Tuesday 29 March 2011

SgMotion: Rig/Skeleton Visualizer

A couple of days ago I added a new feature to the SgMotion animation library.
It visualizes the animation skeleton to debug animation and rigging issues and helps finding bone/dummy names and indices more easily.


You can grab the latest release for SgMotion over at codeplex.

An example of how to use this new feature is available inside the Sample project.

As an added bonus you can cycle through the skeleton to highlight bones and their children, watch the video to find out exactly what I mean.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Visual Script 2.0

The above image contains the new (WIP) V-Script tool. It's much like the old script tool, working with Nodes similar to many other node-based frameworks out there. However, this new tool is build from the ground up and should end up with a much cleaner structure and higher flexibility. It will include Xbox 360 support, something that the old wasn't designed for.

As you can see above, I have most of the basics worked out. A cool feature that I added today is auto-alignment, this basically structures the connectors automatically and re-sizes the Node if necessary. The old system required you to manually place all connectors, which proved to be a pain for the more complex script-nodes that were added late in development. 

One last thing you can see is the new menu inside the XNA Game Window. There aren't captured by Fraps, so you couldn't see them in my last video while it was already implemented back then. It's still only a small proof of concept, it's a context-based menu that changes depending on what you've selected and/or are working on (particles, scripts, object-placement etc.) note that the gray bottom-bar (that is currently empty) will include info about the editor and gizmo properties etc.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Console Extension - Auto-complete & Suggestions.

I actually finished this last night, but I didn't post about it and decided to get some sleep instead. It's an extension on the console component I integrated a few weeks ago. It adds support for auto-complete and command suggestions. I might add an argument-completer as well in addition to some layout fixes.


(watch in HD 720p + fullscreen to read the text)

I originally got this idea from the UDK console that has a similar feature, it should make browsing and finding commands much faster and easier and doesn't rely on software knowledge as much.

It's based on the GameConsole by Vos which I believe is one of the best console component for XNA.