of fast paced 2D simulation data. As further contribution, we investigated to what extend human observers perceptually process the level of detail in Virtual RobCup animations. A psychological experiment was designed to test the e ectiveness of 3D body animation. Although observers failed to notice di erences in animation detail, clear e ects of character animation on perceived skill were found. The experiment con r...