Cal3D still in development?

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3DModelerMan
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Cal3D still in development?

Post by 3DModelerMan »

Does anyone know about Cal3D, is it still in development? I want to use a runtime character animation SDK and it's the only one I can find that's free.
That would be illogical captain...

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erwincoumans
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Re: Cal3D still in development?

Post by erwincoumans »

3DModelerMan wrote:Does anyone know about Cal3D, is it still in development? I want to use a runtime character animation SDK and it's the only one I can find that's free.
Doesn't Irrlicht have a runtime animation system?

What kind of features in Cal3D are you looking for that Irrlicht doesn't?
Thanks,
Erwin
3DModelerMan
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Post by 3DModelerMan »

Just better animation blends and IK.
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erwincoumans
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Post by erwincoumans »

Lack of IK I understand.

Can you explain more in detail what you mean by better animation blending? Does Irrlicht not do it?

I'm interested, because I am about to look into an animation system for my gamekit project, and was about to digg into Irrlicht. It is good to know the limitations in advance.
A collegue started working on an open source animation system, so I'll provide him with feedback.
Although his anim system takes data from a Maya .mb/.ma file, we could add support for John Ratcliff's EZ Mesh. For gamekit I plan on extracting all animation, skinning and blend (action/channels) data straight from a .blend file

Thanks,
Erwin
3DModelerMan
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Post by 3DModelerMan »

I wanted to use something similar to havok animation but not so huge. I know that Irrlicht doesn't do IK. But I don't know about retargeting.
That would be illogical captain...

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erwincoumans
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Post by erwincoumans »

Can you go more into detail about 'retargeting'?

Have you asked the Irrlicht developers how to achieve this particular feature in the animation system?
3DModelerMan
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Post by 3DModelerMan »

Uhh. No I havn't asked, I would assume retargeting would be easy to implement. I'm going to try implementing both before I use a seperate system though.
That would be illogical captain...

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3DModelerMan
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Post by 3DModelerMan »

Is there a good animation system that's Zlib or something?
That would be illogical captain...

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erwincoumans
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Post by erwincoumans »

'retargeting' is too vague. Can you explain more in detail why Irrlicht isn't a good animation system?

Cheers,
Erwin

BTW: as a last resort, you might want to check out the latest Ogre 1.7 trunk, it is MIT licensed now.
3DModelerMan
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Post by 3DModelerMan »

Retargeting animations is where you take the animation from one character. And you can have the animation adjusted to be used on another character. I'm not saying Irrlichts animation system isn't good. But I need a few advanced features.
That would be illogical captain...

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xDan
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Post by xDan »

There is the "useAnimationFrom" function. I guess "retargeting" is something different though?

Irrlicht allows playing one animation at once, or a transition from one to another. But I believe Cal3D and Ogre let you play multiple animations at a time (with a weighting between them). This is one thing I'd like to see in Irrlicht.

I guess that is an advanced feature though, I am just playing FFXII and notice the characters have to stop moving in order to play a magic or attack animation...
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