Author Topic: PLUGIN: Character3D v0.93 (08 May 2006) (Read 27126 times) Tweet Share

Besh · « **on:** 05 Nov 2005, 18:13 »

Character3D is a plugin that allow you to have three-dimensional character in your game, with animations and real-time light. Now you can also rendering character to look like cartoons with the CelShading and Outline effects.

Current version: 0.93 (08 May 2006)

Requires AGS v2.71

The rar files include the plugin (with documentation) and demos:

for old versions please visit: http://www.webalice.it/besh81

from 0.92 to 0.93 (08 May 2006)

Added Delete function.
Fixed some bugs.

Please reports any bugs, suggestions or comments

----------- EDIT ------------
Currently I'm waiting for some new functions from CJ to resolve character direction and speed problems.
Meanwhile I started my first AGS game (naturally with C3D), I'm drawing/modeling backgrounds and characters.
If you have requests or suggestions to improve the plugin or to add new effects, this is the right moment.

Good work!

Pablo · « **Reply #1 on:** 05 Nov 2005, 18:39 »

WOW! :o

Just amazing stuff! This might just be something that SteveMcCrea could use in AGS 3D project

Kweepa · « **Reply #2 on:** 05 Nov 2005, 20:10 »

This is awesome! Great work!

Janik · « **Reply #3 on:** 05 Nov 2005, 20:34 »

I had to copy alleg40.dll to the \Compiled\ folder to get it to run.

Impressive, very impressive!

One question though: I activated the frames per second display, and SetGameSpeed(999) to see how fast it could go - but the frame rate I got was consistently 64 fps, no matter what color depth or how zoomed in I was on the character. Is this somehow coded in the plugin to run at 64 fps max?

Just a note, you may be aware of this, but the wintermute engine has some 3d character capability (see their demo at http://www.dead-code.org/). Just thought you might be interested in seeing how they did it, handling walkable areas and such.

Pumaman · « **Reply #4 on:** 05 Nov 2005, 21:01 »

Very impressive, good work

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · « **Reply #5 on:** 06 Nov 2005, 14:08 »

Amazing work! Thank you very much!

Quote

This might just be something that SteveMcCrea could use in AGS 3D project

Well, obviously I don't really know what I'm talking about, as it's more Steve's domain, but methinks it won't be something trivial to implement, as this one appears to rely on an external "character" for all images and the AGS3d plugin uses actual sprites - seems to be totally different methods. Scaling characters, for instance - this plugin uses the built-in scaling levels, and AGS3d does some calculations I know nothing about to draw the sprite X in the place Y with size Z. I think.

Not that I wouldn't love to see them combined, I'm just not holding my breath.

EDIT - After taking a closer look, I have a couple of questions. They're also questions that, as a user, I'd like to see answered on the manual.

1 - I'd like to play the animations a bit slower, so as not to appear as jerky. How would I go about doing that? I assumed I could change that by changing the "animation speed" value of the character, but no dice. If there is no possible way to do it, then this stands as a suggestion/request.

2 - I'm under the impression that we can only animate the character with those 4 views - walk, talk, think, idle. How can I play any other animation?

3 - I assume footstep sounds aren't played. Is it possible to add?

4 - Those "bmp" files ("verde, nero," etc) - are they necessary? Should we distribute them as well?

5 - For linking a Character3d with an AGS Character we have to use, say, "Roger.ID". You could make it so we could just put "Roger", no? Asking for a "Character" instead of an "int"?

Mind you, I'm not complaining about anything. But I'd sure like to see this thing get better.

Besh · « **Reply #6 on:** 07 Nov 2005, 00:06 »

I have added a new file that contains a 2.71 compatible version.

Janik: the fact that fps is limited to 64 is very strange because in the plugin I don't limit it. Thanks for the signalling of WME.

Rui "Brisby" Pires: actually the speed of the animations is fixed, the only ones view supported are WALK,TALK,THINK and IDLE, the "bmp" files are the textures of 3d model "tentv.emd" and therefore they are necessary. Thanks for all your suggestions.

All the suggestions will be added in the next versions (if it's possible for my means)

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · « **Reply #7 on:** 14 Nov 2005, 15:06 »

Whee!

Er, just a small thing... I don't suppose you could consider doing tutorials for Escultor? The author himself seems to have never gotten around to it, and if people are to use the plugin they'll need to know how to use the program... I mean, it's not that hard to use, but some things are less than intuitive.

m�tzyboy · « **Reply #8 on:** 07 Dec 2005, 09:34 »

Now, with the interpolation, this is starting to look really good!

Great work man!

Besh · « **Reply #9 on:** 14 Dec 2005, 10:33 »

in the new demo (town-demo) three obvious problems are noticed:

1) in order to maintain the just position of the character in the 3D world, I have used the pic_yoff property, with all the problems that involve
why so many problems with this property??

2) the speed of the character does not diminish with the distance

3) the character turns itself in strange positions for the distance to carry out

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · « **Reply #10 on:** 14 Dec 2005, 10:58 »

1 - I suggest allowing us to check the character's orientation. Maybe a function like "get orientation", so we could - hypothetically - do stuff like

while (etc!=10) {
SetCharacterOrientation(GetCharacterOrientationX, GetCharacterOrientationY+2,GetCHaracterOrientationZ);
etc++;
}

Just a rought example. Anyway, it's always good to be able to "get" the values of whatever we "set". Sure, we can do it with our own variables, so it's no biggie. Just a suggestion.

2 - It's hard to set up the camera properly. Could you give us examples in the documentation? Toying around with it I found it really hard to set it as I wanted. You could, say, tell us which parameters would be really small and which would be really large and which make the screen "deeper" and so on.

Besh · « **Reply #11 on:** 14 Dec 2005, 13:26 »

yes, It's very hard to set up the camera properly!!

Actually the plugin camera is the simpliest (no FOV, aspect ratio, ect)

for the town demo I have used this simple tool.

Besh · « **Reply #12 on:** 02 Jan 2006, 12:07 »

I have rewritten the whole plugin interface, so now you can write:

[code]
if (game.debug_mode==1 && (keycode==65 || keycode==68 || keycode==83 || keycode==87)) {
if (keycode==65) plugin.CameraRotation -= 1.0;
else if (keycode==68) plugin.CameraRotation += 1.0;
else if (keycode==83) plugin.CameraHeight -= 1.0;
else if (keycode==87) plugin.CameraHeight += 1.0;
}
[/code]

whatever you set, whatever you get

Thanks very much to Rui "Shodan" Pires for all the suggestions
I hope that now, all works better

monkey_05_06 · « **Reply #13 on:** 02 Jan 2006, 22:43 »

This is pretty amazing stuff. I haven't ever attempted any 3D, but this makes me want to!

Mozesh · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Jan 2006, 16:09 »

Wow simply amazing, this was exactly what I was hoping for to happen.
I have milkshape so I tried to some stuff, but since I'm an absolute idiot in scripting in 2.71 it's way over my head.
So I'll need to make a change in that

Anyway this is exactly what I was looking for and I might, might? probably, will use this in my upcoming game, when I finally get some 2.71 experience that is.

Kweepa · « **Reply #15 on:** 14 Jan 2006, 22:37 »

I just downloaded the town demo - wow, looks great!
(I don't have anything else to contribute - just thought I'd offer a word of encouragement.)

Dr Lecter · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 Jan 2006, 16:48 »

It would be nice to have some 3D Max compatible files in there...

Mozesh · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Jan 2006, 18:53 »

@ Lecter
Milkshape can import max files, and then save them in ms3d format.

I've been playing around and it's pretty amazing, one thing though.
Lightning, I think that would be needed if someone wants to make a game.
Unless it's their style or whatever.
I'm really interested in this and I think I might just use it for my game, well I still need to develope the story/plot a lot more, so I hope when the time comes when I'm totally ready to start, that the plugin has grown and has been perfected a bit more.

Cheers,
Ralph

Dr Lecter · « **Reply #18 on:** 17 Jan 2006, 18:12 »

Hmmm it won't show the texture ingame in of the model I'm using

Edit:

And while trying to fix it I got this:

Quote

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x01F3DD5A ; program pointer is +31, ACI version 2.72.898, gtags (0,10)

I just changed the ms3d model of salvador on town demo thingy. I didn't change any script at all.

Mozesh · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 18:25 »

I got the same thing at first, the model was totally black.
But that isn't the plugin's fault, when I opened the ms3d model the textures weren't there.
This is a thing that happens sometimes in milkshape, so you need to re-select the textures in milkshape and save again.
And you must have the textures in the data folder!