Re: Loki files for banruptcy protection.

["Mark Collins" <m.collins@codeplay.com>]

> !!

You turning into nes8bit!?! (see the GameDev.Net forums for more info about
that)

> Systems like IK can certainly help with the animation - but not the
original
> modelling of the characters, props and scenery.  "Art can also be done
quite
> easily" is a ridiculous statement...as MANY people have said on this list
in
> MANY threads - Art is THE problem.
>
> But perhaps the multi-talented Nurgle is also a grade A artist as well as
> programmer, musician and writer?  Personally, I'm at most bi-talented and
> I know my limitations.

Well, as I mentioned later in my original email, I'm planning ondeveloping a
system that uses NURBS patches as well as IK. The advantage?

Instead of spending a large amount of time trying to model a character
face-by-face, you can use a define the control points more roughly, and let
the software work out what goes where. Whether you do this in realtime or
generate a more tradition mesh before the game actually starts (hell, you
can even do it at design time if you wanted) is up to you (I'd probably do
it when loadin the game, so the user can specify the detail level, a fast PC
can have a high-poly count, a slow PC can have a low-poly count).

This does have several HUGE benefits:

1) Shorter development times - If you incorporate a generic IK-skeleton
system, you only need to design the model using a small number of patches
(can be done with 4 for each segment of the skeleton if you're not too
concerned with detail), you can re-use the skeleton for different characters
(a skel. for bi-peds and a skel for quadra-peds).

2) As mentioned before, you can tailor the models for the end-users system,
add a degree of scalability and future-proofing to the game (imagine
developing a game now, and it still uses maximum polygons on a card that's
released in 5 years).

3) It just looks damn kewl, and imagine the marketing potential...

If you use a similar system for props and the levels (Quake III does it to
some degree), you can still reduce the total development cycle, and the
minimum-skill level required by a significant degree.

Of course, you'll need to have a good optimizing compiler to take advantage
of it (unless some bastard decides to make a chipset that does it in
hardware, which is only a matter of time).

Think about it...

Mark 'Nurgle' Collins
Developer Support - Codeplay Ltd.
http://www.codeplay.com