Hand Swap (Left Handed Animations/Characters)

[Cairdeas]

This was requested a long time ago before the game ever came out and I don't know if anyone ever posted a request on these forums. Doing a search of the forums I don't really see anything.


With the announcement that they can just make Weapons Disappear with a /command. I'm wondering if they can also do the same with making characters fight Left-Handed. even if all it is, is a mirroring of the animations.

Something like:

/attackhand right - Makes you appear to use your right hand as your attack hand, equipping your shield to your left.
/attackhand left - Makes you appear to use your left hand as your attack hand, equipping your shield to your right.

I know theres not a BIG demand for such a function, and I know I most likely wouldn't use it. I myself am Right-handed. But I know quite a few people are left handed and would love the option.

[Anonymoose]

I'm all for stylistic options; maybe this one will come in around the same time as those "barber shops" and such that we heard about so long ago.

[RabidSquirrel]

Making something disappear versus revamping ALL animations for the left hand as the main hand are worlds different in implementation. Just saying.

[Estellios]

I figure they could just mirror the model/animations, kinda like what they did with the Wii Twilight Princess (although in that case they mirrored the entire game). There's no gear with writing on it that I know of so stuff wouldn't look off.

[RabidSquirrel]

I figure they could just mirror the model/animations, kinda like what they did with the Wii Twilight Princess (although in that case they mirrored the entire game). There's no gear with writing on it that I know of so stuff wouldn't look off.

I know it's sounds simple, but it really isn't. It's not about mirroring the model, it's about mirroring the rigs/animation to an unchanged model. Depending on the way it's setup, it can be close to impossible.

[Jynx]

Depending on the type of animation skeleton they used this could be either really hard and time consuming...or impossible.

[Cairdeas]

Inverting animations and models is not hard. A HUGE majority of models are symmetrical anyway.

[RabidSquirrel]

Inverting animations and models is not hard. A HUGE majority of models are symmetrical anyway.

If you're saying that inverting rigs in a modeling program is easy, yeah, it probably is. But only because it is setup that way. I've written my own joint animation system for my engine, at it is not set up for something like this. I'd have to duplicate all animations, or completely rewrite that portion of the engine. One is not efficient, and the other will take way longer than I'd like invest. You can never compare tools against engines (Once again, assuming that's what you meant).

[Cairdeas]

If you're saying that inverting rigs in a modeling program is easy, yeah, it probably is. But only because it is setup that way. I've written my own joint animation system for my engine, at it is not set up for something like this. I'd have to duplicate all animations, or completely rewrite that portion of the engine. One is not efficient, and the other will take way longer than I'd like invest. You can never compare tools against engines (Once again, assuming that's what you meant).

The way the crystal tools engine is designed it has the ability to manipulate model render size and dimensions without changing the actual model for those. If it can do that I have no doubt it can simply invert the model and animation as well. Similar to how character are inverted for SFIV. They didn't animate the characters multiple times for left and right facing, they only animated them once and inverted it. Its not that hard. Hell I've inverted Animations in SL from multibone animations without ever having using an animation tool before.

[Zkieve]

I know theres not a BIG demand for such a function, and I know I most likely wouldn't use it. I myself am Right-handed. But I know quite a few people are left handed and would love the option.

Not attacking you , i think we need more threads with less whining and i tell you this with the most friendly way posible.dont take it the wrong way,but,
Damn man you have a way of asking the most useless stuff ever now and then.
I support your idea none the less.
like from me.