[Plib-users] how much time and effort it takes???

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

	
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:  have a player and this
player 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, this
takes a lot of work. and then draw all the frames in secuence. 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 in ACE format and diferent model of swords, and i
make on sword child of the player model, the sword will follow the players hand
whenever it moves???. For example, the player model is standing with his hand
extended to his left and the sword in his hand.  


         +  ->   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


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.