Probably the best character animation/controls in Blitz3D yet

http://www.leadwerks.com/animdemo.zip (715 kb)

-Up arrow moves
-Hold shift to walk
-Left arrow strafes
-Mouse looks around

I tried assigning the DarkMatter SWAT mesh onto my animated skeletons. The results are VERY promising. I think we are very close to having the character animation issue solved once and for all.

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How it works
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The program goes through the hierarchy of the SWAT model and looking for corresponding limbs in the biped model with the same name. If a match is found, the SWAT model limb is rotated the same as the biped limb, relative to the parent. If no match is found, nothing is done, so it's okay to have extra limbs in either models. The hierarchies don't have to match exactly.

The program looks for vertices on adjacent limbs of the SWAT model that are close enough together to lock, and it holds them together. This is most evident in the nice deformation of the torso, especially when he is looking around and breathing.

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Problems with this demo
===========================
The SWAT model is a segmented model, so there is a lot of ugly joints. If I had started with a single-piece mesh and separated the pieces out, mode vertex locks would be created, and the mesh would deform much more nicely.

I also noticed that the shoulders shouldn't pitch up and down as much as the do, because it looks bad on the torso, but that can be fixed easily.

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What to do now
===========================
I think what we need to do now is segment a single-piece mesh into the pieces corresponding with this skeleton. This would solve the ugly joint problems and look even better. Any modelers want to work with me on this?

Halo,

Nice one!

Ipete2.

Hi Halo, great demo! Very Promising. A little off topic but can I just ask if it`s possible to get a full screen 3D view in Cartography Shop 3 as it`s the only thing holding me off buying an otherwise superb program. I have been told that it is not possible but I thought that I would ask you in case it`s an undocumented feature.

Jason.

I guess you will have to remap the Darkmatter Models if you unify the Kids to one Mesh - the UV Mapping is probably the best Thing of the Darkmatter Models at all.

Actually, JFK, it should be ok. I'm pretty sure it's all one texture that's applied to all the children, so the UV mapping won't have to change. I'm not 100% but I do have DarkMatter around here somewhere and I think all the characters have a single texture.

He's pretty good. If you move the mouse left and right quickly, you can make him clap :)

The hip seems a little unnatural when he moves forward, is my key criticism. Also when he leans forward too far his arms intersect his groin. Other than that, very promising work.

Nice

If I get any significant help with this, I'll release the code, otherwise I'll keep it to myself.

I'm making a model. Do we need to use 3DS files?

I prefer .3ds because I can edit it in MAX.

What are the limb names?

They're in the figure.3ds model, and all animation models.

Halo, that's really cool. Very nice work as always.

That looks good

Josh - I'll make you a model. Email me with what you want (Ben at Binarymoon.co.uk)

Halo... one thing that is quite apparent, at least to me, seeing as i played around with a similar system a lil while back... where the head and upper body rotated first for small turning movements, and the lower body followed for larger turns...

it looks great 3rd person, and this IS really better than having the whole stiff figure turn... but when you put the player view at the eyepoint (first person view), the view and the direction at which the player is moving will become uncoordinated as soon as the player starts to move...

the lower body parts are still facing straight ahead while the head and upper body are facing in a slightly different direction (azimuth)...

... when you start to run/walk this will present a disjointed and slightly askew first person view.


i wound up adding logic to align the lower body with the view azimuth (direction the head is facing) whenever the character transitioned from standing still to walking/ruuning... easy enough to do.

otherwise, this is very slick...

nice work...

--Mike

Sybixsus - yes, they have one single Texture, but the problem is: the child meshes are intersecting. If you only collapse them to a single Mesh, ignoring the intersecting Parts then you will end up with a Bones Animation that is looking about the same as the old Child Based Animation. But when you use a boolenan Union that will remove the intersecting Tris then there will be a number of new Vertices and Tris and the whole UV Mapping will have to be re-done, afaik.

Uvmapping have to be redone, and vertex to bones assignments as well!

BTW, cool demo, DDK player had the same control, and was splitted in 3 hierarcic .3ds models, but of course, didn't have any math Inverse Kinematics / Ragdoll thing in it ;)

Brilliant work, have you seen the other ragdoll demo, in native blitz language ? I had my own models, or ninja model working with it in seconds :) very nice indeed!

Oh. Nice work Halo. Once the model gets converted to a single skin then it will be top class. If you can get the physics built in then you would have a killer generic prototype for all FPS. Is the plan to have it so it will ragdoll down stairs when shot etc...

Great work !!

John-Robin

Great Job! Maybe we could put this to use....
Let me know if you need help.

-Matt

;-

the link doesnt work :((
can you please upload it one more time for me?

Doh! Dead link.

This thread is over 6 months old. It's not surprising the link is dead. There was no code included so there's little point in it being uploaded again.

What the... This keeps happening to me: somebody inexplicably dredges up an ancient thread, and I, not paying attention to the dates, join them in complaining.

no code? oh :(((
are there maybe somewhere else codes vor ragdoll?