Hitboxes to locate bullet impact

[Lideln]

First of all, HI ALL !!

I'm quite new to irrlicht, and more generally to 3D world. To present me briefly, I'm a (almost... just finishing my training session) computer science engineer. But I'm really interested in 3D games developpement and I'd like it to be my job.

I'd like to create a game (ok, i'm not going to work alone, but i would like to understand some things before creating a team...) which will be inspired from a tv series where there are fighters with guns etc.

So here is my first 3 questions : (sorry for the questions-bombing, but its just the beginning, I need help to begin work with 3D)

1) What are the best softwares (free or not) to :
- create buildings (indoor only)
- create outdoor levels like with heightmaps, and with trees, roats, etc (which may contain also some buildings, but maybe I would add them as StaticSceneNodes on top of the outdoor level)
- create animated characters

2) I would like to handle bullet impacts properly and use hitboxes for that (to detect whether the bullet hit the head, one hand, an arm, a leg, etc.).

How is it doable ? Using 3DSMax directly, or adding boxes dynamically with irrlicht ?

If someone has an idea, I would be glad to hear it

3) Is it possible to move only the head of a character, and change its face to show how he feels ? Just like in oblivion, people not moving their body, but just their head when you walk near them, and also people showing a face depending on their mood

If yes, how ? with 3DSMax, or using dynamic function calls in irrlicht to modify the model ?


(prepare to read me asking many questions, since i'm a total noob in 3D )

Thank you all a lot for helping me begin with 3D, and have a nice day !


Lideln

[Acki]

Hi, you're welcome !!!
First of all: read the forum rules !!!
if you have a question, please read the sticky's, FAQs and have a search on the forum !!!

For your questions:
1) search the forum

2) you can use different meshes and nodes for each part and detect collision by it's bounding box (I think this is what your "hitboxes" are), and search the forum...

3) everything is possible if it uses bone animation or like in answer 2 or direct mesh manipulating or all together...

[Lideln]

Thanks for your welcome !

Ok, for the forum rules (you meant "search the forum before asking a question" I suppose), you have to know that I have been visiting this forum for some weeks now but this is the first time I submitted a post, because I did not find a satisfying answer in the forums.

I also read the faq before posting but it mentions things like external libraries for physics, sound, or things like that (afaik)

1) for the tools i found http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=13019 but it just gives a list of tools and actually I had already downloaded them all (or almost) before posting earlier. But I would have preferred a subjective advice, not a plain enum. With a subjective advice I would be able to see what tool is better for what or what purpose, what it can do and what it cannot, and so on, so no offense but, YES, i searched the forum but the answer did not satisfy me because there were not enough, if not none, personal advice

2) In fact i do not know exactly how to implement that. I found on the web that it could be possible to add invisible boxes to different parts of the loaded character model. What you tell me is that i could load one mesh per body part and then gather them in one body ? Isn't that a bit dangerous ? i mean, you may get awful body part merges nope ?
(and once again i searched the forum but did not find... but maybe my english is too bad and i did not use the proper words (before posting, i used "hitboxes" and "impact localization"))

3) since i am a REAL beginner in 3D, i do not see what bone animation is. you mean dynamically animate a character model, whithout using animation key-frames ? though, if i use answer 2 here, say to turn the head around the vertical direction, the neck won't move (it won't be... how do you say... deformed ?), so it won't look naturel, will it ?

Thanks for your answer Acki

[Acki]

Well, I saw this was you first post, so I gave you some advices and didn't get nasty...


1) so you just read the main thread and not the replies, I guess...
and you did not ask your question there, what would be better than creating a thread for it as this is not an "3D-Editor" forum !!!
There is no "best" editor !!!
Have a look on many editors (maybe google)...
Try some of them they seems to fit your needs...
Decide to use it or not...

2 and 3) well I think before you learn how to code with 3d graphics you should really first learn what 3d graphic is !!!
Maybe use a 3d editor and play with it to see how 3d graphic works...
I think you should try Milkshape3D !!!
It's simple to use, has many import/export formats and uses bone animation supported by Irrlicht !!!
It has not many edit methods but for a beginner is this a really awsome 3d editor for learning...

[bitplane]

I like wings3d, its very quick to learn but doesn't support animation.
the popular formats/editors are - obj or 3ds for static objects (any/all programs), quake maps for large lightmapped indoor scenes (any quake editor + a lightmapper), ms3d for robotic animations (milkshape, cheap, I bought it on the off chance that i would need it), md2 for keyframe character animation (dunno.. blender, milkshape, quake editors?), directx for nice bone based animation (blender, max, maya, maybe milkshape too I think but no IK makes it hard work).
then you've got a selection of additional formats that people have contributed which can be patched in, but I haven't tried those.

oh yeah and by 3) you mean animation morphing, unfortunatley this isnt supported at present, it's probably doable via Acki's ragdoll patch though.

[Lideln]

Thanks Acki for your answer. I did not say you were angry, but i still seem to have got a bit on your nerves, because of the tons of "!" you add after each sentence :p

But there is no offense, and i thank you again for taking the time to answer.

bitplane, thanks for your detailed answer.
it seems that for indoor levels and static meshes, the possibilities are (thank to god, since it will prevent from long testing sessions) restricted.
for animated characters, i still dunno which tool to use, but according to acki and you, it seems that the milkshape3D animated meshes are a good starting point ?! i'll have a look at milkshape3D then, thanks both of you !

for 3), i dunno what i mean ^^ I just know what result i would like to get (check the oblivion NPCs to see what i mean), but if what you say is right, then i'll have a look at methods to perform animation morphing (otherwise i could do as acki said : detach the head from the rest of the body and animate it)

in all cases, thanks for your answers !

Lideln

[Lideln]

Hi all,

I wanted to tell you that I finally found something about changing the face of the character depending on its mood.
You have to use "Morph Targets". In fact, to sum up things briefly, create your model with all the different faces you want him to have (happy, sad, thinking, etc.), then you have to use a shader to transform the vertices dynamically, changing linearly from one face to another, smooth.

Do not ask me for details though, since I'm a beginner and I'm still reading the article as I am writing this post.

You can find EVERYTHING you need in the "GPU Gems Vol 1." book from nvidia, chapter 4-3, page 67, it is so exciting !

I hope it will help some people wishing like me to perform nice characters animations !

Regards,

Lideln

[Acki]

Thanks Acki for your answer. I did not say you were angry, but i still seem to have got a bit on your nerves, because of the tons of "!" you add after each sentence :p

No, I wasn't angry, indeet...
And this is my normal writing style !!!
If you ever have a look on my posts you'll recognise this...

[Lideln]

Indeed Acki I saw that in another thread, but it keeps on surprising me
I go back to work, so much things to learn...
Have a nice day !