Game Editing > 3D Modeling & Content Creation
3D Modeling WIP Topic
kat:
The engine IMVU uses is equivalent to idTech II (Quake 2, maybe early idTech III) in capability - Pixomatic Rendering Technology. In theory the numbers - mesh density, texture sizes and so on - are supposed to be relatively low, it's more or less akin to Quake III limits for scenes and items that drop into it, however characters models are c.2500 tris in default dress but can go into the as high as 100k (usually because 99.99% of users making content for IMVU don't understand/don't care about proper game development principles and optimisation techniques).
The world is modelled and lit semi-dynamically - a limited number of light entities (no more than three are recommended) are place in to a scene which vertex shade meshes relative to their position. No lightmaps or other 'artistic' shadowing so everything either has to be vertex painted at the mesh level or baked into the texture (as we would do with any other type of model).
Characters don't 'walk' like other first/third person games, they move using location markers, you click one and the avatar moves to it. Character actions and animations are then carried out relative to the spot the avatar is on so they can 'move' but reset back to the starting spot (in instances of animated short walk sequences), or move around the spot (looped sequences).
This is an old presentation on IMVU but gives a better idea of what the 'game' is about (the name is pronounced "im vu" rather than "i m v u" and whilst it doesn't specifically mean anything in terms of it being an acronym for something - a common misconception is that it means "Instant Messaging Virtual Universe", it doesn't - the term does correlate to shorthand references for "IM" being "Instant Messaging", which is what the program actually is, with "VU" ("view") similarly correlating to "3D View" - the medium through which the program functions).
ratty redemption [RIP]:
cool, and understood about the engine limits. i like the idea of the point and click interface for moving, to clarify do the characters teleport between the location markers, or do you see them animate to them?
kat:
I'm not sure if they are actually teleported as we would understand that, i.e. I'm not sure if they actually 'disappear' from one marker to be 'respawned' at another. The transition does happen very quickly though.
kat:
Can't believe so much time has passed since the last post in this topic! Over a year!!! Time is passing far too quickly for sure.
Anywho, poking around Blender 2.70 making what will eventually be a brushed-based level (2.70 because they removed the MAP export script from 2.71). Not sure at this stage whether it'll be for RtCW, some GPL'd idtech4 project or something put together in Unity or some such (RtCW would be more straightforward to do but few play the game anymore), a dungeon-crawler or something. Have to say that creating a 'maze' that doesn't look like a maze without resorting to corridor-room-corridor-room structures is pretty challenging to say the least!.
ratty redemption [RIP]:
looks interesting kat.
i still hope to use unity for my game i have planned, but all my time is currently taken up with the music video project. anyway, if you do decide on unity it would be interesting to follow the development of a level like this.
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