Dynamic Model Creation

[mirhagk]

You know how in Elder scrolls you can select pieces of your character's face and manipulate it how you want to create a new character? Well I am very intersted in a system that would do this for the entire body, allowing you to be able to create every character in the game by just altering some values rather than requiring an entire new model and skin. (In fact many games let you customize the entire body).

I would like to try and attempt to create something like this, so I was wondering if anyone has seen any sort of tutorial of the sort, or heard of any book that discusses it etc.

Even beyond the ability to create a new character in 10 seconds vs 10 hours, the ability to store the charcter as a hundred bytes or so vs many megabytes would be amazing. A game could be created with millions of characters, without taking up very much space.

[Insectoid]

As far as I can tell, Elder Scrolls just modifies vectors in the model frame to adjust the shape of the face, and loads a variety of blended textures with adjustable colors for the details/skin. There are still hundreds of texture files, though it's possible I think to just have a few model frames with adjustable points, and very small 'character' files that record those adjustments, and the textures/colors to use.

[mirhagk]

This basically would be my dream lol. Every time I want to create a 3D game I hit a road block of having no character models. I can find some random mix and matched models sometimes, but since I can't make any I can't really make any sort of game lol.

[Insectoid]

I just borrow models from other games that use the same file type. Lets you develop the game without worrying about models & whatnot until the end. After all, I'm no artist. I can't even make decent 2D sprites (most of my sprites are colored squares), let alone 3D models.

[mirhagk]

Yeah but I would still like to see this technology, as it would allow any indie programmer like us to be able to have fully featured characters, without being artists.

[RandomLetters]

So like a Spore RPG?

[mirhagk]

No like going through the Obilivion (or even saints row has it) system of designing your characters facial traits, and then using that for every character. So really every character is created just as easily as the user creates their own.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Hmm, now I'm intrigued. I may very well use this type of system now for my game (I have never thought of this before). Brilliant.

I'll keep my eye on this topic, and if anyone has any book titles or resources to look into this I'd appreciate it.

[mirhagk]

Does anybody want to start up a project to do this?

[mirhagk]

Okay so I found MakeHuman an open source software that lets you create and export models for this. I am going to dive into it and see if I can find the code for creating the model from the values, and see if I can encorporate something similar in real time.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Let me know how it goes.

[mirhagk]

So I found MakeHuman, but their license doesn't allow for me to make it into a dynamic library and use that library in a game that is sold (even though the library itself would be free and open source).

So I have to make something by myself, but I figure it should actually be not very difficult other than the artwork part.

Basically for each tweaking point (say for instance nose size etc) have some vertices along with direction vectors and scaling factors for each one, then simply move the point along the direction vector.

Basically the hardest part will be labelling the points, and coming up with the direction and scaling factors.

If anyone else wants to help it'd be awesome, my plan is to make it free and open source, for the XNA platform, to allow students to make 3D games without worrying about getting 3D artists. (In fact most people could make buildings and stuff, but creating characters is VERY difficult).

[mirhagk]

Sorry for the double post but I am actually really curious about their liscense, and I would like some help. They have the code and the models under GPL 3.x or later at the user's choosing, with a couple restrictions. Basically the only restriction is that they code/data cannot be used to create a differently licensed clone-like program. More details here http://sites.google.com/site/makehumandocs/licensing

What I would like to know is whether my idea falls under that restriction or not. Basically I wanna use their model (and possibly their code) to create an open source library under the GPL (with the same restrictions and license as the makehuman one). However this library will then be used by people to potentially create a commercial application. Is this okay under the terms or no?

[DemonWasp]

Preface: I am NOT a lawyer. I have no training in law or legal documents. Do further research: do not assume that I am correct.


If your library is under GPLv3 or newer, then any application using your library must also be GPLv3 licensed (and must keep the same extra restrictions as the original software imposed, plus any you imposed, etc). Although that doesn't automatically mean that the software must be free, it does mean that any DRM on it can be legally circumvented, and the software (modified or not) may be distributed forever, by anyone who comes into possession of it.

You cannot charge for a license to use the software. You may charge for warranties, support, per-copy of the software, etc.

This could make it difficult to make money off the software. Or not! It really depends on the software, the target audience, and situation.

Technically, I think you're okay from a legal perspective. The part where I see this as not working very well is the part where it will be unattractive for other people to use your library for anything but free games.