Great thing about avatars is...

Just thinking out loud.... Are the avatar Simobjects ?
If so, can they be "aircraft" ?
If so, can they be modelled as a pilot with a parachute, for ejection from military planes ? :)

Also, I suppose that we can't step inside an aircraft, right ? I'm thinking about a cargo/troops aircraft...
 
F-35 pilot avatar preview - will be included in the new F-35 package...

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Isn't that crazy, Dino ? Your 3D modelling skills are so high-level that you managed to make someone say that a "F-35 looks very nice" :biggrin-new:
 
I'm starting to see the multi-sim P3D .With advancing armies and some serious wargames. How about sitting around waiting for the siren to go , then dashing out to your Spitfire ( or something) , in chase of your enemies . This could be the game of endless ideas. What an interesting ride we're in for !
 
Nice work Dino. Did you check the modeldef file? I noticed that it even includes a "death" animation. I wonder how that can be triggered!

The Avatar can also swim. It doesn't have any code that makes him carry weapons and shoot or hit something bare-handed though, but that's another regime anyhow.



Cheers,
Mark
 
Yes, I have seen that... but for the moment I've only implemented the basics. Still, there is a number of undocumented avatar features that are worth some investigation.
Also, much like aicraft development, the community is likely to come out with some bright and unforeseen ways to use it.

I am working on a military Avatar package which will feature a pilot figure (with HGU-33 and -55 helmets) and the trooper figure (with 10-15 different camouflages - I am picking the most common worlwide...) - both will not be nation/service specific but rather "generic" models...
Package is going to be payware (but quite cheap) to cover some development costs... it may be ready in a week or so.
 
I read that on your blog earlier. I'll be getting that.:encouragement:
I assume once you've got the bones sorted and animated it would be fairly easy to drop the skeleton into different "bodies". There's not much info in the SDK though.
 
Well... it is relatively easy, but each "body" needs some adjustments...and from time to time the animation behaves in weird way.
During the Beta, I have already asked LM to provide more details on the development of avatars (and possibly a sample)... but I had not received any significant info.
I managed to get them working after a lot of trial-&-error iterations... In the unlikely event that I'll have some time to spare, I'll see if it makes sense to share my findings - although most of them are "working guesses" rather than correct tecnique.

One cool think - unknown to many... in P3Dv3 certain Mouse Areas can be clicked from the outer model (again...I am not completely sure which ones work and which do not). As example, you can open / close the canopy and the crew access ladder in the F-35 by clickling on them...
 
Any chance of producing a trooper (Airtrooper! :loyal:!) with a beret (rather than cap) with a blank badge area, a belt with blank badge area, a blank rank slip and blank area for either wings or a name on the chest, plus a paintkit. This would provide endless hours of repainting possibilities!

Here is just one example (inc. someone famous! How about being him in an avatar!), but the combinations are almost endless!

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Here is another example which could be repainted:

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Airtrooper said:
This would provide endless hours of repainting possibilities!
Click to expand...
Hehe, I have had quality time (and some good laughs!) painting the stock avatar already ...

Chaos_zpsarxh9syj.jpg


Certainly not short and chubby enough, and no cape, but it's a start! :very_drunk:

(Most dissatisfying part is the head, even radical editing of the bump map cannot totally eliminate the "hair lock" protrusion in the forehead of the model ...).
 
...well, for the moment I am limiting myself to nation, service and rank agnostic repaints - as it would be impossible to manage.
As for the paint-kit, I am afraid it cannot be done in the proper way as most of the geometry comes form commercial meshes and exposing the source material is forbidden by the license... but maybe that the inclusion of a "white" uniform will do.
Hats variations have also been discarded (for the moment) due to their large number... but maybe I can include some model further variations...

Question to native English speakers... would "trooper" be the right general term? Current descriptions are like "Military Trooper Male, US Woodland" or "Military Trooper Male, British Desert DPM"... would this be correct? For some reason "trooper" does not seem right to me, but I fail to find a better word.

Anyway, here are the first two promotional images.

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Dino Cattaneo said:
Question to native English speakers... would "trooper" be the right general term? Current descriptions are like "Military Trooper Male, US Woodland" or "Military Trooper Male, British Desert DPM"... would this be correct? For some reason "trooper" does not seem right to me, but I fail to find a better word.
Click to expand...

Trooper originally meant a hoarse cavalry soldier. Later with mechanization it applied to any soldier with specialist given names such as paratrooper, etc.

Dino, did you ever think you would be playing with dolls when you started this all those years ago?
 
...dolls or planes does not matter - as long as it is fun :)


It is still not clear to me if "trooper" would do (including airmen and sailors)... anyway it does not seem too wrong.

@Airtrooper - I will probably add a model with a beret.
 
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