AD's Test Lab: Hooded Cloak

by **The Amethyst Dragon** Sat Sep 14, 2013 4:07 am

I am finally experimenting with actual cloak models (rather than just textures like I've done before).

My first experiment, done as a proof of concept, was to add a hood to a cloak so that it would automatically match the coloration of the cloak and would flex and bend when the PC moves his head.

And ya know what? The damn thing worked on the first try. cheers

Shown here is the proof of concept model I did. The hood is NOT a VFX...it's part of the cloak model itself. Smile

The texture positioning still needs work (I'm using existing textures for this model), and I need to work on meshing the hood and cloak better for a final model and then try to resize/mangle the thing for other needed models (normal male, heavy male, normal female, heavy female for each PC race). And I don't know if they'd play nice with the alternative combat animations without making even more versions...I guess I'll tackle that if/when I get there.

This hooded model isn't intended to replace a normal cloak model, but to provide a new option for those that want it. If everything works out as planned, perhaps a function to alter an existing plain cloak appearance to the matching hooded version can be done. It would have to be optional, because like the VFX version, this version would cause model clipping with any hair that sticks out too far.

I can clearly see why no new actual cloak models have been made (besides Ben Harrison's wizard hat) since visible cloaks were added in the 1.68 patch. The things are a major pain in the butt to work with. They're a single "skin" mesh object that is tied to an invisible "skeleton" in specific (and nuanced) ways so that they flex properly.