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DS development > Customisable DS character models

#175721 - crispintwig - Sat Jan 22, 2011 3:57 am

Hi!

I've been trying to research into how a customizable character would be made for the Nintendo DS, with equipment that will appear on the character model in game.

A few of examples would include: Final Fantasy Echoes of Time, Final Fantasy Ring of Fates and Dragon Quest IX (Dragon quest would be the best example!).

I understand how to make a character within DS limitations, however I am struggling to understand how to break up the model and texture sheets!

For example, would you make a separate texture sheet for each piece of equipment?
Or texture it the same as a normal character; all on the same texture map except just link the pieces to the same texture sheet?

(I hope this makes sense, I have trouble wording this =])

What kind of tri could should be targeted as a total amount with a complete outfit? - I imagine it should still be around the 300 tri mark!

What kind of texture sheet size? - A total of 128x128 for all pieces in an outfit?

I do have an approximate idea as to how tackle modeling this character, however any ideas on the subject or any websites or books that would be a great reference will be very helpful!

Thank you in advance, I hope this is in the right forum!
Crispin

#175722 - TwentySeven - Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:02 pm

How much screen space are the characters taking up?

A simple rule is your textures should be roughly the same size in pixels as your character is tall, eg: a 64 pixel, 250 tri character would only require a 64x64 pixel texture sheet.

However, artists are TERRIBLE at working at those tiny resolutions. I suggest working at 512x512 or larger, then downsizing at the last second to game resolutions. You'll need a few pixels of space between your UV islands.

You don't need to render your entire character off of one texture sheet, either. Treat each dressable area as its own surface in whatever 3d program you're using, and give them their own UV sheet. You could then use say, 5 32x32 textures to texture a whole character.

As for tri budget, a basic human comes in at about 180.

A nicely detailed model with clothes and weapons would be about 300.

If you actually want to get the camera close to it.. you'll probably need higher poly substitute models, 500-800 tris.

You can render about 10-12 250 triangle models in a single frame, or 20 if you're doing the 30hz capture trick.

#175725 - crispintwig - Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:13 pm

Hi!! Firstly thank you for taking the time to reply, you have confirmed a lot of details for me, as well as introduce new rules that I had not been aware of!

I have to ask though, is this information from your own experience?

Sorry if this seems like a short reply, I do not feel the need to expand on your answers, as they were very clear and made a lot of sense to me =]

#175730 - TwentySeven - Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:10 pm

Yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsRNiwlKln8

#175731 - crispintwig - Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:42 pm

That looks absolutely amazing!! Definitely on par (and better in some cases) with RPGs I've played on the DS. I hope that projects going well! (Not to mention so many DS games don't even use the touch screen that much, so it's wonderful to see it working on yours!)

Are there are images of the character model that shows the edges? The character deforms very well and I'm struggling to find many DS models I can analyze to see the joints.

I realize that I am asking a lot of you though, you have helped me a lot so far and I am very grateful

#175732 - TwentySeven - Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:45 am

There are no extra cuts to support deformation, the arms and legs are 4 sided tubes with a single edge loop for elbow, wrist, shoulder, knee, ankle and hip.

Good textures and Smoothing groups help *ALOT*, so make sure you support per vertex normals and let the artist work at comfortable texture resolutions.

Ignore the armour and stuff on this one, but it shows the limbs are just boxes. Volume is everything.

[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]

#175755 - crispintwig - Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:50 pm

So sorry for such a late reply!

Thank you very much for the image, to be honest I hadn't even considered using a single edge loop for a joint, but I guess the DS models are so small that it would have the same appearance with good rigging.
I will definitely experiment with that!

You have been amazing help, I am very grateful!