Originally Posted by Arcanaville
![]() Very. Although I'm weaker on 3.x because I'm old and curmudgeny and 3.x can get off my 2.x lawn.
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An impossible thing we might have seen one day
Good, because I have no knowledge or mind for it. Do you think it would be possible to create a python script that could read CoH costume files and then - assuming there was a complete library of costume parts - create a model from that by pulling the parts from a designated library?
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Alternatively we could work collectively to capture and create a library of sorts using the OGLE method. The tedious part would be to create the skeleton and poses
I thought you worked on City of Data back in the day? (I don't know, I wasn't around then, just have some archived stuff). Or is that a big secret I wasn't supposed to let out?
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But I could nod when people asked me questions.
Iakona did it up to about Issue 9 when he more or less left and that's probably guessable. TopDoc outed himself publicly as the person that did it for most of the time up to now. There were a couple of people that did interim early builds around I12ish I think. I started looking in I10, when it became clear our primary resource (Iakona) was leaving.
Ironically I don't have I24 decoders, I fell behind. I was going to update them after I24 released, and since I knew the CoD people were looking at it and already making significant progress, I was planning of donating my root time calculator so CoD could show true root time.
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Using the sequencers to show a "power execution timeline" including root time was one of my goals for the eventual CoD redesign. I knew how to do it from, er, earlier work with the sequencers, just needed coding time to develop the interface for it and sync up the animation times with the power activation times. I assume that's what you were doing as well?
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The code to do it is amazingly ugly, because I was figuring out what things did at the same time I was figuring out how to decode.
I never thought to pull schema from the code, by the way.
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(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
PS to rednames/former rednames: If anything I'm posting recently is too far over the line, please PM me and I'll remove/redact it. Not sure which topics are still forbidden.
Just thought as we're getting to see behind the dev curtain a little in these trying times, some of them might get a bit of enjoyment out of reading what we were up to behind the scenes as well. I hope that they see people wanting to pick apart their work as the sign of admiration that it is rather than something else. Besides, I figure the forums will probably all get nuked eventually anyway... ![]() |
I also don't do this as a rule for other games, and I steered clear from it for a long time here. The only reason I did it was because I felt it was important to have a resource like Iakona, and I felt it improved my ability to bridge the communications gap between the devs and the players. The devs always knew, pretty much from day one, what I was doing and had they told me to stop, I would have stopped.
My ability to help the devs explain mechanics and powers design was enhanced greatly by the fact that in many ways my version of the powers database was better than theirs.
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>_>
Can I copy your notes!?
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Oh, one other thing. The pet project I never thought I would have the time to do, but maybe one day I might still do: write a program that takes Mids builds and PvPs them in a MyBrute-type simulation. In theory, I believe I know enough about the game mechanics to recreate a clock-accurate emulation of how the powers work. It would just take an immense amount of time to do it all correctly. But I do have access to the data to do it, right down to projectile speeds and FramesBeforeHit delays. Everything except ragdoll, basically.
My guess is that's about three thousand hours of work, assuming I had the Mids export format spec, for all powersets and invention slotting to be supported as well as all the actual animation times.
What I will probably do, soonish, is upload the code for my attack sim from the snipe thread and my old old old damage simulator from I7 into a dropbox folder so people can look at those and laugh at my extremely bad coding practices when I'm coding for just myself.
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I'm sure you're right.
Speaking of which, City of Data has been updated with the last I24 beta.
And back on topic, we do have some work on the model format -- enough to get triangles, material names, and UV mapping. The materials can be cross-referenced with tricks to get textures.
It's not complete -- in particular the bones aren't read yet, and animated parts aren't supported. I'm aware of one other individual who also was working on it, he may have gotten farther.
I'll try to get a post up (probably on titan forums for archival) with the details. You may still be better off ripping from the OpenGL driver since you'll be able to get something quicker than manually assembling the costume pieces.
The only things that can't be printed are the decal items - if you see the picture I posted of the male hero you'll see a squarish plate on his chest - that's where the Chest Detail decal went, and while it was mostly invisible it will export as a square plane.
So chest decals are lost in the export process. It is possible, however, to recreate them in a 3D format so that they can extrude from the chest and be visible in the printing process - but they wouldn't bend with the shape of the chest.
The only things that can't be printed are the decal items - if you see the picture I posted of the male hero you'll see a squarish plate on his chest - that's where the Chest Detail decal went, and while it was mostly invisible it will export as a square plane.
So chest decals are lost in the export process. It is possible, however, to recreate them in a 3D format so that they can extrude from the chest and be visible in the printing process - but they wouldn't bend with the shape of the chest. |
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
If they are modeled - like the skull chest details - then the geometry should export. If it is an image with transparency details, then no.
However, we could stencil some of the chest details and then create an extrusion from that - but as I said - if the chest is turning, twisting, or bending - then it won't really work. Unless you boolean the detail to the chest and then pose it.
*smiles and nods* M'hmm...
God I wish I knew what all that meant.
I'm determined to, though. So I'll be making demo recordings of my favorites. Especially some Beta demos, since I loved the Corsair pieces.
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Does this go for Clockwork Chest details and Celestial Chest details?
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![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2ENw7YCQAI8-9f.png:large)
The guy in the back on the right side used Radiant Ascension armor IIRC and where the glowing pieces were exported as the object the transparent decal was mapped to. I had taken the floating detail off of his one shoulder but not the other and you can still see it floating.
![](https://p.twimg.com/A2AC186CcAAvf_h.png:large)
In a later render attempt I did some more removal of floating pieces that required decals.
We could, however, find the texture for that decal, stencil it and then bend it into that shape - but we could need to create posts that would anchor it to the model for printing purposes.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Rendering an animation currently of how figures could be posted on a stand with a character name. Should be done in a few hours (630 frames - 360 rotation)
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You know, after all these years of reading your posts Arcanaville, I thought I had a pretty good estimate of how awesome you are. Now I find out that I was off by an entire order of magnitude. Wow.
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Very. Although I'm weaker on 3.x because I'm old and curmudgeny and 3.x can get off my 2.x lawn.
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![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
There I was between a rock and a hard place. Then I thought, "What am I doing on this side of the rock?"
Actually it's rendering wickedly fast. It's rendering each frame at 0.06 so it should take about 40 minutes to an hour.
Blender also offers some interesting options - like fracture. So you could get the effect of the character fracture the ground (or pedestal) they stand on - or a wall.
It occurred to me you could render what would be L shaped scenes - a backdrop and a floor "scene" area with your character in it - or in action. These would be small to print, though.
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