Constraints when creating characters & factions ?

[Kinrove]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to create my own factions for MegaGlest, basically two factions would be great.
I'm going to use Blender as 3D package.

My first aim is to create a full character and import it in the engine.
Is there any documentation explaining how to achieve such a goal (to create a faction as well).

I went to the WIKI. It has enlighed me on some points but I couldn't find some answers for some other questions.

- 1) Is it possible to create a setup (rig) to animate our character and still export it without any issue ? (or we need to use only bones for the export) ?
- 2) How many actions (animations) do we have for each character ?
- 3) What's the max polygon count you would advice for a character ?
- 4) Is the MG engine able to handle specular and normal map ?

Best regards,

Kinrove

[-Archmage-]

Hey again,

1) You can do whatever you want with rigs in Blender, .g3d format doesn't store bones at all. It's basically a mesh cache.
2) As many as you need for gameplay, and then you can have multiple animations for some actions for more variety. Look at the Unit XML setup on the wiki.
3) I know some people around here run low-end computers, so I would recommend 1K tris for normal human characters as that's very low and is plenty to get a decent looking model. No big deal if you go over that though.
4) No, all lighting is per-vertex. There is no per-pixel lighting/shading in this engine. One of my shading tricks to make per-vertex lighting look good is to add some extra geometry to large edges(usually with a bevel) so that large edges actually show up in the shading.

[Kinrove]

Hello Archmage,

Thank your for your answers which are really valuable !
Before you answered me, I had seen the structure with all the xml files and animated models, I was surprised by the simplicity to modify Glest.

This means that I can re-do my worker with the double of triangles.

Thank you for tips !

[Lack Of Love]

all right...
This answers some of my questions but the more does not answer
I will put first what I understand and then what I do not understand or I have doubts

I understand that, the TRIS limit should not be higher than 1,000 (1K), I also understand the textures and how the alpha channel is used for the team color, I understand that most of the animations that I have analyzed from the original versions of glest and its sequels are made with shape keys; up here all right!

what I do not understand and I did not find clear and specific information or that it was punctual and conclusive !!!

does not say what is the scale in maximum height of the model
It does not say if the objects that have 2 meshes or more in which some have animation should be related or not
it does not say if I can use the alpha channel in some other way or is reserved specifically to assign the team color
it does not say if I can use png files with transparency to fake false holes in structures
it does not say if there is any specific reason for human and humanoid figures to have their heads separated from the body, forming 2 meshes instead of 1 single mesh
I do not understand very well the concept of transparency in the textures, since I have observed the originals and besides being pixelated they are not completely solid even in places that are not the one assigned for the team color, as if they were 75% diffuse
I do not understand well if I can animate with bones and if this affects the export of blender to .G3D
there is no model or explanation of what is the minimum in proportions for models (showing mine as an example) so that the parts that form reliefs are visible and do not end up being useless geometry
I also did not find information about normal maps, ambient occlusion, or if I can use materials such as colors instead of textures
it also does not say how many degrees the model should rotate as I could see in the original

for the rest I assume some things like that you have to apply the scale, location, rotation to 1, that uv maps should be made, and generalizations of modeled and textured animation

also analyze an original model of glest, when importing it to blender it showed me that they used a diffuse material, with ambien specular 0.500, what in blender if it gives me a difference if I place it in 0.000, but I do not know if this affects in the engine the model display

Maybe they are questions that seem out of place or silly but in the end they are questions for me and if I answered the answers I would have better opportunities to contribute quality things to this community like Zeta Glest

[titi]

I updated the wiki, maybe it helps with some of the questions:
https://docs.megaglest.org/G3D_support

BTW: If the wiki is not up to date, please fix it and add missing things too! ( You can remove everyhting GAE/Glest related in the technical descriptions as thi is the MegagGlest only wiki now. )