Animations

[theShadow]

I downloaded alpha 5 a few days ago, and I have been playing around with it a great deal. Although there is obviously much room for improvement in all areas of the game, I decided to focus on the visual side of the game, and one specific thing that stands out as needing improvement is the animations. As a 3D modeler myself, I may take a look at these at some point and try implementing some of these things myself. if no one else is available. However, I am not sure if some of these ideas are possible without engine code, which is why I am posting them for feedback first. I can also use this topic to track any progress I make on this.

The first thing that just needs general improvement are the player animations. They aren't bad, but a bit of tweaking could improve these a lot, especially for horse units.

The second are buildings. I am aware that the current building destruction animations are placeholders, but this would be an area where some interesting things could be done, like a gradual damage animation as well as a collapse animation.

The last thing, and possibly the one that may require engine code, is animations for trees and other natural elements. These wouldn't be anything major, but I think a slight animation of trees swaying in the wind would really add a lot to the game visually. Also, the idea I had for performance was to make animation play only for trees that are visible. This could be done for buildings as well.

Another idea that would be an expansion of the last one would be to have different animations tethered to the weather, so if the weather is calm the trees just sway a little, but if there is a storm, the trees thrash around violently.

If I can figure out how to access the source files for these things, I will take a stab at animating them in blender. I may need help getting them back in game though.

EDIT: looks like I will need to get the source of the game first. XD

Edited June 10, 2011 by theShadow

[Mythos_Ruler]

Not to be rude, but we are aware of all of these things. Animators dedicated enough to work on a free open source game are a rare breed.

[theShadow]

I thought you might be, but I decided to post it anyway, if only as an outline of what I will be working on.

is there any way to acquire the source assets, such as the models used for trees, buildings, units etc in a form that I would be able to open up in blender3D? I currently have the alpha 5 mac build that was posted, which doesn't have the assets in a form I can use.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Blender can import the .dae files (collada). The PMD files will be convertible to collada soon with a custom tool. The guy working on that tool recently had a computer failure. :/

[theShadow]

ok, thank you.

I can't seem to import the .dae files. When I try, nothing happens. Do I have to have blender 2.5, and also which version of collada is it that I am importing?

[privateer]

ok, thank you.

I can't seem to import the .dae files. When I try, nothing happens. Do I have to have blender 2.5, and also which version of collada is it that I am importing?

Read this section to start.

The whole document is a good resource.

There is a working python script that converts the PMD files,

or a stand alone version for Windows if you don't know how to run python scripts.

(Or your lazy like me. )

The bones are not converted at this time however.

Once I get the last few problems sorted out on my system, I'll get that section finished.