Posted by Kevin on June 23, 2000 at 18:06:44:
a ques. for Popov, RG, Turbo, Bart, Rich..
"TR 3D models, why individually .bmp textured?"
as I've been exploring Evgeni's TRviewer program,
it seems that the game models are done "all wrong"
by usual game standards.TR isn't usual; we know that.
here was an email from a 3D modeler(much better) friend
of mine & my reply...
please coment on this, I might be completely wrong...
We were talking about WHY TombRaider "actors"/ models
were done as they are?
Wagner...
>"Say, maybe you can
>tell me something... When I used the GetLara ,I saw that the 3d
>Lara of the gameplay is not only a separate limbs doll (arm, forearm, head,
>hands, etc...) But she is a full "exploded", poligon by poligon object too...
>So, her texture maps are very numerous... Do you know why this is made this
>way?"
yes, it is strange, but if you remember...it is NOT a "Skin" texture map
as we think of other games like Quake,MDK, UnReal, HallfLife...
it is different in a way...
Lara's "head" is used 2 times in the game...so, her face HAS to be separately mapped...
once, she is "at rest", the usual Lara...
twice, she is "at attack", so her .bmps that share the very same face polygons are
different now...she has the "ugly bad, angry eyes", on one polygon(a different .bmp
texture) ..and she has the open mouth, with the teeth, the the mouth polygon now has
this open mouth.
It is a (facial) animated model, unlike * ANY * other game models;
that is the genius that Toby Gard & original TR game crew did...
a pain in the ass for 3D modelers, but a brilliant idea!
"So, I am still curious why they did all of the other animals as separate small .bmps .."
We will NEVER know why...perhaps that was the way that
they understood how to do things in 1995/1996...?
Vagrant's note here: incidently, w/ TRviewer, it is possible to
add new "full skin mapped" models over the level's existing
baseframes as Evgeni has proved..they don't need to be those tedious
"mesh by mesh" .bmps such as TR uses...
this was an email that asked questions that needed to be asked.
as Popov has shown, it's possible to treat the baseframes
& their textures as full skin maps; just do it. It'll work .
Kevin