3D Characters?

[Doringo]

Hi all,

I'm currently in the early stages of pre-production of a new adventure and as part of that process I'm looking into various existing game engines to figure out the possibilities. I've been toying a bit with AGS and found it to be extremely flexible. I even made a proof-of-concept small demo with fully customized GUI's just to see how professional a game built with AGS could look.

My initial intent was to use 3D characters over 3D pre-rendered backgrounds. I see no problem with the backgrounds in AGS but I didn't see anything to support 3D characters.

So what I'm asking is this:

1. Can I use 3D characters in AGS?

2. How far does AGS go? Is it possible to create something like Syberia with AGS? If not, why? What does it lack?

Thanks,
Dor.

[Darth Mandarb]

1) You can definately use 3D characters, though you'll be using them in a 2D way.  You'll have to import each frame of the character's animation into AGS in a BMP (or other supported) format.

You can't import them as a 3D object though.  You'll have to pre-render everything, then import.

2) I should think you could create something like Syberia.  I think, and I've been using AGS for over a year now, that the only real limitation is your imagination and ability

Good luck and welcome!

~ d

[TerranRich]

Why does it lack? Because it's only a guy in his 20's with a full-time job living in England (of all places!) doing this for free.

 But it doesn't lack!!!

[Doringo]

Thank you very much for the info.

terranRICH: Believe me, I have nothing but appreciation to CJ's work. I'm a programmer and software engineer myself and I know what it means to actually code such a project and keep supporting in over time.

Mandarb: Regarding your suggestion of importing the separate frames of an animated 3D character, will there be enough slots of views + loops + frames to actually create 3D fluid animation for all characters in a game? We have multi-directional walking animations, multi-directional talking animations, additional special character animations (part of them multi-directional as well), object animations... Is there enough slots for all of them?

One more question (and a bit off my own topic), is there a way or are there any tips on how to organize the code in a manageable way? I mean, I would love to create classes in separate files and so on but the AGS script language is C-like and does not seem to be object oriented. In addition, there is only the global script and header and the specific rooms, nothing more. I barely started and my global script is close to 1000 lines of code with all the GUI customizations. Also, I can't even keep them open all at once. I must close one to see the other and it's extremely uncomfortable. Are there any tips I can use in that regard?

Again, thank you very much for the help.

[Radiant]

Kind of. In the top menu bar, below 'edit global script' are a number of options that let you edit parts of the global script. As of the latest beta you can customize which parts that would be, by moving certain #sectionstart and #sectionend lines around in your code (I'm not sure if that was intented by Pumaman but it does work that way )
Also you can use structs, and you can add member variables to characters, objects and invitems. It's not OO but it comes close.

[Darth Mandarb]

Mandarb: Regarding your suggestion of importing the separate frames of an animated 3D character, will there be enough slots of views + loops + frames to actually create 3D fluid animation for all characters in a game? We have multi-directional walking animations, multi-directional talking animations, additional special character animations (part of them multi-directional as well), object animations... Is there enough slots for all of them?

Well, you have down/left/right/up and down left/up left/down right/up right with 20 frames max each.  Then 8 extra loops that have 'no special purpose'.  And that's per view, I kept clicking Add New View and got to 200 before my hand got tired!  So there's more than 200 views available.  I can't imagine you'd need more than that

I'd love to see a game that pushed the MAX number of views/objects/characters.  Talk about detail!

EDIT - I typically only use 8 frames for each direction of animation (walking), but you have up to 20 which is, in my opinion, more than enough to create fluid walking motion!  Also, if it's a LONG object animation you can always click 'run the next loop to make a long animation' giving you another 20 frames (and these can be daisy chained if you will to make it even longer!)
~ d

[Alynn]

If you push F2 it will show you how many of sprites/guis/buttons/views you have and how many you can use total...


And for Views it happens to be 400.

[TerranRich]

EDIT - I typically only use 8 frames for each direction of animation (walking), but you have up to 20 which is, in my opinion, more than enough to create fluid walking motion!  Also, if it's a LONG object animation you can always click 'run the next loop to make a long animation' giving you another 20 frames (and these can be daisy chained if you will to make it even longer!)

BUT, you can't do that if it's a walking animation! Keep that in mind. Walking animations MUST use 0-7 in the correct order and placement for it to work.

[Doringo]

BUT, you can't do that if it's a walking animation! Keep that in mind. Walking animations MUST use 0-7 in the correct order and placement for it to work.

Could you please elaborate a bit on this? What exactly are the implications? Can't I use a walking animation that is more fluid than 8 frames?
If so, my guess is that it's limited to the auto-walking mechanism. Am I right? Can I still override the auto-walk and set the view and animate myself each time a walk is requested, using a view longer than 8 frames?

[GarageGothic]

I'm pretty sure that I have it working with 12 frames for each direction, but I might be wrong. If it's only 8 frames it sure looks smooth anyhow (and I'm using prerendered 3D characters as well).

Edit: Oh, I think I know what terranRICH meant. He meant the loops, not the frames. Each direction can only be one loop, not multiple tied together. Still, that's 20 frames per direction.

[Doringo]

Oh, I think I know what terranRICH meant. He meant the loops, not the frames.

You're probably right, it makes much more sense. And 20 frames per direction should be more than enough I think.

I've been searching the net for a pre-rendered 3D character for testing everything myself (and not bother anyone in the forums with it...) but I could find one. Does anyone know if (and where) I could find such a thing? I'm talking of eight-direction walking loops of a pre-rendered 3D character. I don't really mind how the character looks like since it's for the purpose of proof-of-concept only. I'm not sure if it's important but I do use 16-bit color. Kate Walker should be a great test case as a pre-rendered animation...

[Darth Mandarb]

[ quote ]
I typically only use 8 frames for each direction of animation (walking), but you have up to 20 which is, in my opinion, more than enough to create fluid walking motion!  Also, if it's a LONG object animation you can always click 'run the next loop to make a long animation' giving you another 20 frames (and these can be daisy chained if you will to make it even longer!)
[ /quote ]

I meant to imply that if the animation isn't for a walk cycle, it can be really long!

Sorry

The first 8 loops (0-7) are for the walking directions:
Loop 0 = down
Loop 1 = left
Loop 2 = right
Loop 3 = up
Loop 4 = down right
Loop 5 = down-left
Loop 6 = up-left
Loop 7 = up-right

So loop 0 should only contain the frames of the character walking down, and so on.

~ d