How to find a good point on an IAnimatedMesh to shoot at

[JP]

Currently when one of my agents shoots at another agent they simply shoot at the centre of the enemy agent's bounding box. Unfortunatly on some of my agents this point is not actually within the Mesh, so the shot misses all the time.

So how can i get a good point on the mesh to shoot at? Basically want some point that's about in the centre of the mesh, and it would be good if there was some general way to find this so i didn't have to define a different point for each agent.

[dhenton9000]

Maybe the average point of all vertices? Sum all the xcomponents, divide by the number of vertices, and so for y and z?

HTH

[JP]

That could work i guess...

But i'm not sure if i i can do that in the java-binding i'm using..

Would i just called node.getDefaultVertices()?

That doesn't actually seem like it would work...

[pfo]

could you get the bounding box of the mesh and aim for the center of that?

[Saku]

How about making the shot more realistic by doing some random twisting of the path taken. This way you can simply add a little jitter to you original bullet.

[JP]

pfo:

Currently when one of my agents shoots at another agent they simply shoot at the centre of the enemy agent's bounding box.

saku: i really don't want to make the path of the projectile more complicated, just want to have a target on the enemy so that if it's shot at that point and the enemy doesn't move it will hit, cos otherwise it's making it impossible to hit one of the enemies when it's facing side on.

[bitplane]

you could always remember which vertex number is the 'heart' of your enemy and always aim a set distance behind it, or use a bone for the heart's position, or like Saku said make each bullet aim with a random offset. another idea, (which you probably wont like) who says the bullet needs to actually hit the mesh? im intersecting a line with a sphere for my bullet collision because its faster

[JP]

How do i know which vertex number is the heart? I don't know how to access any of the vertices.. if i could then dhenton's suggestion would probably work...

[JP]

Is it possible to grab a random triangle from the enemies triangle selector and then get a location vector from that?

[dhenton9000]

That could work i guess...

But i'm not sure if i i can do that in the java-binding i'm using..

Would i just called node.getDefaultVertices()?

That doesn't actually seem like it would work...

Meshbuffer getVertices() , I'm thinking....

[JP]

I've looked through the API and it seems you can only use a MeshBuffer with an IMesh, buti'm using an IAnimatedMesh, so how can i get the MeshBuffer for it?

[vitek]

Code: Select all

  s32 frame = AnimatedMeshSceneNode->getFrameNr();
  IMesh* mesh = AnimatedMesh->getMesh(frame, detail, start, end);

  s32 m, n = mesh->getMeshbufferCount();
  for(m = 0; m < n; ++m)
  {
    IMeshBuffer* buffer = getMeshBuffer(m);
    // do your business
  }

[JP]

Cheers! I'll give that a whirl later!

[JP]

Well that worked, but not for the shooting..... as summing up and taking the average of the vertices points doesn't necessarily give a point within the mesh... In one example it gave a point between the agents outstretched arms, and so whent he agent was side on the shot didnt hit the agent...

any other suggestions? :s

[Guest]

the best solution would be to place joints with your model tool, then you simply read out the joint position (in my game we have 3 joints, head, body and feat)