Cloth sim experiments...

[DT.]

What I'm going to do is import ALL the source animations into 3ds Max 8 and save out scene files to kick this off. 90 down, 1,030+ to go.

[eezstreet]

Hmm. Has it ever crossed anyone's mind to use the G2API functions (the ragdoll ones in particular) to simulate cloth physics?

(@@Xycaleth/@@Raz0r)

[Pande]

What's gonna happen with the backflip animations? (blinding yourself with your cape)

[DT.]

There are of course a few animations that would require some manual keying in certain places. I have the simulation blended with skin weights to keep it from free flowing out of control.

[Archangel35757]

What 3dsMax Cloth plugin are you using?

[DT.]

The stock standard cloth seems to give the best results. I've tried reactor & APEX, but they aren't working to my liking.

[Archangel35757]

Try SimCloth3 v1.84 for 3dsMax 8 from Chaos Group (search for it on maxplugins.de)... better yet, here is the direct download link:

 

http://www.spot3d.com/simcloth/files/simcloth3.rar

 

They also made a "cloth mesh" object (ClothMesh v3.0) to use with it... get it here:  http://www.spot3d.com/simcloth/files/SimCloth_2.53_for_3dsmax_R6R7.zip

 

The source code for the plugin is here: http://www.spot3d.com/simcloth/download.html

 

Note:  All of these links are on maxplugins.de

 

One question/concern I have is... how might this cloth object impact the bounding box of the player?  What if you do a spin move near a wall or crate object, etc. and your cape collides with it?

[DT.]

bounding box:

 

I don't think it will be a problem at all. Afaik, the bounding box is the entire player model, not just individual parts. However, I'll let a coder give a definitive answer about this.

 

 

simcloth 3:

 

Tried simcloth 3, made things a lot more difficult tbh and didn't exactly work. The cloth modifier is working very well, so I see no need to swap it out with something else.

[Xycaleth]

Bounding box shouldn't be a problem. The cloth will just go straight through any walls or crate objects - there won't be any additional collision checking for it. As DT said, the game only uses a standard bounding box for collision detection against the map.

[DT.]

Here's a test of both_walk1 using cloth sim baked onto the bones:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nEv3J-PTDw

 

 

This skeleton has:

 

- 7 cape bones (5 center, 2 on each side at the bottom)

- 2 front flap bones (down the center)

- 2 back flap bones (down the center)

- new set of facial bones (complete with all redone animations and others ie sad, angry, etc)

- original facial bones for compatibility (only animated for all the baseJKA animations, not the new expressions I've made)

- all 5 fingers with 3 segments

- toes

 

Removed bones:

 

- ltail & rtail

 

BaseJKA rigged models can still use this, provided there is a conversion table in the code. But without re-rigging, models won't have access to facial animations or any cloth simulation.

[Futuza]

Yay!  Pretty cape.

[katanamaru]

So I love everything you did there, but why did you remove the facial bones? I know you are making new and better one, so would these conflict with the older ones? I'm just thinking about all the existing models that won't be rerigged like the base models or very popular models like Obi and Ani.

[DT.]

I had to make room for the new facial bones in terms of naming. I suppose I could add them back for compatibility and rename the new ones with _new on the end.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Revised my above post.

[katanamaru]

Thanks for doing that! Now we don't have to worry about characters all the sudden using "Force Mind Speak" in cinematics.

[Omicron]

I'm tool lazy too read all these posts, but is the new _humanoid model thingy that you were working on having these cape bones and stuff on it?

[DT.]

Yes.

 

So far I've done both_walk1, both_run1 and all the facial animations (due to new facial bones). All the other animations work, just the cape & the tabard flaps are not moving.

[Archangel35757]

Here's a test of both_walk1 using cloth sim baked onto the bones:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nEv3J-PTDw

 

 

This skeleton has:

 

- 10 cape bones (5 left, 5 right)

- 2 front flap bones (down the center)

- 2 back flap bones (down the center)

- new set of facial bones (complete with all redone animations and others ie sad, angry, etc)

- original facial bones for compatibility (only animated for all the baseJKA animations, not the new expressions I've made)

- all 5 fingers with 3 segments

- toes

 

Removed bones:

 

- ltail & rtail

 

BaseJKA rigged models can still use this, provided there is a conversion table in the code. But without re-rigging, models won't have access to facial animations or any cloth simulation.

Why remove the tailbones??? Why not just use them in your cloak or for backside tunic or tabbards??? Seems like they would be handy when a character is riding a vehicle or sitting down...

[DT.]

Those tail bones can't do anything that the cape & tabard bones can't do better.

 

When in a vehicle, I'll "stuff" the majority of the cape right behind the back so no odd clipping happens (can't have free flowing cape as the actual player animation is pretty much static).

[katanamaru]

What about adding more frames to the riding animation? That's how I make breathing and leg up positions. Make two frames of the character sitting then add some frames between them that are set to blend. Then just edit the cape bones.

[Archangel35757]

I plan to keep the tail bones in my character rig.

[Grab]

Someone test it with Alora's tentacles.

[Lamented]

Someone test it with Alora's tentacles.

 

LEKKU.

 

THEY ARE LEKKU!!!!!!!

 

But ya agreed.

[DT.]

I haven't added any lekku bones, and don't really want to.

 

With some good weighting, they *should* work with the cape bones.

[Omicron]

LEKKU.

 

THEY ARE LEKKU!!!!!!!

 

But ya agreed.

They are still tentacles.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twi'lek

 

"... and a pair of shapely prehensile tentacles that grew from the base of their skulls."

[Psyk0Sith]

After months of neglect i started poking around the files again and now have the starting base for this thing to become a reality, unless @@DT85 has this all figured out already .

 

My new GLA doesn't contain new cloth bones yet, only 51 bones of the 53 "stock" ones (plus i'll need to add bolts and caps to the root.xsi). It's basically a recompile of the 21375 frames into an alternate GLA. As expected this alternate version can't be loaded in the game. The only confirmation i get this is working, is from the Ja plus menu character selection, i can see the dummy model walking like the others and when i take out the new .gla the game crashes at startup...but everything looks ok in modview. I want to test and make sure this rig will behave normally before i move further and add the new bones to it. Any coders willing to help with this hurdle?