What's in store for 2004 - Page 5

Ralph · 03-21-2004, 10:52 AM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs
OK - I'm currently re-working the Freshwater Angel, adding mouth and gill movement, and incorprating the side and lower fins into the body mesh (they are currently separate objects).

Trying to picture that... fins.. moving across the screen looking for a fish.

Jim Sachs · 03-21-2004, 01:47 PM

Just couldn't leave it alone, huh?

OK, here's the long, boring technical explanation I was hoping to avoid:

The fish are currently made of 6 parts - body, eyes, leftfin, rightfin, leftlowfin, rightlowfin. These are all moved and rotated together so that at low resolutions (up to 1024x768) they all appear to be part of one object. But now that many people are using bigger screens with higher resolutions, it's obvious that these parts are not really connected. For example, while the side fins are moved along with the body, they also must rotate on their own, and as they do so they slide back and forth and in and out, since the pivot point can't take everything into account (especially fishbend). By making the fin part of the body mesh, the base stays glued to the attachment point, and the texture stretches like skin when the fin moves. This is much harder to do, because instead of rotating a fin object, I must figure out which vertices comprise the tips of the fins, and rotate those. I already do this with the tail, so I know how to do it, but it's very time-consuming.

I'm still debating whether I should do the same thing with the eyes. Then each fish would be made of only one mesh.

Socrates · 03-21-2004, 03:42 PM

Damn. That is so cool. What a ton of work. I'd have shot myself by now.

This is going to be so nice.

Ralph · 03-21-2004, 04:30 PM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs
Just couldn't leave it alone, huh?

OK, here's the long, boring technical explanation I was hoping to avoid: <snip>

Not boring at all.. the mechanics of how it works is probably of interest to a number of the forum members.

Yellow Tang · 03-22-2004, 11:12 AM

Yes, those infos are much appreciated, thank you Jim. Can't wait to see it.

03-21-2004, 01:47 PM	#82
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,816	Just couldn't leave it alone, huh? OK, here's the long, boring technical explanation I was hoping to avoid: The fish are currently made of 6 parts - body, eyes, leftfin, rightfin, leftlowfin, rightlowfin. These are all moved and rotated together so that at low resolutions (up to 1024x768) they all appear to be part of one object. But now that many people are using bigger screens with higher resolutions, it's obvious that these parts are not really connected. For example, while the side fins are moved along with the body, they also must rotate on their own, and as they do so they slide back and forth and in and out, since the pivot point can't take everything into account (especially fishbend). By making the fin part of the body mesh, the base stays glued to the attachment point, and the texture stretches like skin when the fin moves. This is much harder to do, because instead of rotating a fin object, I must figure out which vertices comprise the tips of the fins, and rotate those. I already do this with the tail, so I know how to do it, but it's very time-consuming. I'm still debating whether I should do the same thing with the eyes. Then each fish would be made of only one mesh. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium Last edited by Jim Sachs; 03-21-2004 at 09:22 PM.

03-21-2004, 03:42 PM	#83
Socrates Sage Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: West Hills, CA Posts: 1,529	Damn. That is so cool. What a ton of work. I'd have shot myself by now. This is going to be so nice. Bat rays? We don't need no stinking bat rays!

03-21-2004, 10:52 AM	#81
Ralph Retired Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Edmonton Alberta Ca Posts: 2,454	Originally posted by Jim Sachs OK - I'm currently re-working the Freshwater Angel, adding mouth and gill movement, and incorprating the side and lower fins into the body mesh (they are currently separate objects). Trying to picture that... fins.. moving across the screen looking for a fish.

03-21-2004, 04:30 PM	#84
Ralph Retired Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Edmonton Alberta Ca Posts: 2,454	Originally posted by Jim Sachs Just couldn't leave it alone, huh? OK, here's the long, boring technical explanation I was hoping to avoid: <snip> Not boring at all.. the mechanics of how it works is probably of interest to a number of the forum members.

03-22-2004, 11:12 AM	#85
Yellow Tang YT Join Date: Jan 2002 Tournaments Won: 1 Location: Germany Posts: 729	Yes, those infos are much appreciated, thank you Jim. Can't wait to see it.