That sounds pretty complicated. Also I’m worried about the overall editing experience like how you build the sections you don’t want to bend, and how flexible the editor would be for people who don’t want to make the default kind of fish…
I think we should go for a system as simple as possible- perhaps starting with body “bones”, then overtime add “limb bones”, which are built specifically for arms, legs, etc-
I’ve been kind of thinking that we’ll start with metaballs (and convolution surfaces will be used to smooth them out for nicer display once Nunz gets that done) that can be placed and moved about. And then the player can add joints between specific metaballs to create appendages. I haven’t thought things through much more than that, but I think that system may be simple enough for most of the players to understand quickly.
Yeah- I think that will work well, atleast for now-
To tell where the metaballs go, I think we coullld implement a “bone system” like this, which basically just make animation and implementation easier for us, while making building simpler for the player. It’s like spore, just a bit more complex. Perhaps there are tail bones, and body bones, to make sure animation is more efficient.
I’m thinking something like this- the “legbone” could start as just one bone, and upgrades to 2 and then possibly 3-
This seems far less complicated, easier to texture, and easier to code, as well as easier to understand for players
26 posts were merged into an existing topic: Convolution Surfaces: A better alternative to metaballs
I’m sorry, I think I explained it poorly. A bone which you wouldn’t want to bend could have it’s joint flexibility set to 0, so that it wouldn’t bend. It can also be extended to creatures that aren’t fish, or aren’t even aquatic. Magna inguine massam, for example, is a human skeleton. I just thought it was funny to draw it as a fish. I specifically designed it so that you don’t need to follow a classical fish skeleton. Also, for the editor, Here’s a diagram:
the first four are how you select segments, and the last four are how to add a new limb.
Sorry, I can’t add much, I’m in school right now.
wrongish thread friend
I literally started this thread talking about my idea.
Yeah, we kind of overtook this. Maybe it would be better to move a bunch of posts to the convolution surface thread…
whoops i’m the lost one, i thought this was the thread for convolution 
I split off this thread so let’s have the convolution surface be there.
And maybe here we can discuss if @stingpie’s idea is compatible with the approach of starting with metaballs and moving that system to convolution surfaces later in this thread?
ur just quirky like that
my concern is how will players like having to input so much information, particularly stiffness and joint flexibility? His idea is readily applicable to both convolution surfaces and metaballs.
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you’d be able to select the archetype of limb you want from a couple standard options. Then, if you want to edit it more, you can select a couple, and use sliders to customize the variables.
sorta like the limbs you can use from spore, except it’s different tissues instead of different leg shapes.
Yeah that’s perfect- exactly what I was thinking.
Just so we are clear, this will work with gradually building the limbs as well, or not? As we won’t be having parts in our editor, instead gradually making changes and growing tissues.
When i talked about viscosity i was refering to how much force the push in/against that medium will generate. Especially in different atmospheres and at different creature sizes.
(walking = ground , swimming = water, flying = atmosphere, etc)
Why not swimming efficiency?
Why not delete the joint entirely then if its not bending?
Also now that i saw some replies here, why reduce the locomotion system to fish accordion model instead of normal bone-joint-muscle model?
yes. That’s the idea.
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as long as folks can get by only placing basic tissues I don’t see the issue. Sometimes our players struggle with as easy as the game is now, we shouldn’t make any of our tools too intimidating.
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