[Plib-users] how do i???

[Horacio S. <Ry...@Me...>]

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: how much time and effort it takes???
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 20:50:30 -0500
From: Horacio Sanson <Ryujin@Melissa.LoRdZ>


Hi..

I've been around for a while quitely, but i have been studing a lot about 3D
graphics  and games. I read the OpenGL red book, the Nate and Nehe tutorials,
the gtc, plib and crystal space documentation and source and still don't know
how to start a game.........  maybe this is not for me, but i won't quit.

I've a lot of questions and here comes a big one....:

How do i animate the entities in my game???  this is all theorical since i
haven't write a line of code. This is the situacion: i have a player that has a
lot of movements, he can walk, run, jump, duck etc. he also has a weapon like a
sword, he can attack, defend, attack while jumping, dash, and has special
attacks etc.

My first idea is to make all the frames of the model in all positions and then
draw all the frames in secuence depending of the action required. Since the
player has so much movements it will take a lot of time but it's posible.
But........  the player also has the ability to change weapons and armors,
helmet, boots etc.. so the problem is if i have to make a model of the player
with  each armor, weapon and make all the frames for each weapon, armor???

if i have a model of a player and diferent model of swords, and i
make the sword model child of the players hand model, the sword will follow the
players hand whenever it moves???. 


         +  ->   head   model
         -  ->   hand   model
         |   ->   body   model
         s  ->   sword  model    
 
                               s
                 +++         s                                   +++  
                 +  +         s                                   +  +     
                 +++         s                                   +++        
                   |          s s s                                  |         
                   | ----- s                                     |--          
                   |            s                                     |    \   
                   |                                 	          |      \ s  
                   |                                                  |    s  s  s
                   |                                                  |      s                                                                     
                                                                          s    
                                                                        s     
                                                                      s


                standing                                       attack1


for example: i have a model for the head, another for the arms, another for the
body and for the sword. Then i have a secuence of frames of the attack
movement. The question in a simple way is if i have to make the secuence of
frames for all posible combination of body, arm, head, weapon????  i know there
must be other way.  If i move the arm as shown in the ascii art below, will the
sword make the movement described in the ascii art?? or it will follow the hand
all the time with the cutting edge pointing up??? i mean, will the sword rotate
with the hand???

I have seen a lot of games, RPG at most, and i don't see much changes in the
players look..... so i think what i want is not possible.  Any ideas please
tell me.  I know this has nothing to do with PLIB, but i'm willing to use PLIB
to do this, if it is possible.
-------------------------------------------------------


thanks....