Animated Models, seqs vs singlemesh
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Animated Models, seqs vs singlemesh
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| I did a system to handle seqs and single model animations. But, I was wondering what is better for speed? is there a disadvantage with LoadAnimSeq? What do you prefer? Also what is file format is better for animations and bone support? .x, .3ds, or .b3d? |
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| What do you mean with single model animations ? For bone support, go with .b3d, it seems to be a common format. Sometimes, it could be a bit tricky to get the meshes to animate. You have to find the bones and then animate them instead of the entire mesh, but it can be done. |
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| Single model animations means that all the animations are in one model. |
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| .x, .3ds do not allow animation in blitz3d, only b3d or md2, but then md2 does not have bones. Neither will have an impact on speed, unless you mean speed of loading - and you usually should not perform any 'load' commands during gameplay. LoadAnimSeq lets you load in only those sequences that you need though so if you have various animation sequences which will not get played in particular 'levels'/etc then there is no need to use up any memory loading them in. |
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| As Matty states .b3d is the only format for Blitz3d that supports skeletal animation. There is no real advantage to keeping your animation in seperate sequence files except for better management of your animation. Keeping your animation in seperate standard .b3d files will in fact increase the size of your media because every .b3d file contains the entire mesh - even if you don't need the mesh information - its always there. You can save space using the sequence export function in PaceMaker. This .seq file only contains the bones and the animation frames - no mesh, vertex, tris, textures etc. This can be renamed to a .b3d and used directly in Blitz3d with the LoadAnimSeq() command - very fast. (It will also work with a standard LoadAnimMesh() but will be invisible as it contains no mesh !) Another reason to keep the sequences seperate is in order to share animation between different models. |
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| quote: .x, .3ds do not allow animation in blitz3d, only b3d or md2... this may be misunderstood - you can have animations with 3ds and x, but only dx7 compilant socalled rotate-scale-move animation on child objects, no bones an vertex deformation as with b3d. |
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