OK so, I've got the basic mechanics complete.  Here is where I'm at:

- Multiple Object Selection and Visual indicator
- Apply change to multiple selection
- Delta tracking of changes from initial values
- Dynamic Object Loading (3DS single, multipart)
- Load from XML persistence
- Orbital camera with zoom, pan, etc
- Floating FengGui UI

To do's:
- Better camera tracking (it is still chasing Werdy).
- Marker placement for object spawning (see that Marker Toggle button? in marker mode you set a marker on the terrain and the load will occur there)
- Persistence to XML across the board
- custom property extentions per object for game content
- Texture Loader (right now I'm just using my XML texture loader for Werdy)

So what you are seeing in the pic: 
I selected 3 of the tree canopy sections and altered the transparency as a group - notice the ones not affected.  Also I detached Werdy's head and messed with the rotations and translations.  If you select the various objects on the screen you can see all the property delta's in the floater screen - and use the "Stepping" box to get back if necessary.  No undo feature yet.  Its hard to see in the pic but right above the "key" label there is a ComboBox which is always in the context of selected objects - so just the 3 canopy objects are in the list since they are highlighted.  You can lock object selections by using the "Select Toggle" which gives you a special cursor.  Turn it on, select some objects and turn it off and the objects will be locked highlighted.  A regular cursor does nothing but show terrain coords on mouse move. 





 
 

I started a tree and before positioning a 100 or so leaf clusters I decided (smartly!) to give it a whirl in JPCT and of course I've got a new issue now 

Leaf transparency and culling.  I don't want to set the whole merged terrain to CULLING_DISABLED and setTransparency(X).

So how do I solve this issue with compound objects like this?  Do I need to load all trees seperately from the level or use a custom XML loader to generate the leaves for the tree on the fly using Object3D primatives?  Here is pic of my problem - the first leaf cluster lacks the appropriate transparency and culling properties.

A basic 3rd person non violent platform type.  This is just a test level for framerate, lighting and some crude landscape models.  I did all the modeling except the "hut" which was a turbosquid freebie.  The framerate is about 70-140 on my Centrino IBM T60 with a Radeon x1400.  The test level is pretty large - the OC Tree size is 30800 for the landscape alone.

 

Strange issue:

If I have a sloped plane, meaning the terrain itself is sloped, calcMinDistance with breakIfLarger works just fine.  However, if I'm running up a sloped surface that is an object on the plane, using breakIfLarger causes the slope to not be detected and I fall through to the plane under it.  This is especially true where the sloped object meets the plane.  So if I'm running down the slope, toward the bottom I suddenly fall through.

Using the "normal" calcMinDistance takes care of it - but I'm curious why this is happening?

Anyone try to map a USB gamepad in OpenGL mode?  I have not tried it but I've been animating a character for my son to play with and he'd be better off on the Saitek than the keyboard.

I was thinking about making some kids games but without gamepad support it will be sorta tough.  Ideas?

Thanks.  I appreciate the encouragement.  I read the whole Karga thread and it was amazing to watch your project transform from the raw basics to the end result - very inspiring.

I'm very curious what peoples backgrounds are here.  I'm a developer in the financial industry with about 2 years of C++, 6 of Java and 8-10 with VB.  I mostly do Java middle tier services now.  I have no gaming development experience but I've played tons of RPG's.  I think Temple of Elemental Evil was the pinnacle of turn based combat gaming and there is a great void today for that kind of gameplay. 

That's my story and why I'm here anyway... 

Can't seem to get this working.  Every time I add a mesh for an animation frame I get an error such as:

Object 'object_1_jPCT20' created using 570 polygons and 558 vertices.
[ Tue Apr 10 08:38:30 EDT 2007 ] - ERROR: Bounding box missing in this mesh!

The model does appear in the world.  He's lying on his back but I know how to fix that.  When I call
_monster.setAnimationSequence(anim);
I get:

[ Tue Apr 10 08:38:30 EDT 2007 ] - ERROR: This Animation is empty!


Which is expected given the other errors on each Mesh.

BTW I didn't create the model - its from the book "Killer Java Game Programming" and it was created with Poser. 
I can't seem to find a basic animated 3DS file anywhere for testing.  Could someone upload one??? 

Here is the underlying code.

private void testLoad3DS2(){
try{
Loader.setVertexOptimization(false);

Object3D[] animArray=Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_stand.3ds", 100f);
_monster=animArray[0];
_monster.build();

_monster.rotateX((float)-Math.PI/2);
              _monster.rotateMesh();
              _monster.setRotationMatrix(new Matrix());
     
              _monster.createTriangleStrips(2);
              _monster.setCollisionMode(Object3D.COLLISION_CHECK_OTHERS);
              _monster.setCollisionOptimization(Object3D.COLLISION_DETECTION_OPTIMIZED);

_monster.setTexture("select");
_monster.setVisibility(true);

_monster.translate(new SimpleVector(0, -50, 0));

theWorld.addObject(_monster);



Animation anim=new Animation(5);
Object3D [] o = null;

anim.createSubSequence("stand");
o = Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_stand.3ds", 100f);
anim.addKeyFrame(o[0].getMesh().cloneMesh(false));

anim.createSubSequence("walk");
o = Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_walk1.3ds", 100f);
anim.addKeyFrame(o[0].getMesh().cloneMesh(false));
o = Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_walk2.3ds", 100f);
anim.addKeyFrame(o[0].getMesh().cloneMesh(false));

anim.createSubSequence("punch");
o = Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_punch1.3ds", 100f);
anim.addKeyFrame(o[0].getMesh().cloneMesh(false));
o = Loader.load3DS("models/3ds/skel_punch2.3ds", 100f);
anim.addKeyFrame(o[0].getMesh().cloneMesh(false));

System.out.println("MoveTest::testLoad3DS2() setting sequence...");
_monster.setAnimationSequence(anim);

}catch(Exception e){
System.err.println("MoveTest::testLoad3DS2() " + e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
}
   }




    private void checkAnimate3DS(){
    // CALLED IN GAME LOOP...

try{
long ltime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    if((ltime - _last3DSms) > 60){
_last3DSms = ltime;

if(_anim3DS > 1)
_anim3DS=0;
else
_anim3DS+=0.05f;
_monster.animate(_anim3DS, 2); // walk sequence...
}

}catch(Exception e){
System.err.println("MoveTest::checkAnimate3DS() " + e.getMessage());
e.printStackTrace();
}
   }