City Of Heroes: Programming 101 - The Art of Creating Toons

There MUST be mullets!

These new costume suggestions are great -- and it gives me a chance to give a simplified explanation how some things are done, just to give you an idea of what we have to deal with. (If you're not interested in a potentially dull explanation of how models work, skip the rest of this and run with the mullet joke.)

Characters are built from 3 different things -- textures, geometry, and bones. Textures are the pretty colors and patterns -- a lot of what you switch around in the costume creator. Geometry is the 3D object you see. In addition to your basic body, it's those shoulder pieces, helmets, hair and other stuff that changes the outline of your body.

Bones are the stuff you don't see -- every base model has a skeleton, which is nothing more than data used by artists and programmers. A skeleton is linked to a body type -- every avatar in the game uses the same skeleton, for example. When animations are created, you're actually animating the skeleton -- because that's where all the information about joints, how far they can bend and it what direction, etc. is stored. A lot of different geometries (models) can use the same skeleton -- as long as they all have joints in more or less the same places as the skeleton (because that's where the model is going to bend). This is important for us, because it means we can have a lot more animations per character since lots of characters share the data.

So what does this all mean for new costume pieces?

1. New textures are the easiest to add -- no changes to geometry, no new skeletons to create (there are limits, of course).

2. Geometry bits that don't bend or flex (horns, stiff spines, a shoulder guard) or that match up to existing skeletons (a different shaped head, a skeletal body vs. a normal one) are the next step up. They can be done, but you have to be careful they don't interfere with existing animations (you don't want your shoulder pad slicing through your head when your character raises his arms, for example).

3. Things that require new skeletons, whether it's an add to an existing skeleton or a whole new body type are not simple. Wings are a good example -- to make them right, they have to flex, bend and flap. That requires new bones and adding new bones on the fly is not...well, it's not. Such things generally require all new skeletons, animations, models, etc. That's a lot of work.

Anyway, end of class...

Keep the suggestions coming!

Here's the full thread.

Note: As a fellow programmer I can relate to the CoH Programmers. I know exactly what Lord Recluse is talking about. As much as I want to see these different enhancements I also know that sometimes it is just beyond the capability of the programmers due to time deadlines and other things taking place within the game. However I agree with Lord Recluse that we should keep sending in the suggestions because you never know what you might see in an upcoming release. What do you think?