First Person Shooter Question

[Adler1337]

Hi, I am currently making an fps. I have most of the friendly and enemy characters modeled, but i have a question about the character the user controls. Should i model the entire character or just the arms? I was thinking about modeling the entire character and setting the camera as a child of the head bone. I was hoping for a view kind of like mirror's edge, where you can see the entire body, instead of most games where you can only see your hands and maybe your legs. I'm not sure which way is the best way. Any suggestions? Also, I was trying to add some multiplayer to the game, but how would i be able to see other players if everyone was just a camera and arms? Would i have to make a model of the entire character and set it at the location of the other players?

[Lil Margin]

i say the whole body so when the charecter dies you can see him fall and die

[Adler1337]

i say the whole body so when the charecter dies you can see him fall and die

I don't think you have to model the entire character in order to do that. Take Halo 1 for example. They only modeled the hands(I think that's what they did because you can't see your feet in first person). When you die you see your body, but i think they just load the complete character and place it at the camera's position when you died and play a death animation.

Let me rephrase my question. What do most games do(entire character or just hands)? What are the benefits from each? What are some games that do it each way? Which way is the most practical?

[Lonesome Ducky]

Probably best to do the whole body. Just think if you decided to do multiplayer, you'd already have a model for the other players to see.

EDIT: Saw you already wrote that up above, but my vote is for modeling the whole thing

[Halifax]

Most games, including Halo 1 (and a more recent example Killzone 2) model the whole body. They don't just load it in. The problem you're talking about though (not seeing the feet) is a common decision made by studios to parent the camera outside of the head and not inside of it. Most studios don't want to deal with the extra cost of rendering from inside of the head.

[sp00n]

Also, I was trying to add some multiplayer to the game, but how would i be able to see other players if everyone was just a camera and arms?

Lol, in one client (player) you have ONLY ONE camera, all others players you see - just a models, you don't need use the same model as for first person look.
Just hands/feet etc for first person look camera are using for the better perfomance because you don't need to do the culling of invisible parts of model for it.
So, if you plan to show many animations in first person look camera (as in Mirror's edge) then for modeller is simplier to use a whole model, but for better looking i don't recommend to use the same FPC(first percon camera) model for other players around you. You can understand why - if you switch to free camera at Miror's Edge ))
Good luck

[Adler1337]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry i haven't posted back in a little while. I was sick.
@Sp00n

Lol, in one client (player) you have ONLY ONE camera, all others players you see - just a models, you don't need use the same model as for first person look.

lol duh, I don't know what i was thinking when i posted that.
@Halifax

Most games, including Halo 1 (and a more recent example Killzone 2) model the whole body. They don't just load it in. The problem you're talking about though (not seeing the feet) is a common decision made by studios to parent the camera outside of the head and not inside of it. Most studios don't want to deal with the extra cost of rendering from inside of the head.

Thanks that clears a lot up.