Adding clothes to characters?

wackedoutbiker · Post by **wackedoutbiker** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:38 pm

Is there a way to customize a character by adding or removing clothes and items kind of like in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? They have a very good system for adding and removing clothing and weapons for your custom characters.

Does anyone have that kind of system in their game or want it?

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:10 pm

I'd say we have that to an extent right now, via the character selection menu. You have to define you possible characters in the character.ini file, and then have them available for use in the media\actors file.

This is the chracter.ini file:

[Nout]
image = virgil.bmp
actorname = virgil.act
actorrotation = -90 180 0
actorscale = 1.4
animationspeed = 1
attributefile = player.ini
startlevel = basic.bsp

[Daniel]
image = virgil_red.bmp
actorname = virgil_red.act
actorrotation = -90 180 0
actorscale = 1.4
; optional entries
animationspeed = 1
;shadowsize =
;shadowalpha =
;shadowbitmap =
;shadowalphamap =
;projectedshadows =
;stencilshadows =
fillcolor = 32 32 32
ambientcolor = 0 0 0
ambientlightfromfloor = true
;weaponfile =
attributefile = player.ini
playersetupfile =
environmentfile =
hudfile =
;speed =
;jumpspeed =
;stepheight =
;slopeslide =
;slopespeed =
startlevel = rftechv1.bsp
;playerstartname =

You would give your player a title like [whackedoutbiker], then define him by the image that will show up on the player selection screen, the act file to be used, etc. You'd just have to model each player the way you want them dressed and so forth. Each one would be added below the ones you see above. I don't know if there is a limit to how many you can put in there or not.

I know there is an actmaterial entity that can change textures on the fly, but I have never used it. This is in game and may be? manipluated by script. I'm not sure.

wackedoutbiker · Post by **wackedoutbiker** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:09 pm

Well, I was actually thinking of having a menu where you pull items out of your inventory and apply them to your character (such as slots for a shirt, jacket, pants or skirt, shoes, armor, other stuff, etc.) so the player can customize the character's appearance with just about any possession(s) they happen to find.

The apparel menu is somewhere in the images section here.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/the ... index.html

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:56 am

I kind of thought that is what you meant. I believe that would require a bit of programming before it could just be accessed by an ini file, if I am not mistaken. QOD or Andy would be qualified to answer this question.

I know that character selection the way it is is a pretty recent development.

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:47 am

In fact this can be done with scripting. I've worked on an RPG recently and the biggest problem was the inventory and arming different weapons. I had to script the whole thing and it was one heck of a job... but it works fine now.

Basically my system works like this:

There's four pawns attached to the main character (he's a pawn too, but this can be done with the built-in player too... I suppose). One for helmet, one for armor and one for both hands. They animate and move with the player. These pawns check what items are armed in the "inventory controller" -pawn and react accordingly. I've got all my weapons and other stuff defined as 'pawn weapons' in the pawn.ini and the attached pawns just change their 'weapons' when new items are armed. You could make dozens of these kind of pawns if you wanted. One for shoulder pads, one for pants, one for gloves etc etc...

I'm not sure if you understood that but I'm tellin' ya, I've got that kind of system.

Here's some screens of my game.
viewtopic.php?t=1157

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:24 am

So, how would it work to set up a character before the game runs? Would it set these items in inventory, then load the correct player/pawn accordingly?

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:43 am

Sorry, I didn't get it. Explain a bit, please.

steven8 · Post by **steven8** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:06 am

Okay, what we want to achieve here is like the character selection screen before the game starts. Only ,we want to be able to pick the player, and what they are wearing or their armor or such. This would be done, I assume, before the game or during the game. I have been operating in 'before the game' mind mode, but now that I read whackedoutbiker's first post, I believe he wants to do it in game as well. or maybe just only.

Heck, I have confused myself. Your inventory system seems to be just what he wants. I am just wondering if we could apply it to the before game selection as well.

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:20 am

Well, I am almost 100% sure that my system wouldn't work like that since it's completely based on scripts... and as you know a level needs to be loaded before any pawn script is executed.

wackedoutbiker · Post by **wackedoutbiker** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:19 pm

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. But is there a way to make it so that the character is rendered on the side so that I can see what my character will look like in the game? (kind of a mini actor viewer or whatever-sorry, I've been out of the game for so long I don't remember anything)

I want to use this in conjunction with the character selection thing to make a variety of possible choices without having to make too many character models...those things take me a long time, even with a template!

So basically I want to make the clothes as separate models...yes, this is correct. Got a demo of your system Juutis?

Juutis · Post by **Juutis** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:30 am

Mini actor viewer, ay? The only solution I can think of is prerendered graphics. It would be possible to draw a prerendered picture of the the character on the screen and then draw prerendered pictures of the clothes on him.

I'm hoping to be able to put up a demo game of my RPG in a couple of months. Nothing is sure though...

wackedoutbiker · Post by **wackedoutbiker** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:59 pm

Well, that would work out fine...I would definitely use something like that. And hopefully attributes would change as I pile on Armor and other objects.