Subject: Re: 3d objects (fwd)
From: Jari P Saukkonen (jsaukkon@cs.Helsinki.FI)
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 13:23:27 EEST
Hi. > The character models could be low-polygon, low-texture animatable > figures. The number of animations need not to be great. One walking, > one standing, one attacking with one-hand weapon, one attacking with > two-hand weapon, one punching, bow-using, spellcast, sitting, lying > (dead). Some optional stuff like talking, idle, drinking from a glass, > using an object could be thought later. True, with a small set of animations we can get quite far. Especially since we don't have proper bone animations etc yet :) > Here comes the programming part: the character upon selection will be > a butt-naked model of respective race. Then the player will select > among many heads (textureless). Then select among some clothes , and > then select the color for them. When the character wears a shirt, his > naked torso and upper arms models will be replaced by shirt models. > Same thing for armor, full helmets, shoes, and things that cover a > whole part of the body. For open helmets, capes, scabbards, backpacks, > accessories in general, only then a new object will be added to the > figure. Clothes go over the body, armor over the clothes, accessories > over the armor. The accessory will be linked to the body part to which > it is attached, e.g. a necklace will be linked to the neck. The problem with this approach is that all clothing (for example, shirts or socks) don't modify the character model's geometry in any significant way. Also, having multiple layers of models on top of each other will make the model unnecessarily complex and slower to draw, especially when close to the viewer. I have played around with an idea of a hybrid approach with geometry and textures. There would be one 'character texture' per player that would contain the textures for your current equipment set, for instance the base texture contains the naked character, and then shirt, pant, shoe, etc. textures are drawn over the naked character texture. Modifying the texture is easy, and efficient since it doesn't affect the runtime performance. Also, because some equipment (notably armours and helmets) modify the general appearance of the character, the corresponding parts of the character model geometry would have to be modified accordingly. Weapons would of course need be modelled and textured independently of the main character model. > When the character uses a weapon, for instance, a battle axe, he will > be animated as using a two-hand weapon. A dummy line should be > assigned to his hands, and the axe assigned to the dummy line. Voila: > the character swings a battle axe, as well as anything assigned to the > dummy line. This weapon class animation thing should only appear when > the character holds and uses the weapon. Yes, we need only to have a set of animations for different weapon types, they can then be used with a multitude of weapons by just replacing the weapon model in character's hand. > The reason for everything being low-polygon and mostly textureless is > the fact that aaallll this stuff plus animation files will have to be > on the client program. Exaggerating, the guys at majik3d will have to > distribute a CD-ROM with the client. The only things I agree that > should have a texture is trees, chain/plate/scale mail, building > roofs, very few things that are common. The 'textureless' paradigm doesn't work. The contrast between textured and non-textured surfaces are huge, and having mostly non-textured surfaces would make the game to look very plastic and dull, the only way for variation being vertex coloring that doesn't look that good with low-poly models. I agree with you in that the largest amount of data in the client will be textures. If (when?) the amount gets too large to download, we could always make reduced-size texture set for people that don't have time or high-bandwidth access to download them in their full glory. Since there isn't much official content yet, I wouldn't worry about it for a while. > I can do all the models based on majik3d and directives from people at > development. Just say it. Of course, I won't charge a penny. How much experience do you have in modelling? Can you send or point us to some samples of your work? Thanks for your interest, ++ Jari --- Jari Saukkonen + jari.saukkonen@cs.helsinki.fi | Coral programming, music, keyboards, web, demos, b5 | Nah-kolor dazzt @ Majik3D RPG https://majik3d-legacy.org | Majik
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