New Animation System for Irrlicht

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 pm

Yup, can we review the APIs (only) before you get too deep into implementing them? Kudos for pressing on with this, by the way, it'll be a major upgrade for Irrlicht.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:57 pm

So, just wondering, what is the progress on this? Do you have the AnimatedMeshSceneNode modification? Basically, is there anything ready yet that lets me get transitions between animations for different mesh formats? I'm really glad you are making this, because I really need this feature. Thanks for your work!

Sorry, I haven't started with the AnimatedMeshSceneNode modification with this new animation system. I'm working on the getting the loaders to use the Skinned Mesh right now, then I can start on that.

Yup, can we review the APIs (only) before you get too deep into implementing them?

well, you can see the whole thing on the SVN at http://code.google.com/p/irrlicht-plugins/

but I'll try to post the apis here before I develop them.

noone88 · Post by **noone88** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:57 pm

nice to hear that you work an a 'new' animation model! Will it be faster than the old one? (I have some problems here with only 6 3000 Polys Ms3d animated meshs)

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 4:45 am

nice to hear that you work an a 'new' animation model! Will it be faster than the old one? (I have some problems here with only 6 3000 Polys Ms3d animated meshs)

Well if your using 1.3, it will be at least double that speed, due to a bug in that version.

but even ignoring that bug, it should still be a fair bit faster then the old system

then there is hardware skinning that can make it faster still (but static hardware buffers are more important, and should be done first)

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:55 am

and...excuse if I say a nonsense, but ms3d files don't have weights (though is a tad more work to do nice bending truely human shoulders (unless use the typical shoulders armour trick.. )) , so I guess it's way less calculation than b3d, x, md5(maybe to consider to make comparisons later on..)... When done by software (Luke will know, as I think b3d engine does it by software) is way slower than if trust on the 3d card to take care of it. It's what I heard, I have never done a "scientific" test or anything..

I'd love to see a quality FPS done in irrlicht, with quality on everything, even if as simple as just a shooter prototype with 3 types of rooms...but nice rooms, cool characters, objects and weapons...be it a base that could be grown by the time by "occasional" artists here...

Sorry, the total OT thing...I just got nostalgic readin' "6 models at 3000 tris" simply did remember old modding in unreal t. 2003...

One way or the other, this new animation system sounds to me as going to be amazing for every irrlicht game...

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:59 am

btw, hey luke, excuse me if I say (another

) nonsense...but...Is there a "latest", the most recent, version of your blender b3d exporter ? I'd love to have it, really

. I have ultimate unwrap and can fix the files if come with some probs, surely.

I think it'd be great... I guess it didnt yet take the multiUv thing of the oficial Blender 2.43 with the render bake (lightmap) in the needed channel...Or does it ? I can do a test of it if it needs just some test-refining...

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:08 am

and...excuse if I say a nonsense, but ms3d files don't have weights (though is a tad more work to do nice bending truely human shoulders (unless use the typical shoulders armour trick.. )) , so I guess it's way less calculation than b3d, x, md5(maybe to consider to make comparisons later on..)... When done by software (Luke will know, as I think b3d engine does it by software) is way slower than if trust on the 3d card to take care of it. It's what I heard, I have never done a "scientific" test or anything..

Yeah, doing the skinning in software is slower then on hardware, if the user has a good card.
but software skinning is not that slow, I’m amazed how many meshes I can animate using software, and still have good frame rates, (and my computer is not that good), as I’ve said before, I can have 70 * 1800 ploy meshes animating at 44 fps.

btw, hey luke, excuse me if I say (another ) nonsense...but...Is there a "latest", the most recent, version of your blender b3d exporter ? I'd love to have it, really . I have ultimate unwrap and can fix the files if come with some probs, surely.

I think it'd be great... I guess it didnt yet take the multiUv thing of the oficial Blender 2.43 with the render bake (lightmap) in the needed channel...Or does it ? I can do a test of it if it needs just some test-refining...

I put the blender exporter on the SVN at http://code.google.com/p/irrlicht-plugins/ but it’s not the latest version, the latest one I have is a bit broken

I think you already have that version that's on the SVN, Vermeer.

It’s pretty poor code, I should clean it up some time, but if anyone has any fixes, etc, I’ll update or upload it.

I’ll add multiUv to the exporter at some point to, just I’ve been working on the animation system when ever I get free time.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:30 pm

I've being working on the animation system a bit,

Now loading meshes pretty well, I just need to fixed a few bugs with the animation

Bump mapped mesh but unskinned (due to bugs with the animation)

this is mesh is loaded with an IMeshLoader class, so you can add other external animated mesh formats now without needing to compile the engine.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:54 pm

Looks cool!

Where's the model come from?

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:40 pm

it's Psionic's mesh, it's free, and has no real restrictions, pretty good.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:11 am

The bump looks pretty good.

By the way am I too sensitive or...

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:28 am

that little white bit is only from the texture, it's not a gap or anything. Easily fixed in an image editor.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:00 am

I fixed a few bugs in the animation stuff, and it should now be fully working,

I’m a bit amazed it all came together so well after writing most of this without testing or even compiling it

So far the b3d mesh loader is the only format, using this SkinnedMesh class, if anyone wants to make/convert other loaders to it they are more then welcome.

I’ll work on improving the speed (but it should be pretty fast as it is), clean the code up and add bone control, animation blending, transitions to it.

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:38 am

Cool!!

I think you already have that version that's on the SVN, Vermeer.

It’s pretty poor code, I should clean it up some time, but if anyone has any fixes, etc, I’ll update or upload it.

I’ll add multiUv to the exporter at some point to, just I’ve been working on the animation system when ever I get free time.

I understand, by all means, animation system is the base of it all.
And it's looking great...

sudi · Post by **sudi** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:48 pm

keep up the good work and please release this thing as soon as possible. I'm really stuck here because of some odd stuff with irrlichts animation system. The only other choice i might have is the cal3d animation library...