Attaching Mounts to Each Other
by Joel Hargarten · in Artist Corner · 08/29/2005 (10:53 am) · 5 replies
Hey.
I've have two .dts shapes, both with mounts on them. What code would allow me to attach the two mounts to each other? It has to work so that the two .dts shapes are attached in such a way that it is like they are one shape. How would I do this? Thanks.
I've have two .dts shapes, both with mounts on them. What code would allow me to attach the two mounts to each other? It has to work so that the two .dts shapes are attached in such a way that it is like they are one shape. How would I do this? Thanks.
#2
What if we took the player model and broke it up into several smaller models? For example, detach the head so its seperate, the hands, legs, upper body, & lower body. Now that they're all seperate, a 30, 000 polygon model can be broken up into models that can seperatley be loaded into torque. Now all that would need to be done is to reconnect them in torque, using code, so that it appears to be one single model.
This is where I run into some trouble. I've done something like this in a 2d java applet. What I did was for attaching the head was give it the right x, y coordinates. when it's 2d you can determine the coord's using formula's such as body.height - head.height, or whatever. When using formula's based on variables instead of exact coordinates, you will always line up exactly even if the proportions change. I believe that the same system can be used here. It will be more complex because it is 3d and there is now a z-axis, but thats ok. My problem is that I am still new to torque and I don't know where, or exactly how to set this up. I had an idea of placing mounts in each seperate model, like one at the base of the head & one at the top of the neck so that those two could be used like magnets to connect the body & head. I'm not sure if that would work, but it's just an idea.
I know what most of you are thinking now. "Even if you could assemble these seperate models together to look like one model, what about animation? How are the other model's going to use the skeleton of the root model?" This is probably the biggest problem in my theory. But there may be ways around this too. In my setup, the "root model" would be the upper body without the head, & the lower body cut off just below the knees. That would be the main parts of the body that the skeleton would move. The legs, for example, would still bend at the knees, and the calfs below that could be attached there and wouldnt miss a beat because they would be connected to the rest of the leg, and they dont bend anyway. I believe that as long as you have the main joints all connected to the skeleton, that movement would still be possible and would look just about as good. The only things I think would be missed is movment in the fingers and certain bending in the ankels & wrists. Personally, I dont use those movements much, but maybe someone else has a way around it.
Another benefit to all of this is customization. You could allow the player to choose all the parts of the character. Say they wanted a different face? Just replace the head model with another one. Or different boots by replacing the foot with another one. This would be an easy way to allow custom player model's.
Well, that is my proposal. Tell me what I'm missing or what problems would result from this. I just quickley went through this off the top of my head, maybe I haven't explained it very well. If you have questions ask, and I can also post some drawn diagrams of what I'm saying. Let me know. Thanks.
08/30/2005 (11:33 am)
Ok, I'm not sure that really helps, maybe I should explain precisely what I'm trying to do. I've been working on player models recently, & I've been able to get some real high quality models that look great. The only problem is that torque only allows a dts shape up to a certain number of polygons. I think the best I've been able to get is 10,000 into the game. My problem is that my models are in the 30,000 range. I've been thinking about this dilemma and trying to find ways around it, and I want to run something by everyone to see if my idea will work:What if we took the player model and broke it up into several smaller models? For example, detach the head so its seperate, the hands, legs, upper body, & lower body. Now that they're all seperate, a 30, 000 polygon model can be broken up into models that can seperatley be loaded into torque. Now all that would need to be done is to reconnect them in torque, using code, so that it appears to be one single model.
This is where I run into some trouble. I've done something like this in a 2d java applet. What I did was for attaching the head was give it the right x, y coordinates. when it's 2d you can determine the coord's using formula's such as body.height - head.height, or whatever. When using formula's based on variables instead of exact coordinates, you will always line up exactly even if the proportions change. I believe that the same system can be used here. It will be more complex because it is 3d and there is now a z-axis, but thats ok. My problem is that I am still new to torque and I don't know where, or exactly how to set this up. I had an idea of placing mounts in each seperate model, like one at the base of the head & one at the top of the neck so that those two could be used like magnets to connect the body & head. I'm not sure if that would work, but it's just an idea.
I know what most of you are thinking now. "Even if you could assemble these seperate models together to look like one model, what about animation? How are the other model's going to use the skeleton of the root model?" This is probably the biggest problem in my theory. But there may be ways around this too. In my setup, the "root model" would be the upper body without the head, & the lower body cut off just below the knees. That would be the main parts of the body that the skeleton would move. The legs, for example, would still bend at the knees, and the calfs below that could be attached there and wouldnt miss a beat because they would be connected to the rest of the leg, and they dont bend anyway. I believe that as long as you have the main joints all connected to the skeleton, that movement would still be possible and would look just about as good. The only things I think would be missed is movment in the fingers and certain bending in the ankels & wrists. Personally, I dont use those movements much, but maybe someone else has a way around it.
Another benefit to all of this is customization. You could allow the player to choose all the parts of the character. Say they wanted a different face? Just replace the head model with another one. Or different boots by replacing the foot with another one. This would be an easy way to allow custom player model's.
Well, that is my proposal. Tell me what I'm missing or what problems would result from this. I just quickley went through this off the top of my head, maybe I haven't explained it very well. If you have questions ask, and I can also post some drawn diagrams of what I'm saying. Let me know. Thanks.
#3
im dying to see what a model that high looks like in torque..
09/02/2005 (7:41 pm)
Just out of curiosity.. any chance of a pic of the 10000 approx model you got ingame in torque..?im dying to see what a model that high looks like in torque..
#4
You could run into serious rendering problems trying to force Torque go beyond its limits.
Limits are here to make sure users doesn't mistakes.
However, you could mount arms and legs as you would mount a weapon, adding eventually an indipendent animation to the various body parts.
Not sure about mounting something on something else, when this something else is a mounted object.
Bye, Berserk. (was: Thc)
.
09/05/2005 (11:01 am)
The problem here is not the animation, but the high poly count.You could run into serious rendering problems trying to force Torque go beyond its limits.
Limits are here to make sure users doesn't mistakes.
However, you could mount arms and legs as you would mount a weapon, adding eventually an indipendent animation to the various body parts.
Not sure about mounting something on something else, when this something else is a mounted object.
Bye, Berserk. (was: Thc)
.
#5
09/05/2005 (11:30 am)
Lol, I just loaded a big mode into TGE with our B3D file loader to see if it would work. A single 130,000 poly terrain model created in max ran at 22FPS on my geforce 3. I tried a 300,000 model, but TGE failed to load the level let alone draw it. Not suggesting anyone use such large meshes, just thought it would be interesting to see if it would work. 
Torque Owner Berserk
Bye, Berserk.