Robot walk cycle game test.

I've been working on the coding for the walk cycle so that the characters can walk in a way that looks real in the game engine.
I already have a way of getting the feet to follow the ground mesh so it is not "floating in mid air" now I think I've got it so that it can change speeds fluidly and can even do a realistic animation when making static turns.

When they are in game the speed of the walkcycle will be tied directly to the speed of the character (which I get using a nice speedometer script).
When you turn whilst static the action of turning will add a few intergers to the speed, resulting in the static turn.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Robot
• mech
• mecha
• walk cycle
• run cycle
• blender game engine

[fredrickpendragon]

I know you've probably moved on to the Battletech stuff but I bet if you could get this into that Unity game engine and work with someone to put together an online browser game allowing customization and stuff for a mech deathmatch game in which you can win credits to buy new modules then you could have a real hit on your hands. Free-to-play games with optional cash purchases are ridiculously lucrative!

[pickledtezcat]

@fredrickpendragon

I do plan to make my own game later, something like what you're suggesting, however, I'm still learning so I focused on the battletech stuff because there's a recognised audience for it. Easier to get people to test it and give feedback. I've also learned a lot on the BT project, what to do and what not to do. I'll hopefully funnel that in to a Free to play game in the future. :)

[pickledtezcat]

Each foot bone is parented to a "hook" bone which has an action which takes it +/- 1 blender unit from the floor. The action is set to "property".

I use an empty on each side (left and right) set at +1 blender unit which casts a ray to the floor.

The ray then uses the distance to the floor as a property, so that if the floor is -0.5 blender units from the empty, the leg "hook" bone is dropped to -0.5 blender units and so matches the distance to the floor. Each foot then follows the ground mesh.

[pickledtezcat]

Yes, there are 6 meshes, (4 shown here) all of which use the same rig.

It took quite a lot of planning to get them to all line up properly. ^-^

[fredrickpendragon]

@pickledtezcat Awesome! I look forward to it with great anticipation. I also love what you're doing with the Battletech game--really amazing work(though some of the animations look a little off to me). Like I said, I'd love to have that on a handheld of some sort. Keep on mechin'!

[kotowate]

How do you follow the ground mesh? Is it by using IK per leg with seperate checks for each foot or is it modifying lower body with ground alignment?

[laxwolf]

Thats awesome, this is so well done. The speedometer is a great idea. Are they all on the same rig or something?