May I make as suggestion? You already have an algorithm to have something follow the ground (in like the main character in Legion), so use that first to translate to the position of your character. Then also store a thetaX (x rotation of the camera) and thetaY (y rotation of the camera). thetaZ would be 0. You increment or decrement thetaX when looking left and right, and increment and decrement thetaY when looking side to side. thetaZ would only change if you're going to make the person fall down sideways or something. You can then produce a rotation matrix using this formula. I use that to control the rotation of my plane in the game I'm making, and if I wanted to I could produce a matrix for the camera using the same algorithm.

Thanks, but I've got the math pretty much under control. I was *intending* to model the players as a lozenge -- a cylinder with sperical caps -- and have the player be a full kinematic object, but with trickery to keep him upright (except when falling, or when shocked by an explosion or whatever. during those situations the player would be more like a ragdoll ). The movement would be performed by applying forces for movement & jumping, and torque for rotation.

In principle, this worked. However, the spherical caps caused problems when moving on non-flat surfaces, causing the cylinder to rotate around its z axis.

I know I could "fake" it, but I want the player to be able to jump on a moving platform, say a rotating disc, and be translated with it's relative motion. Having that kind of functionality, but be faked, would be really hard and ODE ( the physics engine I''m using ) does this all for free...

I'm investigating other approaches now.

That said, I've hijacked this thread. Sorry.

WhatMeWorry Wrote:Say, is Maya considered a modeling program or is it more of a movie/special
effects program?

It does both really well. For 3D game development purposes it does modeling and animation pretty much better than anything else in the industry except maybe 3D Studio Max, but that's widely debated. For the Mac, you can't get anything better than Maya. The learning curve is a tad steep for beginners, but the results are superb and the tools are second to none. They have a free personal learning edition if you'd like to try it out and learn some of its features. Maya also has a built in c-like scripting system called MEL that will allow you to output data in your own game's format if you wish. There is also a plug-in SDK called Maya API, but it's a little tricky to work with. And oh yeah, it's really expensive. However, considering the hundreds, if not thousands of hours we spend coaxing pixels to do our bidding, the price can easily be justified if you can manage it.

AnotherJake, You sound like you know the modeling app-space -- can you recommend a modeling app for UV mapping? I personally find Wings3d "good enough" for modeling, but I don't find its UV mapper useful. Unfortunately, since I'm just doing this for fun, cost is an issue -- so Maya's out. I'd be willing to pay something reasonable, such as for Cheeta3d, provided it's any good.

The best I ever used was back in '96 on an SGI... I think it was called Amazon. Simply the best UV mapper I've ever used.

EDIT: A little googling and I see that the app is still around. http://www.ifx.com/amazon/
It really is an excellent program; it makes it really easy to deconstruct a complex model into the UV plane, and then paint ( like a 3d photoshop ) directly onto the model.

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:Thanks, but I've got the math pretty much under control. I was *intending* to model the players as a lozenge -- a cylinder with sperical caps -- and have the player be a full kinematic object, but with trickery to keep him upright (except when falling, or when shocked by an explosion or whatever. during those situations the player would be more like a ragdoll ). The movement would be performed by applying forces for movement & jumping, and torque for rotation.

In principle, this worked. However, the spherical caps caused problems when moving on non-flat surfaces, causing the cylinder to rotate around its z axis.

I know I could "fake" it, but I want the player to be able to jump on a moving platform, say a rotating disc, and be translated with it's relative motion. Having that kind of functionality, but be faked, would be really hard and ODE ( the physics engine I''m using ) does this all for free...

I'm investigating other approaches now.

That said, I've hijacked this thread. Sorry.

Is it possible to have a flat bottom and to apply a torque to it for knocking down etc.?

It may be hijacked, but the question was pretty much answered.

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:can you recommend a modeling app for UV mapping?

BodyPaint 3D is another option. I haven't used it much, but I've used Cinema4D and love it.

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:AnotherJake, You sound like you know the modeling app-space -- can you recommend a modeling app for UV mapping?

I'm no expert, but for free apps I seem to recall blender had some pretty decent UV mapping tools.

Blender, Wings3D are both free and allow UV mapping.

But I swear if I had $600 to spend, I'd probably pick up Luxology's modo.

Cheers.

i just visited their (luxology) website. some of those images look amazing. i really like the gui too.