I thought MDL model files stored the skin/texture filename for it inside. If this is true, how can you use a different texture file than the one specified in it?

Well, that's a good question.

First of all, I'm not sure that it stores the texture name the way you're thinking it does.

Most model formats permit interchanging textures, it's all just a matter of how the UV coords apply.

Also, if you play with MED, you will notice that you can assign multiple textures to one model.

Being that A5 only supports the display of one texture per mesh, that might sound confusing.

What it was designed to do, in a nutshell, was place different skins of say, varying degrees of damage in the file, and switch between them depending on the players current level of health!

Basically, I am just wanting to forego the whole damage thing in favor of a more customizable gaming experience!

Hello all,

Well you have quessed it. We are designing an MMORG.... So we need (require) the ability to put on and take off clothing, items, jewelry, etc while the game is running. This is different than choosing a player before game start.

It was also mentioned that a 3rd party company offered a variety of textures / bodies already but these were only for importing into 3DGS before game start... is this correct? If not, then maybe this can be another solution. However, with MMORG you must have the ability to add items throughout the life (realtime) of the game and have it apply to several different types of characters each with their own look.

Now you may be asking what the heck we are doing using 3DGS... well price (we don't have $100,000 to purchase a High End Engine) and deployment time. We need a useable system out in a relatively short time and although we have the programmers on the team already.... the significant time investment in developing our own engine (which we are confident can be done with the level of our talent) would force us to miss our window of opportunity.

So please correct me if I am wrong. I had the impression / understanding that within WDL you could swap a Model Texture (skin) in realtime especially if it was the same graphics size. Is this correct? I haven't had time to get our research programmer involved in looking at it. LOL I just manage the team If this is not the case then we are out of luck with 3DGS. I sure hope not because it offers almost 80% of our initial requirements.

TIA

-Ron McCann

Get your programmers to look in the manual under entities, skin. ie. my.skin=1, my.skin=2 etc determines which of the multiple skins in MED is used, realtime. The code I posted below uses this, it is no different at all.

You can change the models in realtime using ent_morph().

You can also add on smaller bits to the model eg boots, hats, gloves or whatever using vec_for_vertex() without having to animate them.

Thanks Ambit!!!
Now I know how to let players select their car color, with customizations, and also show damage after collisions.
Nice!!