Author Topic: 3D Models Instead of Sprites  (Read 9191 times)

boogerlad

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3D Models Instead of Sprites
« on: 2010-06-05, 09:24:57 AM »
Hey, I'm a 3d animator/rigger, and can animated 3d models a lot better than making sprites. I'm not looking to create a game that is fps style/3d. I'm just looking to replace sprites with 3d models, and have the game still render in a 2d sidescrolling type way, kinda like new super mario bros wii. It isn't possible yet, but would that add a lot more complexity with the code? I'm working with dae format, with bones, textures and the body.

Thanks!

Jam0864

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #1 on: 2010-06-05, 05:31:07 PM »
Perhaps you should render the 3d models into 2d sprites using whatever 3d software you're using? It would be much easier than rendering them in real time using sgdk2; I would imagine there'd be massive modifications you'd have to make to it. Wait for someone who knows a bit more about it than me to confirm though.

boogerlad

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #2 on: 2010-06-05, 09:48:38 PM »
I think rendering them in real time would be more efficient than having 30 frames of animation for each sprite.

Jam0864

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #3 on: 2010-06-05, 11:03:48 PM »
I wouldn't think so.

SmartBoy16

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #4 on: 2010-06-06, 12:09:58 AM »
i would bet that in order to add any 3-d effects to SGDK, a complete rebuild of the engine would need to occur.

Although, this would be a great idea for SGDK3, right?
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boogerlad

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #5 on: 2010-06-06, 12:32:28 PM »
well, performance wise, it would be better to have sprites, but when you have close to 1000 sprites, file size becomes and issue, where as a model and the animations are under 5mb.

SmartBoy16

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #6 on: 2010-06-06, 02:43:35 PM »
a general .png tileset only takes about 60KB for a 32x32 256 tiles sheet. for a 128x128 256 tileset(which 256 is a lot for a sprite), that's only about 2.5MB

The animations usually take only about 20 lines of code, which is only about 30 bytes each.

taking this into account, 1000 2d 128x128 tilesets would take up about 2,500MB. 1000 3d models and animation data would take up about 5,000MB. plus, rendering 3d graphics takes up a lot of memory to even process it.
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boogerlad

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #7 on: 2010-06-06, 02:58:34 PM »
that's the thing, you need multiple sprites for multiple frame of animation, but one model/animation set replaces all of it. Besides, 3d looks better imo.

bluemonkmn

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Re: 3D Models Instead of Sprites
« Reply #8 on: 2010-06-06, 08:50:55 PM »
SGDK2 is build on OpenTK.
OpenTK is a wrapper around OpenGL.
OpenGL is a general purpose graphics library that supports 3D and 2D.

The SGDK2 framework does not currently use and of OpenTK/OpenGL's 3D features, but if you're familiar with OpenGL, you may be able to add some features to the SGDK2 framework relatively easy.  You may be able to design a custom sprite type that appears 2D in the designer, but 3D at runtime without changing SGDK2 source code (only extending the project's source code).