Ai Modelling Tasks

[sparhawk]

If we can reuse the existing animaitons that would definitely be usefull. We don't have so many animations that it really is to much work that is lost, so it outweighs what we gain by it. And if we stay compatible it means that we might be able to share with other mods as well.

[Springheel]

Would this mean we could use the D3 IK information on our models as well? If so, put me down for a big, "hell yes". The difference between the D3 AI and ours when it comes to climbing stairs is enormous.

 

Are we going to have some kind of system so we can see what models have had what done to them? Perhaps we should do this in steps so that two people aren't modifying the same base model and we end up with two different versions that have each had a single change made to them.

 

We do need some kind of system to keep track of this. I don't have the time to manage a spreadsheet or anything, however, so I'm open to suggestions. Perhaps just a "Progress" thread where people post what they're doing and how far along they are on a regular basis? It's not like there's going to be more than three or four people working on these things.

[ascottk]

Well, I've been playing around with the builder guard's head (insert joke here . . . ) and the way oddity set up the model is there is no inside mouth. So in order to get the guy to open his mouth and not have that stretchy lip kind of thing, I need to give him the inside of the mouth. The same might go for the eyes.

 

In other news, since d3 combines the submeshes on import to md5, the 3ds max importer doesn't divide the mesh on import and I would have to rerig the stupid thing after splitting up the mesh. Unless I can figure out a way to apply a preexisting skin to a split mesh, things are going to be slow.

[Springheel]

Well, I've been playing around with the builder guard's head (insert joke here . . . ) and the way oddity set up the model is there is no inside mouth. So in order to get the guy to open his mouth and not have that stretchy lip kind of thing, I need to give him the inside of the mouth. The same might go for the eyes.

 

Anything related to facial animations is really secondary right now. We can always use D3 animated heads, or make new versions of heads that are set up properly. Whether we use animated heads right now or not won't have any impact on anything else.

[ascottk]

What hast thou done with my body?

 

[SneaksieDave]

ROFL

[Springheel]

It's MiniMe!

 

 

(btw, does this mean you're working on #1?)

[ascottk]

(btw, does this mean you're working on #1?)

 

I'm experimenting so once I get a feel for what works, I'll let you know where I'm going with all this.

[New Horizon]

Wow, that head swap really shows how much larger our models are compared to the D3 models. Have the resized models been put on CVS yet, or is that still the original size oDDity made them?

[ascottk]

Wow, that head swap really shows how much larger our models are compared to the D3 models. Have the resized models been put on CVS yet, or is that still the original size oDDity made them?

 

Sorry, I have no clue if the resized models are on cvs or not. I'm not even sure they were even done.

[New Horizon]

Yeah, I'm wondering if they were myself. Spring or Dom, you guys were talking about that for awhile. Were the resized guys ever put on CVS?

 

On the topic of bounding box collision detection. It turns out that you can use a 'cylinder approximation', instead of the box. Behold....

 

pm_usecylinder: use a cylinder

approximation instead of a

bounding box for player

collision detection

 

 

That command 'only' affects the player, not the AI....but....if the player can be changed, then surely we should also be able to apply this to the AI as well. I think there is hope. It must be right under our noses.

 

~edit~

 

Just playing around. Using the cylinder on the player, instead of the box, definitely makes a noticeable difference in how close the player can get to an object. With the cylinder, I can pretty much get right up against the wall. If we can get this working for the AI...I think our problems will be solved.

[Springheel]

Yeah, I'm wondering if they were myself. Spring or Dom, you guys were talking about that for awhile. Were the resized guys ever put on CVS?

 

No, the resize hasn't actually been done yet.

[New Horizon]

No, the resize hasn't actually been done yet.

 

Ahhh, ok...cool. We'll probably want to have that done before ascottk does any of the things he was going to do I would think.

 

I posted on Doom3 world about getting the whole cylinder approximation of the player model to work with the AI as well.

[Domarius]

Alright I'm going to make re-sizing the next thing I do. It's in my schedule. Check my todo list for update.

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=4285

[ascottk]

Well, my rigging experiment isn't going too well. I'm trying to use spplayer's skeleton's on our thief

At least it's in the game

[Dram]

O.o LOL

[Domarius]

Yeesh.

 

Seems like you whacked it straight on. You need to re-rig it in Maya for the verticies to be correctly affected by each bone.

[Springheel]

I'm trying to use spplayer's skeleton's on our thief

 

How many different skeletons does D3 use for the various characters? I assumed all the basic humans used the same rig.

[ascottk]

How many different skeletons does D3 use for the various characters? I assumed all the basic humans used the same rig.

 

From what I've seen, there's a couple of variations of the player model & spplayer is the default.

 

I searched through the directory of characters & I got 13 but there's probably more for different cinematics & special cases.

[Springheel]

So how flexible are the animations? If we use the player skeleton for our player, does that mean we can only use the animations made for the playermodel? Or can the animations be swapped between rigs fairly easily.

[ascottk]

So how flexible are the animations? If we use the player skeleton for our player, does that mean we can only use the animations made for the playermodel? Or can the animations be swapped between rigs fairly easily.

 

The animations need to have the same bones to reference. For example, if an animation wants toe_r1 to rotate to the left, it'll look for that bone in the mesh to rotate. If it doesn't find that bone, it won't work & d3 will crash. It all depends on whether or not the animations have the same bones as the mesh.

 

The player model is usually different for an npc. I'm going to look for the npc skeleton with the most and flexible animations.

[Domarius]

If we have different fiddly bits, like attatchment joints, then we can't straight out use D3 skeletons.

 

It might be possible to import the Doom 3 animation, easily apply it to our modified D3 rig since the relevent bones will have the same names, and then re-export the final thing.

[Springheel]

If we have different fiddly bits, like attatchment joints, then we can't straight out use D3 skeletons.

 

That's a good point...we'd need to make sure the D3 skeleton had appropriate attachment joints if we want to go with them.

 

It might be possible to import the Doom 3 animation, easily apply it to our modified D3 rig

 

Which modified D3 rig do you mean? The one Ascottk is trying to make?

[ascottk]

Aw, F**K! I can't make a working md5mesh. I tried using different max exporters, different skinning methods, & I even tried maya but absolutely f**king nothing works. Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up. Rigging for TDS is a helluva lot easier than d3.

[Domarius]

Which modified D3 rig do you mean? The one Ascottk is trying to make?

Yeah, the theoretical one we'd make by taking D3's and adding our own stuff to it.

 

Aw, F**K! I can't make a working md5mesh. I tried using different max exporters, different skinning methods, & I even tried maya but absolutely f**king nothing works. Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up. Rigging for TDS is a helluva lot easier than d3.

What's the actual problem you're having? Have you exported character models into the game before? I've been exporting rigs from Maya already - its the recommended workflow.