18th February 2003, 9:29 PM
I don't know the intracacies of graphics programming yet OB1, but at leas tI know that fact. I know better than to complain about the lazy developers now. I used to do that all the time, until I found out that it's so much more difficult than you think it is. And I'm sure you think it is hard.
Well, let me explain. using a tool like OpenGL or DirectX it's real easy to make something simple. I recently made a 3D polygonal table and let you rotate the camera aroudn it- that was my first hw project. It sounds hard, but it's really not. But now actually doing something that doesn't look stupid is the fun part.
Nintendo didn't use Maya for OoT, as Maya was not even released until 1998. They did use Maya for the animation in WW (I saw a press release in December), but OoT is a completely different ballgame. For all I know, they programmed each animation in the way I know how to do it (the slow, hard, beginner way) with hardcoded matrix transformations. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have different functions called depending on Link's actions, and have those take care of any animation. But it would be an UGLY job to make these transformations, believe me.
I know you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about there, and you really shouldn't. Nobody without a programming and math background would. Just consider it a small case in point that we don't really know anything about what these guys do. You can't get a job at Nintendo unless you are good and have a lot of experience, unless you went to school specifically for a game degree. In which case, you have experience and a lot of info on how to do this the right way. But the bottom line is that they know what they are doing.
Well, let me explain. using a tool like OpenGL or DirectX it's real easy to make something simple. I recently made a 3D polygonal table and let you rotate the camera aroudn it- that was my first hw project. It sounds hard, but it's really not. But now actually doing something that doesn't look stupid is the fun part.
Nintendo didn't use Maya for OoT, as Maya was not even released until 1998. They did use Maya for the animation in WW (I saw a press release in December), but OoT is a completely different ballgame. For all I know, they programmed each animation in the way I know how to do it (the slow, hard, beginner way) with hardcoded matrix transformations. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have different functions called depending on Link's actions, and have those take care of any animation. But it would be an UGLY job to make these transformations, believe me.
I know you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about there, and you really shouldn't. Nobody without a programming and math background would. Just consider it a small case in point that we don't really know anything about what these guys do. You can't get a job at Nintendo unless you are good and have a lot of experience, unless you went to school specifically for a game degree. In which case, you have experience and a lot of info on how to do this the right way. But the bottom line is that they know what they are doing.