Friday Ladders

Short Blog Today

After a long day of making what felt like one million very minor tweaks to line up the character ladder animation with the AI system, I have decided although it was presentable at high speeds it was not quite right. 

The solution will be to have Mark tweak the animation so 'movement' and 'animation hand and foot positions' line up perfectly, or code some sort of animation database system whereby each frame can move the character model an arbitrary amount.  The second is better as it means characters will move around the world less 'smooth' and create a very subtle sense of realism which I think is what we are chasing here.

I will think on it more over the weekend, and move my current implementation from a test hack to a real engine feature I can use for all ladders across multiple enemies and allies.

Signing Off

I was planning to present a video, but I would not create the impression Mark had in mind when he created the ladder animation.  Rather than rush one out, I will implement some more care into the ladder stuff and the next video opportunity will show a really nice 'hopefully realistic' climb action.

I must say it is pretty cool to see the character swing onto the ladder and bolt up it giving chase, with the head limb relatively independent and looking around!  It also occurred to me that the same system could be used for staircases, so instead of the usual 'enemy sliding diagonally' up the ramp stairs, the character actually places one foot perfectly on each step and ascends properly.  Exciting visuals ahead, although I had hoped to be at the point of some small combat functionality with the player taking pot shots by Friday but it's probably the right move to aim for the best realism before moving on (as it's not rocket science).