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| Update 3/23/12 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 24 2013, 01:15 PM (183 Views) | |
| Lucas | Mar 24 2013, 01:15 PM Post #1 |
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Chief Programmer
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Hey everyone. I apologize for posting this update a bit late, but I was pretty busy yesterday and it just completely escaped my mind. I was able to get a decent amount of work done this week. I gave up on the export script since my knowledge of Blender's internal python library is very limited and there is not a lot of documentation. However, I did find a nice file format that supports animation very well: DirectX (.x). In contrast to the old files we used (Wavefront .obj) for mesh and animation data, DirectX files are much more structured and compact. With Wavefront files, exporting an animation resulted in hundreds of files (depending on animation length) while a DirectX files holds it all in one nice file. Wavefront files do not support armatures or vertex groups, which are required for memory-efficient animation. DirectX files do. Wavefront files also had one very nasty property about themselves: texture coordinates were not exported on a per-vertex basis. Why is this important? Right now, the game uses VBO's, one of OpenGL's most advanced rendering structures. However, vertices passed to the VBO can only have 1 vertex property (x, y, z), 1 normal (nx, ny, nz), and 1 texture coord (u, v). Thus, any one vertex cannot have more than one texture coord. Wavefront files export 2 or even 3 texture coordinates per vertex, and a few months ago I tried developing an algorithm to "separate" the vertices and texture coordinates, but that algorithm is extremely tough to solve. Switching to DirectX files has solved this problem entirely. On the flip side though, DirectX files do have a couple drawbacks. They do not split quads or n-faces up into triangles upon exporting (we use triangles since they are faster to render than quads). They also take the whole "no multiple texture coordinates per vertex" to the extreme. Even if two vertices share all the same attributes (coords, normals, and uvs), if the vertices belongs to two different faces (triangles), they are not merged. Why is this important? About 5 (guessing) months ago I wrote the code that enabled models in the game to utilize vertex indexing, which allows for the reuse of vertices and this saves memory (not a huge effect on FPS). While this is not a huge concern, it does mean that the models will not be as efficient in memory as they were before. In any matter, I now have everything set up for texturing models and for animating them. I just gotta write the code ![]() Till next week! |
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View the progress of the game here! RockSplitStudios.com My Blog | |
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| Delfer8 | Mar 25 2013, 11:55 AM Post #2 |
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It sounds good , congratulations and good luck with the next.
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The first step to be nice at something is be a shit at something. Realise your dreams, it's hard but awesome
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| TwentyThree | Mar 26 2013, 01:15 PM Post #3 |
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I agree with Delfer, congratulations! Goodluck as you keep goin! |
| Leaf frog is watching you | |
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| Rozn | Mar 27 2013, 01:21 PM Post #4 |
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It has a pulse! (Kinda) |
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, congratulations and good luck with the next.

8:17 PM Jul 10