Currently, the pictures of the player models in the options-player menu aren't very coherent. Some are pictures, whereas some look more like screenshots.

Couldn't the picture previews of the character models be more uniform, such as a full color screenshot in a plain-background map for each model? I find some of the pictures don't look very much like the models. I understand this is rather trivial, but I hated asking someone what model they were using only to have them say they were using the exact model I was.

Just a thought.

I concur. The model previews could be better.

why a pic ata ll? why not a realtime render?

A real-time render would be great. I'd be curious of its execution though.

tChr wrote:why a pic ata ll? why not a realtime render?

I actually agree. Was gonna suggest that if tChr wouldn't done it. With that you could have it rotating (and perhaps also manual rotation with the mouse).

Yes it is indeed a bit disturbing seeing a series of pictures without any singular theme.

Yes, I would want a realtime render too... but no idea how to do it. Currently, the engine isn't able to display models in the menu code... that needs to be added, and then we need a menu control that displays a model. Could then also preview the colors.

Why does it need to be a realtime render? Why not an embedded quicktime/java/flash-like 360 view? Might be more feasible than an actual render.

Just an example:
http://www.e2etech.com/mediaPR.shtml

torus wrote:Why does it need to be a realtime render? Why not an embedded quicktime/java/flash-like 360 view? Might be more feasible than an actual render.

Just an example:
http://www.e2etech.com/mediaPR.shtml

In Darkplaces...the engine?

torus wrote:Why does it need to be a realtime render? Why not an embedded quicktime/java/flash-like 360 view? Might be more feasible than an actual render.

Because there are 19 different models/skins and 225 color combinations for each one. Do you really want to include 4275 prerendered previews?

If it was possible to load a 3D model into the menu, wouldn't it then be possible to do a lot more complex and appealing menus as well?

Not really, or at least not for the usual GUI elements.

However, it would be useful for quite some stuff...

torus wrote:Why does it need to be a realtime render? Why not an embedded quicktime/java/flash-like 360 view? Might be more feasible than an actual render.

Just an example:
http://www.e2etech.com/mediaPR.shtml

Because that would mean embedding a video codec into DP that actually compresses good enough to make the 4275 video files fit in, let's say, at most 100 MB. That makes 24k per preview, and in these 24k there should be two seconds of video for a slow enough rotating model. Means the video has 95kbps to use.

Even if such codecs exist that make the video still look good at THAT bitrate, they surely aren't freely usable. No, neither Quicktime nor Real is good enough for THAT.

Also, adding a good video playback codec is probably much harder than just adding model support to menu QC.

divVerent wrote:Also, adding a good video playback codec is probably much harder than just adding model support to menu QC.

so...

fixed it yet?


another thing.. creating the videos would be a drag, RT would make it very much easier to add new models and colors etc

maybe we can use the Bink codec like what the older final fantasy games (9 and below) and many newer games use.

Erm sorry?!

This is a topic from 2007, the issue was solved months ago.

EDIT: oh, you're talking about video... Nah, bad idea. A better idea would be to directly render the model, if you're going to make changes anyway.

Ancient topic or not I think I have good reply for it. I noticed whenever you bring up the menu in-game that everything continues to move around (unless you pause it) and that you can still see everything going on. Maybe it would possible to make the game load a map at title screen in order to display your character in real-time. Though vastly different than Quake and Dark Places, that is what Unreal Tournament does and your able to edit your character with it's model shown in real-time.

Lee_Stricklin wrote:Though vastly different than Quake and Dark Places, that is what Unreal Tournament does and your able to edit your character with it's model shown in real-time.

That would be a great improvement.

a great improvement indeed.

I saw that War§ow , game based on Qfusion Engine (that is based on quake2), uses realtime display of characters (not animated, but spinning on their z axis). So, I thought: maybe, it would be difficult, but it would be possible to embed this piece of code (or copy and modify, the license is GPL)in Nexuiz, what do you think?

If anyone is interested in this, they might be interested in this http://blog.blackhc.net/?s=edu2&x=0&y=0