Question based around character creation
by Foestar · in Artist Corner · 12/14/2010 (8:53 am) · 2 replies
Hey, so I've been doing a lot of work lately on one of my projects and the part I'm suddenly realizing is that a game is hard to create when you don't have a main character. My game being an RPG, I'm giving the player the ability to create their own character. Of course this is limited to two male models and two female models for a base. Now I understand that simply changing the texture will work for the characters skin tone and facial features allowing the player to go from light skinned to dark and blue eyes to green. But what I was wondering was how should I be going about doing the players clothes/armor. My base models are going to have a little clothes on them just to cover them up when the player first starts. But as the player goes they will unlock new armors and weapons. So am I going to have to do a complete different model for each different look of the character or is there something I'm not considering that you all know about and can point me in the right direction. Maybe mounting the armor instead and making it a complete different model. I think other games do this. Like WoW and Guild Wars and so on. If you scroll in on their characters you notice the armor hovers a bit over the players model.
Anyway, was just looking for advice on how to do this so I can keep my games folder limit down without filling the player folder with unnecessary amounts of models.
Btw, I use 3DS Max
Anyway, was just looking for advice on how to do this so I can keep my games folder limit down without filling the player folder with unnecessary amounts of models.
Btw, I use 3DS Max
About the author
Foestar Entertainment Biohazard Entertainment
#2
...if using T3D; you can 'construct' a DTS file out of multiple DTS binaries[prolly DAE as well] with the newer functions with TSShapeConstructor object, for what it's worth.
...for TGE/TGEA, the construction has to be done in the modeling program; which can be done by an experienced artist.
...or, you can go somewhere like, here, and get something like this or that, at the risk of being a 'selfServer'....lol!
12/16/2010 (1:28 pm)
Quote:if you have a ton of different pieces of armour and clothing, it becomes a hassle to fit them all into one shape file
...if using T3D; you can 'construct' a DTS file out of multiple DTS binaries[prolly DAE as well] with the newer functions with TSShapeConstructor object, for what it's worth.
...for TGE/TGEA, the construction has to be done in the modeling program; which can be done by an experienced artist.
...or, you can go somewhere like, here, and get something like this or that, at the risk of being a 'selfServer'....lol!
Torque Owner Daniel Buckmaster
T3D Steering Committee
If mounting is the way you want to go, you have a few options. You can mount standard ShapeBaseImages, but there's a limit to how many of those can be mounted, and they're a little heavy for just armour and clothes (i.e., they have an entire state system build-in). They also might not support features that would be useful, like being able to animate with the object they're mounted on.
I prefer to mount objects - create your pieces as Items and mount them to your Player. This, of course, suffers from the same disadvantages as ShapeBaseImages in terms of overhead and lack of animation, but there's no limit to how many of them you can have - until, of course, you hit the maximum number of ghosts on a client! Also, you have the advantage of having ready-made world items when you take things off.
The third option, and probably the best if you have the time and willpower, is to custom-make a type of ShapeBaseImage that is less heavy on processing (lose the state system) and networking (ideally you'd only have to use one net mask for these images; removing the state system will also reduce the size of the update that needs to be sent), and add support for matching a character's animation, and whatever other fanciness you need.