Matthew Nicholls

Hi Clackdor, If you have a look at the animation loading in the skeleton lua script you have to load the animations in to each LOD level. I'll try to convert this to a C++ version as well so you can see how it works. I just load the animations in the lua script and they run fine when called from C++. When I upload the updated lua script I'll do a quick video to show the animation crontrol in C++.

Just a little update as I haven't posted for a while. I'm working on a character controller + the animation controls for the skeleton Lua scripts. So far I have the skeleton walking forward and animating, turning as walking, and strafing left and right with animations. The skeleton Lua script contains the code to control the animations and attach gubbins. Messages can be sent to activate each animation as needed. A separate character controller script is used to send the messages based on a further developed version of Ricks PI Character and keyboard scripts. I'm using the Pi keyboard controller as I don't have an AI control set up yet. As I test the control ill be able to see better what animations are working together, so far it is pretty good. I'll add it all to the skeleton files as soon as it is all working as intended. As well as the scripting I'm still working on the human base meshes. Currently rigging the first version of the man.

I was thinking you could theme it as a storm chaser game. You would have to stand in the eye of the storm or somewhere in its path, and plant sensors to get data , while you dodge the debris flying at you. You could have all kinds of stuff to dodge like cows, cars, signs, trees, buzz saw, golf umbrella .

Any more progress on this game? I like the simple consept, I think there is a lot of potential here.

@clackdor I will be releasing bvh and UU3D files of my Zap01 rig so you can rig your other characters if you like. If the skeleton is left in its t-pose and you move the character to fit this and rig it you can then use any animation created with Zap01 animations. Can't work on this right now as I have family commitments, but next week I'll be back to animating and modeling so let me know if you need any animations.

I agree that we can all be a little bit lazy, but I feel as a inherently lazy person myself, that actually writing documentation can save you a lot of time. Making your code modular, refactoring it so it works with other code, commenting your code and even going to the trouble of writing documentation can help you make it more manageable and extendable. Going for a quick fix that works at the time, might get it working for a short while, but it can lead to problems down the line. I personally found writing tutorials and making a wrapper for Java to be a very valuable learning experience. If you try to teach someone else you learn a lot yourself. I have been getting in to Lua a lot more recently with making characters and have found there to be a lack of tutorials on how to script objects for use in the editor. This has meant that I had to do the hard work of actually working it out using the code that is in the script folder and some examples in the asset store. Ricks Pi things are very well put together and really show how powerful the Lua scripting is. It would be good if more people shared there code in Lua as it is useable by each language. If there were more code examples of how to do simple things it would really help. Not fully working large libraries that take a while to learn and are hard to maintain, but code snippets that do a simple thing that you can learn from and use in your own code.

That is a relief I am not just making models but the scripts to go with them so non programmers can get a lot from this as well. The final result should be a fully customisable character. You would drag in a character object and choose what you want it to look like with dropdown lists and tick boxes. When you choose a piece of clothing like a dress for the girl, the character object would choose the body mesh that is suitable for the dress because it would ask the dress script what body mesh it is compatible and then choose that. With my Java background I am taking a very object orientated view of the whole process. This way I can sell different items with their own stats in them and the system will know how and when to load them. Yes - the script will show how this is done. The picture above demonstrates what the body would look like if you where going to use clothes that covered all the missing parts. So for a long sleeved top and short skirt or shorts. eg Coat and shorts. Yes when the character is fully clothed the animations would be loaded in to all the models that make it up. (My skeleton script actually demonstrates loading animations to multiple LOD meshes)

There are a number of ways to do this, my current way is not to have separate the body parts but to have a number of versions of the body but with sections deleted. I didn't mean have just a leg or arm and attach it. I meant have; - full body mesh, - just the upper half, - head and hands and lower leg. - just the head. If there was a way of hiding just some of the model and using the full body that would be good, but I'm not sure if that is possible. If you have separate body parts and attach them as separate limbs you run in to the problem of vertices not matching up in the animation. At the moment as far as I know, to have more then one LOD you have to load the animation in to each LOD. Loading in animation to separate parts is not that much more complicated. What I am proposing is actually done in a commercially successful MMORPG So it is a proven method not just my crazy idea . Edit: Just for demonstration this does not represent the final model

Yes add-ons like hair certain parts of clothing, stuff they hold ect... Yes there will be many different skin textures, facial textures will most likely be separate textures and there will be many different ones. I'm going to use a combination of different models and textures. I will keep to an optimised system. If it works better with textures I use them or if it is better with modelling I'll use that. It depends on the accessory. I am going to make sure that if a model is added, its small enough and static so that it does not interfere with animations. For example a bracer on a forearm can be attached without messing up animations. Anything larger would need to have a rig of its own and conform to the animations. I'm considering the options, but I think I can divide up the character in to parts and just use the parts that are needed. So for some items of clothing only the head, hands and lower leg need to be shown so only the head, hands and lower leg will be on the character and the rest will be the clothing, which will be rigged itself. Like a robe of some kind say for a magic character. So what you would do is load in the head, hands and lower leg rigged to a Zap01 skeleton then parent a robe to it that also has a Zap01 skeleton and load the animations in to both. I need to plan what regions of the body need to be separated but I think you will get the idea. Yes I've see how WoW do the art work I will take Ideas where I can get them Thanks for the tips Yes it is not a finished model it is just there so she is not bold. The shape is close to what I wanted but I have to experiment will hair textures and techniques. Thanks this is actually a model for the skeleton, but I thought I would try it out on her to see what it was like, also to cover her up What I have found is that I will have to model separate accessories such as clothes and amour for male and female. Unless you want cross dressers in your game for some reason. Thanks I'm pleased with how she looks. You have eyes and are a human that qualifies you to make creative comments. Everyone is an expert on the human form and what looks wrong, you just might not know that you know it, or what it takes to put it right. I am always grateful for another pair of eyes, that is why am posting. If I didn't want you to comment I wouldn't post. Josh's comments put me back about a week with the skeleton but without his observations I wouldn't have the quality that I have now. If I disagree with you I will say, but am very good a taking criticism so don't worry.

ROFL I'm sorry I didn't explain, I didn't have time when I posted. The stuff in pink is not finished the clothes are there to keep things modest. I didn't want anyone getting in to trouble at work with looking at nude pictures . The only part that has a near finished texture is the skin. Yet again time is an issue.. I'll write a proper reply later today tomorrow.

Just a little preview

If you are getting "blurred textures" don't you just need to set the anisotropic filter using framework AFilter( 4 ) Sets the anisotropic filter. The mode can be from 1 to the value returned by MaxAFilter().

I just added the three getting up animations, from the above video, to the skeleton files. So if you have already bought the skeleton you just got three more then you expected. Added animations Zap01_Getup_Back.gmf Zap01_Getup_Front.gmf Zap01_Getup_Side_Right.gmf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o86em-NbvY&context=C218edADOEgsToPDskI7gPTcBXnqB8bh46DxSgoC Getting up animations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku2NQ2WCn4k&feature=plcp&context=C27f05UDOEgsToPDskJZmnpYp2xnzajr_elHYvRg Animations with skeletons holding War Axe and wooden shield

Cheers Macklebee, Josh and Ken The War Axe is now finished and up for sale. I included a prop version in the download so you can drop it in to the editor and it will react to physics. I though it would be good to have weapons that could be picked up or thrown. If you want to attach it to a character you need to use the gubbin version other wise it falls out of their hands. The shield was finished but then I decided to give it more detail with a normal map as well, as the normal map looks really good on the axe. I've added a bit of script to the skeleton Lua file that gives sliders in the properties window to control the blend values of the skeleton animations. This means you can drop more than one skeleton in to the editor and have different animations running on each skeleton. You can set all the animations to their own blend level too, so you can see how different animations look together. This is only to demonstrate the animation, as you would need to control the timing with your own character controller. Also there is code that demonstrates how to add a gubbin to each mount point.

Cheers Clackdor Just a couple of things I'm working on that can be used with the skeleton, or with your own models. They will be positioned and rigged so they can be easily attached to any model that is based on my Zap01_ rig. For example the shield has a bone in the handle that corresponds to the Zap01_Mount_L_Hand bone in the Skeleton model. Its position and rotation in the world space means you can Load the model and parent it to Zap01_Mount_L_Hand bone without any modifications. Or you can use its own bone to mount it to. WarAxe Simple wooden round shield In game screenshot

Woo hoo it works thanks so much!

no longer available

@ Rick Good Idea about the jump animation, i'll split it in to three different animations. I just noticed that I messed up abit with the jump animation demonstration. The walk animation blend value was still set to 0.1, so it was running at the same time. And yes I do use the Pi stuff, it is very useful, thanks for making it. @Pixel Thank you very much, all feedback and support is much apriciated. Just for information : the skeleton is quite high poly (under 9k) as that is as simplified as I could get it without loosing the level of definition to the detail that I wanted . The female base mesh featured in the video is between 2k and 3k. This will mean there will be less LOD meshes. The weapons and accessories are a much lower poly count each. Plus they have LOD meshes as well so they will be optomised for RPG or FPS games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6WO3aU_iQE

Almost ready

Hi all, Can anyone help with this? It is driving me crazy. What I am trying to do is use a slider in the properties pannel for a model to control the blend value of the animation. The code below has only the basic stuff that is relevant to the problem. The Slider shows fine in the properties pannel. But I can't get the blend value back to use in the Update function. At the moment the only way to change the blend value is to adjust the number in the Animations table. I tried object.model:SetKey("Idle","0.0") before Update() and many other options, but I just can't get it to work. function class:InitDialog(grid) self.super:InitDialog(grid) group = grid:AddGroup("Animation") group:AddProperty( "Idle", PROPERTY_FLOAT,"0.0,1.0") group:Expand(1) end function class:CreateObject(model) local object=self.super:CreateObject(model) object.Animations = {{blend = 0.0} -- Idle blend value ,{blend = 0.0}} function object:Update() for count = 1 , #self.Animations do if self.Animations[count ].blend > 0.0 then self.model:Animate(#,self.Animations[count ].blend,#,#) end end end function object:SetKey(key,value) if key =="" then elseif key == "Idle" then self.Animations[1].blend = tonumber(value) else return self.super:SetKey(key,value) end return 1 end function object:GetKey(key,value) if key == "Idle" then return self.Animations[1].blend else return self.super:GetKey(key,value) end return value end end -- end of class Any help on this would be greatly appriciated

Just a quick update! Sixty Skeletons at 60fps all on different animation frames. Model 8840 triangles LOD1 4575 LOD2 3049 LOD3 520 Diffuse and normal texture is 1024 x1024, up to LOD2. LOD3 has its own diffuse at 512 x 512 Animations will be separate files that will be able to be used on other characters I make. So the more characters and animations you get the more you can mix them up. A Lua script will be included that can be used to manage the animations. I'll post a video once more animations are ready.

solved with macklebee's help for lod = 0 , CountModelLODEntities(object.model) - 1 do object.sequence_Walk = LoadAnimation(GetModelLODEntity(object.model,lod), object.animFilename) end

Thanks for the reply Josh. Would it look something like this? for lod = 0 ,object.model:CountLodEntities() do object.sequence_Walk = LoadAnimation(object.model:GetLodEntity(lod), object.animFilename) end Whatever I do with those two methods I get 'Index for object is not a valid field or method.' when I try to save the file