[proximo]

Hey guys, Well I have a question and was hoping somone in the game industry might help me out. Me and some friends are making or trying to anyhow make a 3d game, rpg type with low poly models and what not.

One of the other guys who is modeling said that you shuold model you model in differnt section, and never make them one solid peice, because in the game they are going to be using different swords armor what not, and to be able to switch we will need to model them with each thing in hand and stuff, like animate it etc..

Now im not sure if this is true or not, like for instance, world of war craft, they look like they are solid but again i could be wrong but they do so i guess my question is do most games developed today make the models with the head arms legs torso, etc apart from each other or do they connect them all to be one solid. I would really like some feed back from anyone who can help thanks .

[[666]Flat]

I dun get da point of tis shiat, yo! Tis be messed up like a crack ho drivin' her god damn pick up all da way thru da central park! Jeeeeez! I'm gonna tell ya something, so ya better listen up! Every render prog has an option to collapse yo single parts of yo polygon candy boys to a single mesh! So wut! Solid or not, it doesn't matter, damnit! Go and search for it! Read da fucking manual! Wut, yo can't find it? WAREZ it gone to, huh? Yeeeeh, we know da fucking answer.

[ June 19, 2002: Message edited by: [666]Flat ]

[Frost]

Proximo: I'll offer you a real comment here...

It really depends what your game engine does and doesn't do. In most of today's high-end games, the meshes are usually one piece of geometry (disregarding material groups) where the vertices are 'skinned' with to skeletal system. This provides greater smoother detail of the geometry while animated and is usually used on higher-poly models... but it also requires a lot more work put into the creation of the 3D asset (vertex weighting, skeletal setup, etc.), and it requires that the game engine support this sort of 'advanced' geometry deformation via skeletal hierarchy.

Of course, lower-end games where the characters may be smaller on-screen, you may wish to do differently, such as having them modular, made up of parts that intersect. This is by far the easiest method of doing things, though it's definitely not as good looking when you look at the model up close.

From what I gather, you're working on an RPG type game, with modules you can add on to the meshes and such (weapons, armor, etc), which can be done in many ways, regardless of what you decide to do with your base character models. This is another difficult call to make for someone on the outside, as it really depends on your art team skills and programming team skills. You can choose to dynamically link objects to your hierarchy and have a small set of reusable objects such as weapons and armor, or you may choose to model all thos things on the model itself using different material groups, in which case you can render only the parts(materials) that need rendering depending on your inventory.

There are lots of different approaches you can take in either topics, and the art/technical director of the project should make the call as to what's the best solution regarding the development team's talent and experience. No one here can make this call for your team.

[proximo]

Frost,

Thanks for reply, you have cleared things up for me. The answeres you have provided me have help alot. I have a way better understanding of things now.
also yes we are doing an RPG type game and I'm not sure of the engins limitations etc.. I will talk with the lead programmer tonight
again thanks for your insite on this matter

Proximo