I have been using Esenthel Engine for about 2 days so far and I am progressing quite nicely. This engine is awesome and I am having fun with it. If some questions could be answered I would really appreciate it. Sorry these questions are basic since I am trying to understand how to use the mesh editor (ME).

1. I primarily make 2D games, but now with EE I am trying 3D. So if I am one person and I make a game to sell, the license is $150/per game for sale. Is that true?

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The entry barrier to 3D for me has always been the 3D models. So far I've made and/or downloaded .obj models and have got them in my test app. My troubles are with animated models.

2. If I have a 3D model, I can import it into the mesh editor, apply textures, add bones, and animate it to use with the engine? This seems so since I have imported a model, added a skeleton... But is this the normal workflow? The optimal workflow? Should I use something like blender?

What if an imported model's origin is 'off'? Can it be repositioned in the ME, or does the origin need to be set in modeling software and reexported?

3. After the skeleton is added, I go into skeleton mode --> vertex paint mode. As I understand it, I have to paint the model so as to associate vertices with their bones. Does this mean each vertex is associated with only 1 bone? Sorry for the dumb questions. Also, does this mean when a parent bone is moved, all of the children's bones' vertices will move as well when animating?

4. Lastly, I do not understand the animation time line. However, I have gotten some crappy animations accomplished even though I do not thoroughly understand the ME animation mode.

I understand the green bar signifies the point in time of the animation process. But what are the red dots on the first line of the animation bar? These are keyframes? Sorry I am an idiot. What are the pink dots on the last line of the animation bar? What are the other lines of the animation bar used for?

ps. I've watched the video where the cartoon dinosaur is animated three times, but I am still having some difficulty with the above.

Hi,

1. yes (per game)
2. you can reposition them in ME, or in your 3d program
You can set the material, texture parameters manually, or set them in 3d program, then they should import automatically
most suggested program+exporter is 3d studio max with collada exporter
3. one vertex can have up to 2 bone influences
yes if parent moves in animation, then children too
4. there can be different keyframes:
target orientation (default)
relative rotation
position
scale
and last you have "events"

Wow. Thanks for the quick reply. That helped a lot. However, I have some follow up questions. Hopefully these won't be too much bother.

1. Unfortunately 3d Studio max is out of my price range. If I just use ME, what are my disadvantages? Is it just that 3dsmax is more fully featured, etc.?

2. Can an animation have multiple keyframes, e.g. both orientation and rotation? I think I can test this out myself, but I am currently editing the skeleton so I have to wait.

3. What are events? Are they simply labels on the animation time line?

Thanks. Again your engine is definitely amazing. Best wishes.

Hey,

1. Well the ME is pretty limited if you want to make lots of animations. If you use Blender(free) its easier to create animations with.. and there are plenty of standard animations on the net you can use for your characters.

2. Yes.

3. Events are indeed labels... for example for walking you have footsteps and at the moment when the foot hits the ground you can make in your code give a footstep a sound effect.


~Dynad

Dynad, thanks for the help. I've used Blender in the past so I'll give it a go. Maybe something simple and see if I can establish a working process from Blender to EE.

Best wishes.