Best method for character creation system?
polycounter lvl 19
hello there
I'm working on a game and while I have a few models done/semi done, it doesn't matter much. You can take Oblivion for example (though, they use facegen for faces... btu still, I like what they did with clothes/armor), WoW, and such games.
I'm wondering what seems the best method for creating a paperdolling character creation system is.
for paperdolling, using separate meshes for different body parts seems obvious. The thing is, how to manage clothes that go on top? (specially if some flesh is visible) keep the nude model behind the clothes? or just replace it with another model part that also includes the visible flesh?
also, how to manage the texturing?
right now the engine I'm working with has a system to merge all the textures into a single one, meaning that I need to make the body parts use only a portion of the whole texture (so when the meshes and textures are merged, it'll look like a single character would do). or is it best to have multiple textures (ie. one for face, one for torso, etc)
and about the face, what do you think would be the best approach to have multiple characters? just unique head meshes, or some way to deform them (if so, how?) or both? or splitting the face textures into sub-parts (eyebrows, mouth, etc... like the Winning Eleven series did)
on top of that, what about armor, and having female models too? (any way to re-use what's already been done for the male?), how about enemy models? (orcs for example)
any ideas?
I'm working on a game and while I have a few models done/semi done, it doesn't matter much. You can take Oblivion for example (though, they use facegen for faces... btu still, I like what they did with clothes/armor), WoW, and such games.
I'm wondering what seems the best method for creating a paperdolling character creation system is.
for paperdolling, using separate meshes for different body parts seems obvious. The thing is, how to manage clothes that go on top? (specially if some flesh is visible) keep the nude model behind the clothes? or just replace it with another model part that also includes the visible flesh?
also, how to manage the texturing?
right now the engine I'm working with has a system to merge all the textures into a single one, meaning that I need to make the body parts use only a portion of the whole texture (so when the meshes and textures are merged, it'll look like a single character would do). or is it best to have multiple textures (ie. one for face, one for torso, etc)
and about the face, what do you think would be the best approach to have multiple characters? just unique head meshes, or some way to deform them (if so, how?) or both? or splitting the face textures into sub-parts (eyebrows, mouth, etc... like the Winning Eleven series did)
on top of that, what about armor, and having female models too? (any way to re-use what's already been done for the male?), how about enemy models? (orcs for example)
any ideas?
Replies
according to my old programmer (now left, still looking for someone as good), morph targets are CPU expensive
another way she thought about doing it would be bones, but having lots of bones just to deform the faces would be too expensive too
any other methods to make the face deformations?
I guess it really comes down to the hardware you're developing for. Usually bones are better, but ther comes a point of diminishing returns, when you have too many bones.
Also I think it's a tradeoff of artist/coder development time... how far do you need to go to make it a great game, and what other features are you going to drop to make this one feature (customization/reuse) possible?