Costumes! :D Who? What? Huh?
That's how Ghost Widow's works.
Yeah Ghost Widow has been serving as a sort of in-game beta test for a long "hair cape" for years now.
I think the main reason why it hasn't transferred down to players yet is that the Devs are concerned about using one of their limited body model animation "anchor" points for this. This is the same reason why we haven't gotten much in the way of robes or loincloth type items either. They have mentioned for years that their current body models are being pushed to the limits of what they can do. Since Ghost Widow is a unique NPC they can better control what it does with her specific animations.
They've probably also decided that it'd be a combination of "too much processing" on individual clients and "too much bandwidth" to send that data around to everyone else to make it worthwhile. Just imagine how rough it would be on the servers if you got like 15 or 20 long animated haired characters standing next to each other. That extra load is probably a real server lag issue to be concerned about.
Bottomline I'd love to have long animated hair styles for my characters.
I'm just not going to assume it'll happen anytime soon.
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Animations are handled client side, and really, any graphics lag experienced would be no worse than the same number of people having capes. The game handles that just fine, and it would handle head capes just fine too.
Time the devs stopped worrying about low end machines. If necessary, enable it only for rigs running in ultra-mode.
@FloatingFatMan
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Metaphorically speaking, if there was only 1 anchor point left, I'd choose something else over this. I don't have very many female toons and honestly, no ones going to be paying attention to your hair ladies. When a trial is being formed I'm not going to look around at people thinking "oh hey, I like their hair".
Not saying its not a good idea. It would be a nice something extra to have. But thats really all it is. What this game really needs are robes. Actual leg coverings. Think circle of thorns. Which would translate into dresses for the females. Win/win
Come to think of it, we already have a cape-animated hairstyle for players: the bridal veil. Realizing that, there's not really an excuse not to let us have the option of hair that works like both versions of Belladonna Vetrano's... those of us who want to wear some other cape costume part can just stick with the same non-animated long styles we've always used.
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Metaphorically speaking, if there was only 1 anchor point left, I'd choose something else over this. I don't have very many female toons and honestly, no ones going to be paying attention to your hair ladies. When a trial is being formed I'm not going to look around at people thinking "oh hey, I like their hair".
Not saying its not a good idea. It would be a nice something extra to have. But thats really all it is. What this game really needs are robes. Actual leg coverings. Think circle of thorns. Which would translate into dresses for the females. ![]() |
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
also, taking a closer look at the new talons of vengence banshee costumes and their long skirts, which are different it *seems* from the old CoT and Tsoo lower body robes in construction, i'd say that those arent too far off
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
Come to think of it, we already have a cape-animated hairstyle for players: the bridal veil. Realizing that, there's not really an excuse not to let us have the option of hair that works like both versions of Belladonna Vetrano's... those of us who want to wear some other cape costume part can just stick with the same non-animated long styles we've always used.
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RIGHT! i mentioned the bridal veil specifically because it's totally the same thing
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
TBH, though I wouldn't mind animated hair, the one thing I'd like above ALL others, is new character meshes and new skin texture maps.
The current ones are way old and horrible, and REALLY let down the overall look of the game when compared against newer content.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Animations are handled client side, and really, any graphics lag experienced would be no worse than the same number of people having capes. The game handles that just fine, and it would handle head capes just fine too.
Time the devs stopped worrying about low end machines. If necessary, enable it only for rigs running in ultra-mode. |
Unfortunately in the real world the Devs actually do need to still worry about the so-called "low end" machines because I think you'll find that a vast majority of people still play this game on "adequate" machines or less.
Your idea about making hair capes "work only for rigs running in ultra-mode" is a possible compromise solution, but even then they would have to come up with acceptable "low rez static" versions of these hair-dos to stand in for those people who couldn't see the animated versions. That alone makes the implementation of these things that much more complicated and prohibitive.
Come to think of it, we already have a cape-animated hairstyle for players: the bridal veil. Realizing that, there's not really an excuse not to let us have the option of hair that works like both versions of Belladonna Vetrano's... those of us who want to wear some other cape costume part can just stick with the same non-animated long styles we've always used.
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That's very much an "apples and oranges" scenario you're trying to equate here.
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Oh I'm all for the idea of the Devs "forgetting" about having to support low end machines. I'm sure the desktop I play this game on with its GeForce GTX 580 GPU and 12gb of RAM could handle "hair capes" very easily.
Unfortunately in the real world the Devs actually do need to still worry about the so-called "low end" machines because I think you'd find that a vast majority of people play this game on "adequate" machines or less. |
For what it's worth the "bridal veils" are much, much simpler to implement animation-wise than realistic looking hair. The veils are a single "sheet" of material whereas hair would have to be made up of hundreds (if not thousands) of elements to look realistic. That's very much an "apples and oranges" scenario you're trying to equate here. |
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Metaphorically speaking, if there was only 1 anchor point left, I'd choose something else over this. I don't have very many female toons and honestly, no ones going to be paying attention to your hair ladies. When a trial is being formed I'm not going to look around at people thinking "oh hey, I like their hair".
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And? Are you implying that there *IS* some costume item that will have an impact when forming trials and they should use the last anchor point for that? The anchor point pertains ONLY to costumes and has no impact on game mechanics. If you have a better use to suggest, please do. But to mention trial teams is just being silly.
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Never said costume pieces dictate how a trial is formed. Only mentioned that while standing around in a group while whoever has star is handling business I wouldnt be looking around at everyone's hair. AND, if you would have looked at the next group of sentences and taken 2 seconds to read the whole of my post I mentioned not only is the hair idea not a bad one, but also suggested a "better" use for an anchor point if there was only one left to use, which there isnt.
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No, it isn't. At the very least it's much more complicated than the bridal veils. The veils are effectively "capes attached to the back of a head". The Belladonna Vetrano/Ghost Widow hair is very much unique and different from that.
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Also, I've seen people use one of the long tattered capes, colored the same shade as their chosen hair, deliberately clipping into their long hairstyles to extend the hair even longer while adding animation. It ends up looking pretty good for a hashed-together thing, the only problems being the visible seam where static hair model meets physics-enabled cape model (solvable by making the two into one part - the Magic Bolero illustrates that nicely with its lack of a seam at the waist) and the fact that the cape is only an approximation of hair rather than actually detailed and created to look like hair from the start.
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How so? It looks like a single sheet to me, with individual locks defined by alpha transparency. Can you provide a diagram?
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Next time you play the game closely compare Ghost Widow's hair to the bridal veil. If you're still willing to call both of them equivalent in terms of shape and animation complexity then I'm willing to allow you to think of a good reason why the Devs have allowed one of these things to be used by players for years and the other not. I almost can't wait to see what your rationale for that has been.
![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
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I think we're all missing the critical point here. Who is THAT on the right-hand side of the OP's picture? Let's all focus on what is important, here!
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I'm not convinced that the hair capes would be a problem for low-end machines anymore than regular capes are now.
I would personally love to see the hair cape implemented for flowing hair. Half of all my women characters have long hair, and I would love to see hairstyles that are long and flowing. Or at least hairstyles that don't clip into their breasts.
TPN trial guide video / MoM trial guide video / DD trial guide video / BAF trial guide video
/ Lambda trial guide video / Keyes trial guide video / Magisterium trial guide video / Underground trial guide
So since Zwill finally closed the costume reques thread... I hope they put up a new one soon!
I know Tunnel Rat and Honey Badger make Fx for powers and auras, and Dink does a bunch of costume stuff...
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
and once it's done the hair-cape could also probably work as a new fur-cape option too.
![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
![](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5327/7071065499_b036c691f8_b.jpg)
Also, I hope that they go through the old one and catalog or make a spreadsheet of all the requests and mark them off as: already in game for players, in for NPCs (to be converted/remain restricted), what costume group, impossible to make, will make later, making right now... along with potential categories for groups like Science/Magic/Dino/Ent/Spectral/Tech/etc.
heck i'd happily complie it all for them if they are willing to look at it and give it to whomever it concerns to render. Who's in charge of it now?
anyway, I did want to just mention that there is still a lack of good long hair. for me, glam is used a lot for long hair, but it's bulky on top and skinny on the bottom, and doesnt fullfill my needs. right now Tielekku has the best hair after ghost widow/belladonna vetrano, but their hair is all straight-like and it's more the cape part that makes it lovely.
i'd like to suggest a long hair option or three O_o more using the attatched cape option for a long, moving hair item. seeing as how cape/back pieces can be blocked with other pieces, including the already cape-hair veil piece, this shouldnt bee too difficult beyond the work needed to make a new hair option and a new cape option
i am no 3-D artist but here is my suggestion, which is basically a new, long, pretty, curly, thicker but not awkward like glam, hair option. i'd also open it up to males too as this in white along with the big bushy beard could give Zeus a very powerful look.
this also might be accomplished with an opaque tendril like aura giving medusoid hair in a billowy trail attatched to the back of the head, similar to DC's Starfire.
anyway, here's my mock up for... you know... GOOD hair.
hair by babydavidj, on Flickr