Difference between revisions of "Add character to scene"

Revision as of 11:59, 13 January 2015

In this tutorial we will add a female alien character to the scene. We will let her walk by the cell once in a while.
If you try to talk with her, she gets angry and says you should be quiet.

Steps

1. Copy the files from the 'Tutorial resource pack' for this tutorial to the appropriate directories.
   We will describe these files here briefly:
   
   • /init/story/alien: This is the brain for the alien character. Just like the player each character has a brain.
   • /scenes/capture: These are the motion capture files used for the alien character.
   • /scenes/character6: These are the character and cloth meshes.
   • /scenes/charobj: These meshes are used for collision detection for characters in general.
   • /scenes/sounds: These files are the sound files used for the character.
   • /scene/textures: These files are the texture files used for the character.
2. Now we need a location that is the starting point for this character.
   Open the spaceship scene scene.ma and create a duplicate instance of the waypoint object.
   A duplicate instance copies only the instance of the object not the mesh itself. Name the copy waypoint2 and place it outside the cell like this:
   
3. Open the /init/story/alien/init.dat file.
   In the pose settings you see that the scene_id = SPACESHIP1 and waypoint = "waypoint2".
   The pose contains all pose settings for this character. The character is derived from the object CHAR_BASE, you can find more pose settings in the file:
   /init/std/base/char/char_base.dat. You see that the scene_id and waypoint are overridden.
4. Start the adbucted scene and if all went well, you should see an alien character outside your cell.
5. Now lets make her look at you and change her expression. Open the /init/story/alien/brain/dyn.dat file. This file contains the dynamic state for the brain.
   Here you can add brain state variables that can be changed during the game. They are automatically saved when you save the game.
   The variables main_focus_type and main_def_exp do not only contain a value but can also be used to set the actual focus and expression.
   Set main_focus_type = STARE and main_def_exp = A_BIT_ANGRY. This will make the character stare and you with an somewhat angry expression.