Questions on Models w/ Bones

[FlyingIsFun1217]

Hey!

A team of mine is planning on using the engine to create a shooter game (haven't heard that one before, have you?).

What would be the recommended format for models that have bones? My impression is that the cal3d format would be best, but I'm not an art person, I'm a programmer.

Thanks for the help!
FlyingIsFun1217

[bookeater2]

cal3d is possible, but if you use it I would be prepared for a lot of debugging with the plugin.
There is also the genmesh animation format, and they are working on a new advanced animation plugin.

[FlyingIsFun1217]

So would it be recommended to just use frame-based animations instead of animating real-time with bones? I figure it will be easier (for the developers, me included), but would it allow for quality as good as skeletal animation?

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!
FlyingIsFun1217

[bookeater2]

Bones is the way to go, the ones I mentioned are bone based.

[FlyingIsFun1217]

But you seemed to imply that the systems to load those formats were in their infancies.

Right now, which format is best supported by the engine, I gues is what I'm going after here...

Thanks again!
FlyingIsFun1217

[bookeater2]

Right now, which format is best supported by the engine, I gues is what I'm going after here...

maybe jorrit or another developer can answer that.

For me, I care a lot about animation, so I developed the CAL3d plugin into my ultimate animation solution, though it still has problems, and it works specifically with the model and material system.
So it also depends on what 3d app you want and how it works, and what shaders you might want...

[FlyingIsFun1217]

Well, our needs are pretty simple. We'll be sticking to the lowest specs possible to target the largest market (I'll be honest, I've never actually worked with shaders before, and don't plan to use them for anything except stuff like bumpmapping).

Preferably, I would have a full pipeline through Blender and the Blender2Crystal plugin.

Thanks again for your time!
FlyingIsFun1217

[bookeater2]

basically you should plan for the new animation system they have mentioned they are working on for crystal space, which will be available in blender2crystal

[FlyingIsFun1217]

basically you should plan for the new animation system they have mentioned they are working on for crystal space, which will be available in blender2crystal

Is there a projected timeline?

Thanks again for the help!
FlyingIsFun1217

[Lonewolf]

I am interested in this too, I'd also like to know the timeline on this as well, as I am working on a project using CS.  There is almost no information that I can gleam from the website at all about this new animation system or how it will be implemented.  We can contribute if we knew where to start looking and what is already done.

[bookeater2]

Same with most features they are working on I think, but they do mention some things in their mailinglist archive.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=17ed71ca0803051651x3694e7d1p6d7e051ca3c4126%40mail.gmail.com&forum_name=crystal-develop

[Vincent]

The current animation systems are:

• gmeshanim: used to animate genmeshes, supported by blender2crystal
• sprcal3d: uses Cal3D library, needs a specifc exporter (not directly supported by blender2crystal)

Then there are experimental systems, in specific SVN branches:

• newanim: developped for Apricot, has a wiki page
• skeleton: the one discussed in previously linked mailing list post.

Unless you want to be a tester, don't use experimental branches.

[FlyingIsFun1217]

Ah, thats just what I was looking for!

I think for now, I'll stick with the genmesh animations, and think about the newanim plugin later.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!
FlyingIsFun1217

[shangobah@users.sourceforge.net]

So would it be recommended to just use frame-based animations instead of animating real-time with bones? I figure it will be easier (for the developers, me included), but would it allow for quality as good as skeletal animation?

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!
FlyingIsFun1217

I have been using genmesh with armatures beautifully, exported directly from blender.  I have many very complex animations and complex character models.   I highly recommend it.  If you have an issue feel free to swing it by me.  I would use genmesh with armatures unless you just have some deformations which you cant get rid of.  In that case you can use vertex animations.   I do not like the xml based vertex animation importer due to the speed so I modified blender2crystal to generate raw c code instead.  I prefer to add my vertex animations to a code library rather than import them.  I am also working on my own config file format/code which will allow me to import only the vertexes I want to modify instead of keying the entire mesh. This allows me to use armatures for general animation and shapes for details like facial expressions and gestures without the overhead of complete mesh copies.

I can share the code but its just a simple hack for my current development environment and I have not cleaned it up or made it production quality yet.  It requires tweaking with each export since I wrote it in a hurry.

If you use armatures with lots of blender constraints and you have issues, just bake the animation and export the baked version.  My game im working on is designed to give a wide range of poses centered around roleplayers. If it works as planned then users will be able to design their own custom poses and animations without coding or requiring a 3d modeling program.

Here is a character I developed for the RP game I am making.  Yes that is a lightsaber on her belt
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=538435

[dombe999]

Got to be honest with you, i wasnt looking at her lightsaber!