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[adonf]

Hi Mnemonic,

So my question for today is about velocity and 3D actors:

I have a few scenes in my project where the ground is flat and horizontal. In these scenes the 3D actor moves perfectly.

But in the one scene where the ground is not flat, the character's feet seem to be gliding with an unpleasant 'moonwalk' effect. It's not just that the VELOCITY parameter is wrong , because in some cases the actor is moving too slowly and in other cases it is moving too fast.

I'm thinking that maybe the actor's velocity is relative to the horizontal plane, not to the polygon on which the actor is evolving, am I right ? In this case can you think of a way to work around this, other than make the ground horizontal in all scenes ?

Thanks !
 Adonf

[Mnemonic]

Well, yes, you're right. The actor is basically moving just in 2D, and his vertical position is adjusted to the 3D geometry height. That's why he doesn't cope well with too sloped planes by design.
So the short answer to your question is no.

[adonf]

Ok, thanks for the answer. Do you have plans to align the velocity vector with the current floor polygon in the future ?

[Mnemonic]

Honestly, no. I didn't even think about it until today, IMO it's a minor issue and the trend seems to be actually moving away from the 3D geometry and designing the scene mostly in 2D the old-fashioned way, because it's simpler and it doesn't require 3D artist's involvement in scene design process.

[adonf]

The project I'm working on has 3D models for the characters and 2D backgrounds. We also have simple 3D models of the scenes that are used for the scene information and also to give the artists a reference when they draw the backgrounds.

It took a little time to put into place but it seems to be working fine now (as long as the floor is horizontal ). It doesn't involve too much work from 3D artists.

But back to the initial topic, we'll just make sure that the ground is always flat except for stairs that will have to be handled differently.