skeletons of .x files?

[BramVandenbon]

hi ...

I just started DirectX 8 three days ago. It works fine :-) I can load models now, I can make vertexes and combine them to objects, I can put some textures to them, add some light. Move the camera to all kind of positions.

I guess the next major issue would be some animation. If I load a .x file of a character with a build-in skeleton. How can I make the skeleton move so I can make the character raise his hand, move his leggs ... etc.

I have a very good modeller ( a friend of mine) who makes models (*wow*) with build in skeletons... HELP !

Are there any good tutorials about that specific part of animating ? thank you in advance.

[Zaei]

You have two choice here, really. The first is to take a look at the SkinnedMesh Sample that comes with the SDK, and figure out how it works. The second is to write your own model file format. Ill leave it to you to choose which road you want to take (look at the sample).

Z.

[BramVandenbon]

damned I still don't have that SDK gonna download it right away then ... anybody has any further experiences with this topic ?

[Zaei]

Originally posted by BramVandenbon
damned I still don't have that SDK gonna download it right away then ... anybody has any further experiences with this topic ?

You should have it. The documentation is very useful for solving most problems that you will run into.

The SkinnedMesh sample is pretty badly written, so be prepared. I personally chose to write my own formats, for a few reasons, more flexibility and power being among them =).

Z.

[BramVandenbon]

I see, but I'm not really for this. I'm really new to this. I only started 3 days ago remember ? Writing and reading files would work. And maybe loading the vertexes would work.

But then again I would need to make a program to design the files too. Reading and interpreting is one thing ... Writing the files is another. Not really ready for this I guess I'll try the SDK

[CornedBee]

How did you manage to do anything without the SDK?

[BramVandenbon]

Well I have DirectX installed for playing DirectX games. I don't have the SDK's ... just the DirectX Pack that comes with DirectX games.

Next I just enable the references in my Visual Basic All I need to do and works fine

[CornedBee]

Oh yeah, VB...

[Zaei]

Originally posted by CornedBee
Oh yeah, VB...

I think I would Die without a) The Debug Runtimes, and b) The little debug window in MSVC....

Z.

[BramVandenbon]

ow come on ... you can't expect me to do it in C++ yet. I only learnd C (and some C++ commands) 2 months ago. And at school ... if you know what I mean.

I tell you what I mean ...

at school we only learn:

- functions
- cin & cout
- and some other small commands.

But we haven't seen anything visual yet ...
Not even how to make a window or how to compile a DLL file.
So it's not very usefull yet.

The lessons are VERY good ! ... but they stick too long to the same topic ... making very small progress .

[Zaei]

Originally posted by BramVandenbon
ow come on ... you can't expect me to do it in C++ yet. I only learnd C (and some C++ commands) 2 months ago. And at school ... if you know what I mean.

I tell you what I mean ...

at school we only learn:

- functions
- cin & cout
- and some other small commands.

But we haven't seen anything visual yet ...
Not even how to make a window or how to compile a DLL file.
So it's not very usefull yet.

The lessons are VERY good ! ... but they stick too long to the same topic ... making very small progress .

You wont learn anything visual in a class, very likely. That is something you have to pick up on your own.

Z.

[BramVandenbon]

Well we learn it in the 2nd year. In the 3th year we'll get to learn things like DirectX in C++ but ... it's like another 2 years to go. I can't wait that long. Oh I will learn some C++ on my own. But at the current moment the problem is VB gets me way further ... and that's not really supportive to learn a new language. It would be great if I knew how to combine them ... by using DLL's. But they are not teaching that at the moment. So I'll just have to keep waiting and waiting I guess. Unless you guys can explain me how to make DLL's in C++ ?

[CornedBee]

Just start a DLL project in VC++ and stick to the guidelines you'll find when searching for def files on this forum.

[Zaei]

Originally posted by CornedBee
Just start a DLL project in VC++ and stick to the guidelines you'll find when searching for def files on this forum.

Ive stopped using def files for most DLLs, unless I actually need to use GetProcAddress on it... and even then, I only list the ones Ill need.

Z.

[CornedBee]

He wants to write it for VB, so...

[BramVandenbon]

I did some research with VC++. And it looks fine. I even downloaded a tutorial. But euhmz when I put this in my form:

Private Declare Function blablablaname Lib "blblabla.dll" (para1 as integer, para2 as integer) as integer

Private Sub Form_Load()
blablablaname(12,13)
End Sub

I get an error ... blblabla.dll could not be foud or something like that.

Does anybody know how this happened ?

Does anybody have a little example for me ?

[CornedBee]

The dll must be either in the windows system path (windows\system on 9x, winnt\system32 on NT) or in the VB app's path. Or you specify the complete path explicitly.

Don't forget that Integer in VB is the same as short in C++.

[BramVandenbon]

I just found an example over here :
click here

but anyway thanks for your help.

... the dll was in the application directory ... so I still don't know why. But it doesn't really matter anymore

By the way does anybody has more help about the skeleton topic (the initial topic) ?

Thank you very much for the support this far

[Zaei]

Like I said, the only real resource is the SDK sample. There isnt a one call load-my-skinned-mesh-and-make-it-work function... there is a LOT of work that you have to go through.

Z.

[BramVandenbon]

There isnt a one call load-my-skinned-mesh-and-make-it-work function...

why not ?

there was a load-my-skinned-mesh function

maybe there's a load-my-skinned-mesh-with-skelet function too ?