Giant Spiders

[Springheel]

I've managed to get the normalmaps working on Odd's giant spider model, and have started working on a few textures for it. Odd already had .mb files for all the animations we would need...how hard would it be to take those and convert them to .md5anims? Once that's done I'd be able to get them in-game.

 

[Ishtvan]

It looks like they might need a different AAS than the AAS32 we've been using for the AI. They take up more space laterally, and less space vertically than our AI which use AAS32. They should be able to crawl under lower things than our AI, but are also wider, so would need a wider base (48 units?) to avoid major clipping.

 

I forget if the height of the AAS bounding box is actually used to restrict how low a space they can get into or not? I think so, but could be wrong. D3 must have used AAS48 for their trites... could they get into low spaces?

[ascottk]

Cool Not hard since I prepared the def file for it a while back. It didn't show up in the editor when I first tried it & then I got side tracked & forgot about it Should the directory be models/md5/chars/monsters/spider?

 

Side note: I'm still freakin' downloading the mod via svn It keeps getting stuck on the textures directory & the download rate really sucks

[Springheel]

D3 must have used AAS48 for their trites... could they get into low spaces?

I'm pretty sure they could--they could get into areas you had to crouch. I was going to use them as a base for the aas size of the spiders.

 

Should the directory be models/md5/chars/monsters/spider?

 

Yep. I think I already uploaded that folder, along with some textures, assuming I've got this svn figured out. I made a mtr entry but no def file yet, so we can use yours. I was just using a .lwo of the spider to test the textures, so there's a chance the mesh won't point to the same material, we'll have to see.

Cool cool.gif Not hard since I prepared the def file for it a while back.

 

So did you already export the animations? It would be cool if we could get these guys in-game without a lot of fuss. It would give Anqua something to put in the bonehoard besides zombies.

[ascottk]

Yep. I think I already uploaded that folder, along with some textures, assuming I've got this svn figured out. I made a mtr entry but no def file yet, so we can use yours. I was just using a .lwo of the spider to test the textures, so there's a chance the mesh won't point to the same material, we'll have to see.

Okay.

So did you already export the animations? It would be cool if we could get these guys in-game without a lot of fuss. It would give Anqua something to put in the bonehoard besides zombies.

Not successfully but I learned a lot since then so it'll be less of a problem.

[angua]

t would be cool if we could get these guys in-game without a lot of fuss. It would give Angua something to put in the bonehoard besides zombies.

Ugh, but I'm not going to test it! The first time I'm going to see this ingame, I think I'm going to shit my pants...

 

Seriously, of course we will be having spiders!

[OrbWeaver]

Regarding the bounding box, I think Thief did not include the legs in the bounding box, which means the spiders could get through gaps that were as large as their body (this is actually realistic, because they can fold up their legs in order to get through a small gap).

[oDDity]

I@m not sure about he textures you've put on it.

The single most disgusting thing about the Thief spiders for me was the yellowed creamy albino colour of them, it made them look like freakish mutants and somehow more disturbing.

The one above just looks like a normal spider, but bigger, the sort you get in a D&D game.

[Domarius]

So we'll need to kill 100 of them before we level up, what a bore.

 

I might agree with the yellowy look, that's something that lives in the dark and doesn't see much light, but what looks scary is personal preference. Well if Spring makes another skin, just means more variety for people to colour their spiders

[sparhawk]

Side note: I'm still freakin' downloading the mod via svn It keeps getting stuck on the textures directory & the download rate really sucks

 

Well, that is to be expected when all of the team download at the same time. Angua told me that she will wait until wednesday, so that's at least on download less.

[Springheel]

That's one of three skins I'm working on atm. The other two are a little more threatening-looking, but this one is further along.

 

IIRC, only the little baby spiders in T1 were albino. Did we want to go ahead and make different-sized spiders? I don't think that's terribly necessary, but on the other hand if it's quite easy at this stage, it might be worth having two or three different 'types'.

[oDDity]

There was a giant albino spider in T2 as well.

Baby spiders are replicas of large ones anyway, so it should just be a matter of resizing in maya.

[ascottk]

There was a giant albino spider in T2 as well.

Baby spiders are replicas of large ones anyway, so it should just be a matter of resizing in maya.

Or a different def export entry with a smaller -scale value. I found resizing in maya a pain

[Schatten]

Can you set alpha maps on md5 models?

Crab Spider

Ghost Spider

This page has a lot of pictures, if you're looking for inspiration.

 

Btw, will spiders be able to crawl on ceilings/walls?

[Springheel]

Btw, will spiders be able to crawl on ceilings/walls?

 

 

In D3 some creatures could walk on walls but only in scripted sequences. The pathfinding didn't allow them to do it during regular play. I assume it would be the same for us.

[Schatten]

I think you can change the gravity vector for monsters, though I don't know if you can set it for individual monsters. In the original games they couldn't do it either, but jumped around instead.

[Domarius]

I remember seeing a gravity mod for Doom 3 at the forums (forget what they're called... doom3world?) that let characters walk on walls.

[ascottk]

I'm having a helluva time getting this guy into the game It's mostly AF problems, otherwise the mesh & animations are there. I'll commit these (meshes & animations, crappy AF, and the def file) to svn & hopefully somebody with AF experience can resolve these problems.

[Crispy]

I remember seeing a gravity mod for Doom 3 at the forums (forget what they're called... doom3world?) that let characters walk on walls.

AI characters or player characters?

 

Seems to me you'd have to mess with AAS to get it to work for AIs. Maybe the functionality to generate "walking on walls" AAS already exists and is easily enabled, I don't know.

[Schatten]

I remember seeing a gravity mod for Doom 3 at the forums (forget what they're called... doom3world?) that let characters walk on walls.

 

Here. I skipped over it because I had an idea for rope swinging with this. Still not sure if you can apply it to individual monsters...

[Springheel]

It's mostly AF problems

 

Is it even necessary to have a ragdoll for these guys?

 

I don't think we'd need one for the gameplay, and I'd say why except for some reason the forum won't let me post the rest of that sentence...

[Domarius]

@Crispy - yeah I saw screenshots of imps and other things standing up on walls.

 

@Schatten - There are no monsters on walls in that screenshot, I don't think that's it...

 

I think this is

"Walking on all walls, floors, and ceilings"

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6853

 

(Here's part 1)

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6067

[Springheel]

Turns out they fit fairly well into a 32x32 cube, so that's positive. I can play with them in the editor and check out the animations fine, but when I try to load a map with them, I get a warning that ai_spider_1 has no AAS file. The map then shuts down with the error: GetBodyId: no body with the name 'head' is not part of articulated figure.

[Ishtvan]

GetBodyId: no body with the name 'head' is not part of articulated figure.

That's in my code that sets up drowning. In order for something to drown, the code needs to know what the head is called in the MD5 structure. It calls a D3 function to get the AF body ID for a given name for the head, and unfortunately this D3 function spits out an error and exits the map if it's not found.

 

You set the name of the head bodyname with this spawnarg, in the AI's def file:

 

"head_bodyname", which defaults to "head"

 

I believe these things are established in the af_pose hierarchy, but I'm not sure. I'd have to look at how the giant spiders are set up, and I can't do that because SVN is not going well for me. For now, try setting the spawnarg "head_bodyname" to whatever the spider's head is called in the af_pose.md5 file. It may be case sensitive.

[sparhawk]

Do the spiders even have a head at all? From the looks of it, they look as one big body to me. Or the body might be considered to be the head in this case which would mean that the AI has no body and only head. Unless the feets would be counted as the body for the spiders.