Smug person alert!

**Bwian** · 08-10-2005, 20:23

Yes..I am feeling a bit on the smug side! I have just found a way to make fully animated rolling wheels for my 'something different' robot mod!

It's a simple dodge which I can use on any skeleton to make a rolling wheel instead of a leg, and it looks SO sweet on the test model! I have got it working nicely in MAx and now need to build myself a new skeleton with animations to get it working in RTW.

It's a cheat..but might come in handy for those intent on making vehicles. Here's how it works:

Step one...make your wheel.

Step 2...align the hub of the wheel with the knee joint on a leg. Can be a 2 or 4 legged skeleton..it really doesn't matter.

Step 3... assign all the vertices in the wheel to the lower leg. Each wheel can go on the one leg, or you can have a pair on a common axle as long as the rotation point is aligned to the knee joint.

Now, all you do is rotate the knee joint through a few degrees each frame. Nothing to stop you going past the normal angle of a joints scope. Then just move the beast forward a small step each frame too, and you have a rolling object! This has opened up a whole realm of new possibilities for this mod if I can make the game engine play it nicely. Now...lets see if I can get it into game

**Epistolary Richard** · 08-11-2005, 09:55

Hey, smuggie! Pictures? Video clips?

**Bwian** · 08-11-2005, 13:10

Pictures aren't really showing it...but I will have a go

The main thing is, as far as makers of 'odd' models are concerned is that the RTW engine does not seem to be fussy about the way you move bones. If it can be rotated...do it!

I hope to get some pictures posted...and if I can work out how to do videos..well...I might do that too!

**Professor420** · 08-11-2005, 14:47

Have you gotten the animations working ingame correctly? Aren't you required to give new information for the legs for every single animation (eventually for a variety of skeletons)?

**Bwian** · 08-11-2005, 14:59

Prof...yes, there is a requirement to set up a full set of animations, but you simply generate a new skeleton ( which I have called fs_wheel ) and apply the new animations to that. Then you just tell the model to use fs_wheel. The way I am using it on a mono-wheel droid, the top half is fairly static as well. To make things more detailed will require a lot of animation work, but it isn't that hard on a droid....you are not, after all, having to simulate the action of a human being...just making it move the way I want it to

For static actions and fighting, there isn't much need to move the wheel...though I might make it move backwards and forwards.

I would like to add extra bones to the skeleton...but I don't believe this is possible

**Duke John** · 08-11-2005, 17:09

...wasn't that the most obvious solution?

I guess that you already know now that four wheeles are also easy to achieve by using horses. And 8 wheels if you use the left foreleg for the first pair of wheels, the right foreleg for the second pair, left hindleg for the third,etc.

**Bwian** · 08-11-2005, 17:57

It's an obvious solution....yes. But it wasn't obvious to me until I started messing about with skeletons and realised there was no reason why the movement should be limited to what a human being can do....

This also means I could make a decent 'giant serpent' for the Hyborean mod Stygians using just the backbone trunk and tail of an elephant. The more I think about it...the more possibilities I am seeing!

Also..for robots... making a wheel anim is a LOT easier than trying to make a realistic walking anim! NExt project will be a 4-wheeled 'gun platform' with turret on top...

**Duke John** · 08-12-2005, 08:50

Why don't you make some of your robots hoover? Add a humming sound and perhaps some bright semitransparent exhaust fumes and it has enough believablility.

**lt1956** · 08-12-2005, 18:54

Are you making a terminator mod? :-)))

Lt

**Bwian** · 08-12-2005, 20:27

Sort of...but not exactly ~:D

**quadrille** · 08-28-2005, 12:25

I thought along the same lines for our warhammer mod. Dwarves in warhammer are very short yet shoulder broad and I think I've figured out the perfect way to do them!

The concept is simple. Instead of using the thigh bones as thighs, they make new hips for the dwarf so that, in practice, the legs start with the lower leg (which is animated as a thigh). The foot bone is used for the lower leg and foot. Same thing with the arms, the upper arms make new (broad) shoulders, while the elbow and hand joints are used for the actual arm. The spine (pelvis - abs - torso) is zig-zagged to get the shoulders in the right place I have yet to try this out in game but in max it looks awesome! I'm so happy

With a little creativity and imagination, you can create almost any humanoid creature this way! (of course you need all-new animations, but still!).

**Bwian** · 08-28-2005, 14:06

Attaching weapons is a bit trial and error too... but there is no reason why what you are doing won't work in game. It does require a whole new set of anims, but the game engine really doesn't care HOW you bend the joints...

The only limitations left are those inherent in the number of bones we actually have, and the positions of the joints realtive to each other. These you can't mess about with ( or, at least, I haven't got it to work when I did ) but with careful model planning, lots of things are possible

Also... don't worry about zig-zagging the spine...that won't be a problem. Again..though, it does mean you have to make a FULL set of animations for every model type, but when you do variants, it isn't so bad.