[gameprogrammer] Re: question about attaching meshes

["Adrian Brown" <enliten@btinternet.com>]

One way is to use dummy objects in the main mesh, say the player (If your
using max they are called dummy, I think lightwave calls them null objects)
Basically they are objects that have position / rotation information but no
actual mesh data.  Attach the dummy object to the hierarchy of the model, so
it moves with the arm etc, and another to the relevant point on the other
mesh, say the gun.  Now when you want to attach them, you can either connect
the two dummy objects in your own engine hierarchy or just set the gun
position/rotation based on the information in the main player dummy object.


Some meshes ive worked with will have several of these dummy objects (you
can name them all so you can find them etc - depending on how you use the
information in your code), like hand point for attaching weapons, fire
points, where bullets come from when you fire etc.

Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: gameprogrammer-bounce@freelists.org
[mailto:gameprogrammer-bounce@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Roger D. Vargas
Sent: 29 April 2004 21:47
To: gameprogrammer@freelists.org
Subject: [gameprogrammer] question about attaching meshes

Well, i have been asking about this and I still cant find any clear
answer. What is the method to attach one mesh (like a weapon) to some
point (arm, hand) of another mesh and animate it correctly?
I think that Freedroid models has an additional joint for weapons and
md3 file format implements something like attach points, but what if I
choose some keyframe based file format like 3ds or want some generic
solution?
-- 
Roger D. Vargas
Linux User: 180787
"Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could
only have originated in California." 
- E.W. Dijkstra