i am playing around with leaving footprints in the snow or leaving trails of blood, etc. I dont have it working "pretty", but i atleast have modified the nehe 3d tutorials so that when you walk around it leaves footprints that face the correct direction. I originally got this idea, when i was working on my 3d christmas card. I thought of 2 ways to go about this: 1. create a texture that looks like a 3d imprint in the snow. This could also be great if you wanted to make it look like a character stepped in blood and you want to leave a trail. or 2. actually drop the height of the terrain where the character steps. (this method might look cool but I have a feeling it would also be too costly to speed, especially for such a minor detail) well i sort of tested out thought number 1 this is what i have http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jfallon/footprints.zip if anyone has implemented or seen something implemented that does this or if you just want to suggest a better way to do it, leave a post. it''''s all about a good time! -Lokapujya

in addition to a texture have you considered using a similar outline as a bump map - that way it would look right if the lighting changes - easier than changing the geometry....maybe..

You would probably be better off creating a decal and then applying that to the faces where the person was walking. Thats what most games do, especially with blood and bullet holes or things like that. There is an article on creating decal faces here http://nate.scuzzy.net/docs/decals/. It covers a basic method you could use, doesn''t do the 3D clipping but for footprints I doubt that is important.

SgtBaker