noob questions =)

[jtassinari]

Hello there,

i'm a noob here and this is my first post...
I hope to write in the correct session of the forum 

I have  a few questions to better understand GLB.
I read a lot of the support files,but still I'm missing something... So here I come out with a few requests.... 
I've tried to convert a Blender animated mesh into a DDA file (the plugin/script is quite old, i've needed to get blender 2.49b to make it works, any update planned?) and then in a DDD with the 3d file converter, but got nowhere, the application stood there for a while, then i got tired and terminated it...  (Maybe i can only convert files within the IDE)

Then with the dda file I could load in a Prj, I wander about the chance to load a signle shape (animated) and have the execution of single frame-set as actions as a subset of the whole animation, something like

Code (glbasic) Select Expand


Action% = x_ObjAnimate MyObj#, StartFrame#, EndFrame#, FrameRate#, PlayVerso#

// with (x_ObjAnimate or any other command i haven't seen...):

// MyObj# => my loaded animated shape (string or number)
// StartFrame#, EndFrame# => subset of all the animate sequence
// FrameRate# => animation speed (could be a k# vs FPS relation) 
// PlayVerso#: 1 => loop, 2 => just once, 3 => ping-pong, 4 => reverse

Jump = x_ObjAnimate 1, 100, 200, 30, 1

(ok, here i got the answer browsing some example with X_DRAWANIM)

Another question is about DDA and DDD what's the difference? is it normal that a DDA of 3000 frames is 50MB or should i save each of the more than 3000 frame one by one? How can i covert it in a DDD of 3000 frame?  Is there any chance to use B3D file in GLB?
And a bit more...



(on w-xp-pro 32bit sp3, 4 gb ram, NVidia GS 840)

thanks everyone,
cheers,

jTassinari

[MrTAToad]

I wander about the chance to load a signle shape (animated) and have the execution of single frame-set as actions as a subset of the whole animation, something like

For that you would set up an array of starting and ending frames

Another question is about DDA and DDD what's the difference

DDA is the text version of the 3D data, and thus can be very large

is it normal that a DDA of 3000 frames is 50MB

Thats a lot of animation there.  Its certainly possible for DDA files to be that large.

should i save each of the more than 3000 frame one by one

Would be time consuming

How can i covert it in a DDD of 3000 frame?

Save as a DDD file, but dont tick the "1 frame" option

Is there any chance to use B3D file in GLB?

Nope

AC3D is the officially supported 3D modelling package - you could get better results with that

[jtassinari]

Thanks for your reply Mr. TAToad,

some of them helped me alot, even if i would admit that the description in the features page of GLB has sound a bit differet when i saw it a couple of days ago before i bought GLB...

AC3D is the officially supported 3D modelling package - you could get better results with that

...
Works with all Common 3D Formats (3ds, md2, md3, ac3d, blender, x)
...
File Exporter for AC3D and Blender3D
...
from the features page of GLB.

While now (i do not know why it works) I have been able to export a 190kb  .Blend (and 130 b3d) file in a 22mb .DDA file and a 39MB .DDD 

About the chance to load a single file with all the animation seq at once was an idea, as I created a blend file with all differect actions...
Maybe it could be better to split the file in many action in files and then load them one by one when needed if the loading is fast enought... maybe? any suggestion?

Cheers,

jTassinari

[MrTAToad]

Its possible the DDD format is inefficient

Maybe it could be better to split the file in many action in files and then load them one by one when needed if the loading is fast enought... maybe?

Maybe - although it would be better to load them in one go.

[matchy]

3000 frames an experiment or actually required? Also sounds like an animation scene not a gaming object.
What's the frame polycount?

[jtassinari]

Thanks MrTAToad,
Porbably i'd use the dda file format 
And Matchy, 3000 (or a bit more) are the frame i used to describe some of the movement of a sailing boat.
Actually i reduced it to 400, and got a 39mb ddd file. 

The 400 frames presents the movement of the ship and of the salis according to the wind direction and boat balance (2000 polies).



Cheers,

jTassinari

[matchy]

That's cool as I suppose it's not a real-time simulation.

[matchy]

no, that can't be a sim, as single masted sloops don't have their mast that far aft...

It's got nothing to do with my knowledge of yachts. My point is that if it were, the 3D file can be much, much smaller and the wind (for example) can be created in run-time.

[jtassinari]

Hi Matchy,

as you suggested, the wind would be calculated in realtime as an angle from the front of the boat as -179, 0, 1, 180 to say back-left-front-right-back.

I thought that the shape would not be simulated as morphing but pre compliled

cheers,

jTassinari

[matchy]

How about textures? I'd also imagine the sails could be 3D real-time, or at least have internal flexibility as to give the sail material wind bumps effect (wind speed rather than direction). This is an alternative the quicker bump texture maps, which would be the same for the water.

[jtassinari]

Hi there again.

Here is a sequnce of an animation i did using blender. It's actually a fisrt study on the boxer movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RXMdQE9IMY&feature=player_embedded
Of course each movement leed back to the startin pose, so that i can jump from a set of action to another without running all frames.
The leff jab is defined in frame 1-20 (1 to 10 go, 11-20 return) and so on.
Almost the same is done for the sails of the boat...

By now the first part of my prj is to able to have a usable dda/ddd, to load in a "working" sample,
then to have light and showods (and textures) even if actually I have painted the polies.... (dda/ddd support poly-paints??)

Of course In a second (or even farrer step) i'll do a  better and more usable shape
and of corse some sounds, some target to reach and some prize to win

Good Wind

Cheers,
jTassinari

ps: And here another question... Can i use shapes defined in squares rather then in triangles? This would make models to be half the polies.

[matchy]

When I converted animated cycle of a3D running man with about 20 frames, using 3D Studio Max but other editors will do, I found that most times it worked best to export each frame separately as .obj files than used those to stitch up a .ddd file in GLB tools keeping all the correct texture mapping (regardless how the bmp is created, ei. "poly paint" or by code). 

For more about triangles (and the square myth) and loading models: 
http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=4908.0

[jtassinari]

Thanks Matchy for the link,
I give a look to the link, maybe this can help me

thanks,
cheers,

jTassinari