In ludiloom, characters are models with special physics properties, designed for player control. They should be used on game elements that will be controlled by the user such as avatars or units in RTS. If you check the ludiloom API here, you will find lots of functions for characters to move, rotate, go to a point, etc.
Character Model
The first thing you need is a model for your character. In the objects tree, Right-click on the object >> new >> model. This will open the Model Editor to create a 3d model. Give a name to the model, pick a mesh and press "Save". There are lots of Media Libraries that you can subscribe for free that contain models ready to use as characters: the Characters, Desert Attack and Aztec among others.
Character Physics
The physics engine inside ludiloom has several features to manage character control: physics, movement, interpolation, etc.. We will show how to use these features in this tutorial. More about this interface here. After pressing "Save" in the Model Editor, open the Physics Editor. Choose "Character" in the physics type box.
Configuring the physics is mostly a task of tweaking, so you are more likely spend more time in the physics interface after the model is moving than when creating it. You can find a more detailed explanation about this interface here, but here are some things you should to do:
- Set the Mass (to 100, for instance), so your character behaves properly to gravity and other physical forces.
- Set synchronization to global only if the game is multi-player, since this option will propagate the position to every one in the arena. Local synchronization means that the Simulation is constantly updated, which may be important to the game implementation, but it comes with an overhead.
- Enable collision and gravity.
- Set the offset, scale and rotation of the capsule. If you look at the 3d model in the game scene while this editor is open, you'll see a green capsule around the model. This capsule is what really matters to the physics engine. Sometimes we have to adjust the capsule to the model.
- Set the speed of the model.
- Define how much the character can climb and jump.
- Configure the walk sound. This sound is played in loop whenever the character is moving over a surface.
- Configure the jump sound.
