Traffic lights instead of 1, 2, 3, ...

[hiker]

Very nice animation Kinsu, well done

I've added a ticket so that we can add this for 0.7.3 (hopefully).

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

Thank you
If as I think, my september agenda will not be too loaded, I can try to help implementing it... eventually with also a change of the penalty time system, so that the changes made to the start race phase are made in one time, and players just have to change their habits once ?

[hiker]

Thank you
If as I think, my september agenda will not be too loaded, I can try to help implementing it... eventually with also a change of the penalty time system, so that the changes made to the start race phase are made in one time, and players just have to change their habits once ?

Just update the ticket and assign it to you if you should work on thunderbird (I currently plan to get to it as soon as the battle mode is fixed, hopefully tomorrow).

Re the startup: I am not entirely convinced that we need a change, esp. one that makes it more complicated to explain. It has been suggested to remove the penalty (though I am not really sure of this idea either). Anyway, this might be worth a separate thread in the forum So if you think this needs to be changed, I'd suggest to discuss this first. I actually like the simplicity, and the race ('quick reaction') feeling the current method gives.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

Just update the ticket and assign it to you if you should work on thunderbird (I currently plan to get to it as soon as the battle mode is fixed, hopefully tomorrow).

Thank you Just, I won't be able to begin to work on it tomorrow, and I'm not even sure at 100% to have the time. So maybe if you want this feature to be included in 0.7.3, it's better that you begin as soon as you can ?

Thread for penalty time.

[khonkhortisan]

You can always go with a shadeless material for the stoplight to make it visible, then add an actual light in front of it. It's a little difficult to get a texture to look right when it's shadeless, as you have to darken it yourself. But that's if it's not just a simple solid red/yellow/green. I also like the dark wingtips, and combined with the light body, they make the model not look simple.

[hiker]

Hi,

thanks a lot. I've just have one problem (after Auria improved the exporter to export the animations): I don't get any textures in the b3d file. Do you use UV mapping? This is (afaiK) the only way to get the textures (not sure if the exporter could be improved).

Otherwise I already have STK to show the (currently untextured) thunderbird, expect a very first(!) commit beginning of the week

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

Ah, I added some material for rendering, maybe it messes up with the UV texture. I'll check it out.

[Auria]

Joerg, here Thunderbird exports just fine with textures. See the screenshot from the mesh viewer :

[hiker]

Joerg, here Thunderbird exports just fine with textures. See the screenshot from the mesh viewer :

The problem of the missing textures is solved, there was a bug in the b3d exporter for blender 2.5, which only happened on windows. Fixed in r9812.

Cheers,
Joerg

[hiker]

I just added TB as a start referee (r9824).

This is work in progress, some known bugs:

• Ready, Set, Go is still shown.
• Orientation of thunderbird is not correct in some cases (esp. in battle mode).
• Distance to kart is not ideal in all cases (sometimes it's too close to a kart ahead).
• Thunderbird should rotate more towards the kart so that it is seen from the front.

I am working on those problems next.

I've put the file into the media repository. I had to make some changes (mostly renamed the textures: using upper case was causing problem when using on case insensitive file systems).

I only use the first 26 frames of the animation. In some frames the traffic light moved too much, making it difficult to see. I just added the following license information as well:

* thunderbird model
by Kinsu, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0

* thunderbird texture
by fraag, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0

Could you please confirm that this is correct?

If we want to use TB as a rescue-referee as well (which I would think is a good idea), I would need a 2nd set of animations without the traffic light attached (e.g. scale to size 0 or so).

Cheers,
Joerg

[Auria]

Nice work Joerg, but I think Thunderbird is too close to the ground, sometimes he is "inside" another kart

[Kinsu]

May I suggest you to try this placement for TB ?

[Funto]

Nice!!
Actually the model was originally made by me, but heavily modified by Kinsu then ^^
I'm not sure it's a good idea to remove "Ready Set Go"...

As for the rescue animation, couldn't you just hide a separate node that would correspond to the traffic light?

[hiker]

Actually the model was originally made by me, but heavily modified by Kinsu then ^^

Sorry for that, I've added you to the credits.

Could someone clarify the license of the textures used in the bird? Is this all only based on Fraag's work, or was another texture used as a base?

I'm not sure it's a good idea to remove "Ready Set Go"...

Actually - neither am I. Imho the traffic light is too small. Perhaps making the bird a bit larger would help? ATM it's actually scaled down.

As for the rescue animation, couldn't you just hide a separate node that would correspond to the traffic light?

The traffic light is included in the one scene node, it's not a separate object. I can try to make a copy of the mesh, and remove the traffic light texture.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Funto]

Yes, if it's not separated, my proposition was to separate those ^^

Concerning the texture, I don't know if the one you're using is based on the work of fraang, and maybe it's based on the original Thunderbird logo...

[hiker]

May I suggest you to try this placement for TB ?

Besides that I don't like it for reasons I have given before. The current implementation shows a separate thunderbird for each kart (but only visible for that kart, as explained before). I think it works, though the current position isn't good enough, I am still experimenting with that.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

TB's blend file license (If I can, allow me, Funto) :
Made by Funto & Kinsu for STK
Release license : CC-BY-SA 3.0

For the texture, we need fraang to confirm it, as he made it from scratch.

I think TB would look less "robotic" if :
- When the race scene is shown, TB was already placed on the Z axis, so a Z translation would not be needed,
- when the race starts, it waits a little (1 or 1.5sec) before going up. And I can also make an animation for it, so the translation is less linear.

In the last SVN version, the traffic light was pretty OK to me (i.e. visible enough), I think you've already scaled it up . Also keep in mind that I'll try to add a light effect, so it's even more visible

[Funto]

TB's blend file license (If I can, allow me, Funto) :
Made by Funto & Kinsu for STK
Release license : CC-BY-SA 3.0

Yup no pb for me ^^

[charlie]

The wing flap animation needs to have more rotation and deformation of the wing.

Here is an eagle slowing down so it can attack with it's claws. The wings are rotating to totally face the camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz1L8DlvBM

Notice how this eagle's wings deform around the bones in wave-like motion (the deformation starts at the body and flows outwards to the tip).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgRN08CA8-w

A way to picture it is to imagine yourself sculling in water - that is, using your hands to generate upward/backward force. You start with your arms wide, palms down, and then you bend your elbows and turn your palms forwards and inwards to generate force as you push the water down. This is not dissimilar to what birds are doing to air with their wings when trying to slow down and remain stationary (with the aid of updraft or headwind).

[Kinsu]

The wing flap animation needs to have more rotation and deformation of the wing.

I agree. That's why I made 3 different animations for the bird, one for the normal flight, one for carrying something, and a last one for a stationary flight carrying something. Here is what the last one looks like in game (just tweaked a little hiker's params) :

It currently seems a bit weird, but when the wings's texture are finished, it will be great I think

[charlie]

You could probably add a few feather particles as well just for extra effect.

[hiker]

The wing flap animation needs to have more rotation and deformation of the wing.

I agree. That's why I made 3 different animations for the bird, one for the normal flight, one for carrying something, and a last one for a stationary flight carrying something. Here is what the last one looks like in game (just tweaked a little hiker's params) :

I actually tried only two (I must have missed the other one), and one of which had the problem that the traffic light was shaking too much. It might also depend a bit on the angle with which TB is displayed. Feel free to play a bit with the rotation specified in the referee.xml file. I would welcome improved data for the referee file (esp. since atm TB is too far away, if you start on the right side, TB will be behind the kart in front of you). Note that you should also try the position in split screen, since this makes quite a bit of difference. I had good settings for split screen, which were just bad in single screen and vice versa. If necessary we can define two settings: one for 1,3,4 players (which should have a similar view), and one for 2 players.

Cheers,
Joerg

[STKRudy85]

Maybe you can add an halo around light as is exist lighthouse, startrack (UFO) and subsea (zippers)

[Kinsu]

Yes, thank you for the pointers !

[hiker]

Hi,

I've just fixed a few bugs related to the position of the referee (one causing the position of the referee to be different depending on track, which explains why I didn't notice the 'TB in kart' behaviour reported while I was testing ). I also changed the animation loop that is being shown, and tweaked the position a bit.

Feedback welcome!

Cheers,
Joerg