UDK vs CryEngine 3 SDK - Exporting animated meshes

We've seen how to make and export static meshes, now it's time to look at meshes you can play animations on. As in the previous article, I'll investigate how the pipeline expects the data to be set up, then take a look at how you export that data, and what happens in the process.

Note that I'm focussing on non-character objects (i.e. humanoïds, animals, etc) because, well, characters aren't the only ones that need animations, and because it is slightly easier for me to generate data for them. I will cover characters though. Someday.

Why should I care?

Pretty much the same as usual, to see how restrictive or flexible the pipeline is, what's done in the editor, what's done in the modelling package.

Animation Chronicles - Episode 7: First animation, playblast and graph editor

I am now all set to animate my helicopter. I'll need a bunch of animations to make my tests and I'll start with a simple one : a looping animation of the rotors turning. This will be the opportunity to talk about a few of Maya's animation related features: referencing, playblasts, and the graph editor.

Animation Chronicles - Episode 6: Rigid skinning

Preparing a new article for the UDK vs CryEngine 3 SDK series, I had to rig a non-organic object (read: not a character) in order to test the animated object pipeline with something simple. It also gave me the opportunity to make a skeleton from scratch and learn about skinning (or binding, in Maya language), which is the topic of this article.

For a number of reasons that don't need explaining, I chose to rig a vehicle, an helicopter to be precise. I took the Black Hawk from the CryEngine 3's sample assets. However, it wasn't rigged, so I had to it myself as I wanted to try and export this model into UDK. Good exercise.

Naomi Alderman on video games

I happened to catch that on the radio in my car yesterday (yeah, I do listen to Radio 4)

BBC iPlayer - Front Row: Naomi Alderman on video games

Rare to hear about that topic on the radio (at least in a good way).

Gamasutra - News - Tips from a combat designer: Fibonacci game design

Interesting article on how to know when to say "stop, no more", and how to use the golden ratio in game design.

Gamasutra - News - Tips from a combat designer: Fibonacci game design

Articy:draft

Earlier this week, a co-worker let me know about a tool aimed at helping people write branching story lines, mainly for games. It's called Articy:draft and allows you to define the flow of your story, the conversations (even handles multiple-choice dialogue systems). You can also create annotated maps of the various locations. It's multi-user and integrates with version control systems. It looks really cool, but the benefits/price ratio will make it hard to convince anyone to buy licences.

Regardless, it's worth checking it out:

UDK vs CryEngine 3 SDK: Custom geometry

Today, I'll take a look at the pipeline for getting your own meshes into the editor. I will focus on "normal" meshes (i.e. those that are not rigged).

I won't spend any time explaining the actual process, the documentation (UDK, CryEngine) does that well enough. I'll be pointing out the restrictions and peculiarities that rule the way the artists should work. I will then go over geometry export, collision export, and material export.

Note that as I'm a Maya user these days, I may talk more about Maya than about Max.

Why should I care?

I want to know how quick it is to get a new model into the game, and how quick it is to update it.