TGEA Character Clothing (mounting armor etc)
by Staples · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 01/19/2009 (11:16 pm) · 8 replies
Hi all,
Another question regarding TGEA. I'm pretty sure TGEA has some sort of mounting out of the box, which you could use to hop on vehicles and perhaps horses etc.
What about 'clothing' if you had an inventory system. Is it possible to have your character model and separate models for different clothing/armor etc. Is it difficult to implement?
If so, what would the process be for this. You create your character in maya and rig up the skeleton - do you then use the same skeleton for the clothing?
Then when a character 'equips' something, do you kind of fuse the matching skeletons so that the equipment the player is wearing moves with their arms/legs.
Anyhow, not sure the best way to approach this or how people have done it before (any good resources for this?).
Would appreciate any input, thanks.
Another question regarding TGEA. I'm pretty sure TGEA has some sort of mounting out of the box, which you could use to hop on vehicles and perhaps horses etc.
What about 'clothing' if you had an inventory system. Is it possible to have your character model and separate models for different clothing/armor etc. Is it difficult to implement?
If so, what would the process be for this. You create your character in maya and rig up the skeleton - do you then use the same skeleton for the clothing?
Then when a character 'equips' something, do you kind of fuse the matching skeletons so that the equipment the player is wearing moves with their arms/legs.
Anyhow, not sure the best way to approach this or how people have done it before (any good resources for this?).
Would appreciate any input, thanks.
About the author
#2
The same way a crossbow is mounted to the players hand and such.
It's just that each armor / clothing part is going to have its own model. With todays hardware it should not be that much of a issue to display the extra polys that would be used for the parts.
01/20/2009 (1:41 pm)
Well thats not entirely true. TGEA does have a mounting system. If you model your character correctly and also animate the mount nodes on your character. Then you could model different armor graphics and just mount them to your character.The same way a crossbow is mounted to the players hand and such.
It's just that each armor / clothing part is going to have its own model. With todays hardware it should not be that much of a issue to display the extra polys that would be used for the parts.
#3
I used a system like that for a concept spaceship game where we wanted to R&D alot of different spaceships from a fixed selection of ship parts.
01/20/2009 (1:59 pm)
It is worth pointing out that there is something like a 32 mount points limit per model. But that can be changed in the code without much trouble. Also you can have mount nodes on models that are mounted to another model.I used a system like that for a concept spaceship game where we wanted to R&D alot of different spaceships from a fixed selection of ship parts.
#4
Does anyone know how games normally approach this? Any RPG which has multiple races and thousands of different pieces of armor that can be worn in different combination's, has to be able to handle it somehow.
I'm sure they wouldn't model each combination individually, there has to be some sort of mounting system.
Even Minions of Mirth must need to do this?
01/20/2009 (7:19 pm)
Interesting thanks.Does anyone know how games normally approach this? Any RPG which has multiple races and thousands of different pieces of armor that can be worn in different combination's, has to be able to handle it somehow.
I'm sure they wouldn't model each combination individually, there has to be some sort of mounting system.
Even Minions of Mirth must need to do this?
#5
It does seem like most of the TGE/TGEA based RPGs go with mesh hiding rather than mounting. It's easier to manage and animate that way. Both methods work though.
01/20/2009 (7:41 pm)
Minions of Mirth only mounted weapons, shields and helmet. The rest of the armor was done by texture swapping using TGE's setskin function. It does seem like most of the TGE/TGEA based RPGs go with mesh hiding rather than mounting. It's easier to manage and animate that way. Both methods work though.
#6
Interesting, I suppose there would come a point where mounting has more advantages - specifically if your clothing had alot of different meshes. I would imagine it is easier for an artist to rig them up separately then deal with one file that has hundreds of different meshes.
I wonder which is most efficient, with mesh hiding you actually have to load the whole mesh object even though you are hiding clothing don't you?
01/20/2009 (7:50 pm)
Interesting, I suppose there would come a point where mounting has more advantages - specifically if your clothing had alot of different meshes. I would imagine it is easier for an artist to rig them up separately then deal with one file that has hundreds of different meshes.
I wonder which is most efficient, with mesh hiding you actually have to load the whole mesh object even though you are hiding clothing don't you?
#7
From what I have read, WoW apparently does mostly mesh hiding and texture changes, apart from the shoulders and helmet which are mounted.
WAR apparently only uses mesh hiding.
Not sure what Age of Conan used.
Anyhow this is just what I have read so may or may not be true :)
01/20/2009 (9:36 pm)
From what I have read, WoW apparently does mostly mesh hiding and texture changes, apart from the shoulders and helmet which are mounted.
WAR apparently only uses mesh hiding.
Not sure what Age of Conan used.
Anyhow this is just what I have read so may or may not be true :)
#8
01/20/2009 (9:43 pm)
easier to make a new charecter model i'd think with a set texture then have it trigger to swap the datablock to one with the new model 
Torque 3D Owner Chris Cain
However resources are available:
Hiding Meshes v2, for instance -
www.garagegames.com/community/resources/view/15457