I have a question of simplicity: would it be easier to figure out how to read a Poser (4.0) file''s data and use that to move your person/thing on screen, or to use a bitmap of "slides" of your character in all his different positions. one would think that by reading the poser file you could have more possibilites for movement... Can you help? Jjesterr Acolyte in Training (LOL, i still have to learn how to actually program all this stuff, but as long as i know where im going, i can figure out how) "A smile can take you a long way. A smile and a gun will take you even farther" - Al Capone

Is Poser a 3D mesh thingie?

Even with a 2D game, with today''s hardware, you can rotate a bitmap & blit it in real time...

If it''s a 3D file, then you load all the points & textures into ram, and pipe it to the 3D rendered. To produce motion you either ''play'' a sequence of pre-calculated 3D meshes (an animation sequence) or you calculate the motion and modify the vertices of the object (skeletal based animation).

There later is "more advanced" in that it allows faster machines to produce smoother animations, and slower machines to still work with jagged animation. The later also allows for a virtually limitless spectrum of motion, where as a animation is locked to that particular animation.

I don''t know the implementation details, but it seems that skeletal based animation would releive a good deal of work from the artist (when compared to animation sequences).

ok, as i get it now, its either more work for the programmer or the artist, right?

Poser characters have a huge number of polys. You wouldn''t be able to use the full meshes as 3D models in a game. Just look at the blocky characters that populate most 3D games - this is the type of detail you can get away with.

Tiled sprites would preserve the graphical detail, but present other limitations (number of anims, etc).

It really depends on how you''re building the interface and what you want the game to look like.