turn based games

[{MSX}]

Eheheh that screenshots look too cool! We've a nice castle, and we can easily build rooms etc. in that way. Looking forward for it!

About the smooth issue, i've found what it is: it's about normals. It seems that in blender even if you set the solid (flat) style, it still has smooth normals, so i think it probably uses face normal instead of vertex normals when rendering. So it should suffice to do the same on our program..
Also, one can change the default OpenGl shading model with glShadeModel(GL_FLAT); but this gives ugly results: it works by using the normal of a vertex for all vertex of a given triangle...
I'll try to correct the program (and the exporter) ASAP, in the meanwhile if you want to see how it whould be you can throw glShadeModel(GL_FLAT); somewhere in the code and look how it behaves.

Also, i've worked on the animation, in particular on Poses (which are the hard part). Soon we will be able to define poses in the editor.
I was thinking to add a menu where you can select on which pose to work, the first being the "static" pose. Such as:
-Static
-Walk1
-Walk2
-Hit1
etc
So that you work on the pose you've selected.
Alternatively i thought of a mode switch between pose editing and model editing (handy when to add anim editing).

[{MSX}]

ok, i've solved the issue of the smooth, here's the result: the tank model with flat shade.


As i was thinking, blender has a per-face magic flag (smooth) that tells if the face is to be rendered smooth or flat. If flat, the face normal is used for all vertices, if smooth each vertex normal is used.
So in the .mesh format i've added 4 new tags, three for face normals and one for smooth flag. When drawing the mesh, i use the flag to draw correctly.

Here's how the face tag looks now:
[size=7px]

	<FACE id="1">
		<A>1</A>
		<AU>0</AU>
		<AV>-1</AV>
		<B>2</B>
		<BU>1</BU>
		<BV>0</BV>
		<C>3</C>
		<CU>1</CU>
		<CV>-1</CV>
		<NX>0.0</NX>
		<NY>-1.0</NY>
		<NZ>0.0</NZ>
		<SMOOTH>0</SMOOTH>
	</FACE>

[/size]
I'll post a new release soon (possibly with other news).[/img]

[K4Z]

Hmm, your right. It's all wierd lookin.



Ok, the animation sounds good.

(sheeesh, it's 3am, last time I looked at my clock it was 5pm, I'm going to bed. Ow I missed dinner :cry: )

[K4Z]

ooh, u got a post in just before me.


Ah, thats how the tanks' ment too look. Good job!!

[K4Z]

More models, yay.

Here's a skeleton




I've tried to keep the same style as the men. It took all my will power too keep it low poly, and not to go crazy with detail :lol: .

Though I don't really like the feet, they don't look right.

[{MSX}]

Wow i'm really out of words.. It looks awsome! I've tried to model a skeleton too some times ago.. well i'll better keep the results for myself
For the skeleton it's normal to use more polys than for other models
I don't know if you already do this, but you could try to delete invisible faces, such as for example the finger termination that is inside the "palm" (there should be one or two triangles closing the finger "cylinder").

For the feet, they're a little strange I'd make finger shorter and the central bone longer.. (feet's finger are really small.. mine, at least )

I'm at good point with poses.. it now only needs save/load and it should be done.

I don't know whether to save them in the model or as a separate file.. Must think hard on this i guess.

Btw we should also decide something on how to save models on the "media" folder.. maybe we should make a subfolder for each model? in this way we well need a copy of all meshes that are shared betwheen models (very few i think..)

[K4Z]

Yeah, I already delete faces that aren't seen, it cuts out heaps of polys.

For the feet, you're right, the proportions of the bone lengths are wrong. As I modeled the skeleton, I had the Template Man model wireframed in a background layer, so the skeleton is set up as it would be if the man model really did have a skeleton.
Like this:



The feet are harder to make bones for, cos the feet are stumpy, and tall.
I'll fix the feet right up then.

---

I'm not sure whether to save it in the model file or seperate either. Both have there advantages, and disadvantages.

Ok now. So far, for the game, I see 2 promanent types of 'characters', (I'll call them) Troops [Men, monsters, animals, etc] and Vehicles [Tanks, copters, catapult, etc].
And 5 types of Models: Troops, Troop Weapons, Vehicles, Vehicle Weapons and Scenery.
So, we should set up sub-directories for each type of model. I don't think we need sub directories for each model, just each type. That would make it easier to share meshes, I started making a dwarf model, and instead of making another hand, foot, eye, etc meshes, I just use the same meshes that the viking uses.

When giving a node a mesh, you could set up a new Edit box that holds the name of the subdirectory in the media folder, so it can easily find the requested mesh.

Mabye another directory for textures aswell.

[{MSX}]

I'm not sure whether to save it in the model file or seperate either. Both have there advantages, and disadvantages.

I've choosen to save in the same file.. working with multiple files would have probably get us mad.. It's always possible to create an exporter to copy the poses on another models (just a single copy/paste in xml anyway )

Ok now. So far, for the game, I see 2 promanent types of 'characters', (I'll call them) Troops [Men, monsters, animals, etc] and Vehicles [Tanks, copters, catapult, etc].
And 5 types of Models: Troops, Troop Weapons, Vehicles, Vehicle Weapons and Scenery.
So, we should set up sub-directories for each type of model. I don't think we need sub directories for each model, just each type. That would make it easier to share meshes, I started making a dwarf model, and instead of making another hand, foot, eye, etc meshes, I just use the same meshes that the viking uses.

When giving a node a mesh, you could set up a new Edit box that holds the name of the subdirectory in the media folder, so it can easily find the requested mesh.

Umm i'm not completely sure.. if you think about vehicles, they'll hardly share lots of meshes.. whereas troops will share many..
I'll think on this some more, by now i'd let it like this..

I'm done with the poses.. now models can be put in different poses that are saved/loaded along with it. I'm really satisfied with the result! If i find the needed strength i'll post some shots
Now i was starting with the animation mode.. The nightmare is to develop a "multi-tracker" widget to handle all keys in the animation
I think i'm going to have grey hair before finishing it

[savage]

this 2 man team seems to be getting loads of stuff done. Can't wait to see this stuff in action.

[{MSX}]

The viking doing some poses
(screenshot collage from the editor)