Adding Grips

Tutorials for game development.
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Zefz
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Adding Grips

Post by Zefz »

Adding Grips

Grips are the last vertices that should be placed in the model. They typically represent a character's (or creature's) left and right hand. Grips are also used for mounts, you put the grip where the character will ride... it can be thought of as the saddle for the mount. The scale, position and rotation of each set of grip vertices controls the scale, position and rotation of whatever other object the character is holding in that grip.

Grips have been notoriously difficult to work with. If the vertices are not in exactly the right order, the object you are holding appears stretched, squashed, distorted or worse.

You are allowed to use up to two grips per model (But this is going to change in later versions). If you only need one, it will be considered the left grip in your data.txt file for the object.

The simplest way to add grips to your character is to cut and paste the grips from an existing model. (Use the download link below).

In this picture you see that I've selected one complete grip so you know what it looks like. Those four vertrices that are selected in this editor is the grip we want copied into a model. It's a bit hard to see the yellow dots which are the selected vertrices so I've rounded them with a red circle.
Image

Simply COPY (ctrl+c) and open the model you want to put the grip into and PASTE (ctrl+v). Select append to model. Your grip(s) should now be in your model. Make sure that you animate the grip vertices when you animate the rest of the model. You wouldn't want your character's hand to move, but whatever he's holding to remain still.

Here you see the grip copied into a Zombi model. The grip has been selected so it's easier to see.
Image

Download the prepeared grips
I have prepared two models. They are both included in the following archive:Download Grip

grip.mdl is only one grip, for use with mounts and such. grips.mdl is a set of left and right grip vertices. You can extract the archive into your QME geometry folder, to easily add grips to your models. Or, you can just open the grip models in your favorite model editor, select the grip, copy it and paste it into your new model. Again, it's important that you add the grips last to your model, due to the nature of how Egoboo reads model data.
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