Deforming armor
by Ben Jones · in Artist Corner · 08/04/2006 (4:02 pm) · 7 replies
Hey
I was wondering if you can make mounted object deform with the character they are mounted to, i have a model of some gloves and i have it using hte same skeleton as the character so when the character moves his fingers the glove moves its fingers too, they both have hte same skeleton so they both can use the same animations, the problem with this is that it doubles the bone count. is there some way to tell the object just to use the bones of the character and deform with it? I don't want the glove to be 100% effected by one bone, i want the model to deform using multiple bones.
thanks!
- Ben Jones
I was wondering if you can make mounted object deform with the character they are mounted to, i have a model of some gloves and i have it using hte same skeleton as the character so when the character moves his fingers the glove moves its fingers too, they both have hte same skeleton so they both can use the same animations, the problem with this is that it doubles the bone count. is there some way to tell the object just to use the bones of the character and deform with it? I don't want the glove to be 100% effected by one bone, i want the model to deform using multiple bones.
thanks!
- Ben Jones
About the author
#2
The Trusted One
08/10/2006 (11:06 am)
We are handling our major costume changes by implementing a different mesh for the main character for each costume. This seems like alot more work upfront, but in the end I think it will allow the engine to be more efficent.The Trusted One
#3
@the trusted one: no that approach won't work for the game i'm working on, thanks for posting though.
08/10/2006 (2:12 pm)
@Anthony: Hmm would having the glove off in visiblity still add to the poly count when a glove isn't being worn? see i'm going to have alot of different types of armor that could be worn by the character, I could just change hte texture on most of them though and call them a new armor, but still it would probably add 3000+ poly's onto the character model. oh and its more like the gauntlet then the driving glove.@the trusted one: no that approach won't work for the game i'm working on, thanks for posting though.
#4
you could also attempt to mount objects to nodes on the player, it will require increasing the nodes a player can have
08/10/2006 (3:01 pm)
I am not certain if there would be over head you could go into the level editor play the vis track then go into wire frame mode and see if the edges of the gauntles polygons are there,you could also attempt to mount objects to nodes on the player, it will require increasing the nodes a player can have
#5
by adding more mount points it really wouldn't solve the problem though because the mount points make the mounted object effected 100% unless your saying to break up the model so like each finger of hte glove is mounted to each finger of hte model but then your model would tear when the fingers move and that wouldn't look very pretty.
i'll brb in a few mins testing the visiblity track and poly count.
08/11/2006 (4:37 pm)
I'll test it out in a sec,by adding more mount points it really wouldn't solve the problem though because the mount points make the mounted object effected 100% unless your saying to break up the model so like each finger of hte glove is mounted to each finger of hte model but then your model would tear when the fingers move and that wouldn't look very pretty.
i'll brb in a few mins testing the visiblity track and poly count.
#6
08/12/2006 (2:01 pm)
Hmmm in showtool it still says the poly count is the same even when the visiblity of the model is 0
#7
I believe the meshes will have to be loaded into memory, however, so if you go completely nuts on the models, total size could be an issue.
08/14/2006 (4:28 am)
@Ben: Check out this recent thread and its links for discussion on showing/hiding meshes. If you use the multiple mesh approach mentioned there, your poly count will reflect the number of polygons of all the meshes, but it won't affect your frame rate -- which is usually the prime consideration when you're budgeting polys.I believe the meshes will have to be loaded into memory, however, so if you go completely nuts on the models, total size could be an issue.
Associate Anthony Rosenbaum
If it was more like a gauntlet, well then you could put the glove on the player, apply skin to the glove, add the bones of the hands to the skin and then additionally put in a visibility animation to toggle the gauntlet on off.