Been trying to figure out, assuming that the base model is a simple naked man, how do most games go about making a sleeved shirt and pants for the model? The 1st method i tried was to model a shirt which i attached to one of the bones of the model, but it makes the poly count go up, and when the model bends the body, the shirt cuts into the body. 2nd method tried was to do the shirt as a texture, and having a seperate mesh that looks like a shirt sleeve attached to the shoulder. Seem to work for the shoulder, but can't visualise how to do it for tucked out shirts. 3rd method tried was to do a Base model for each style of clothes, but the permutations grows quickly with shirt and pants. Does anyone know how does games like WoW or There.com do clothes, or can share some insights on how can clothes be done in computationally inexpensive methods? Appreciate it, Cheers

I believe that your first solution was correct, you just need to attach the right vertices to the right bones. You may also need more bones. If the bones can tranform the body's shape correctly then doing the same for the shirt should be no different. Look at how the bones connect to the body and try to mimic that with the shirt. The sleeves should move with the shoulders, the top of the shirt should move with the chest, the lower section should move with the belly or hip.

From what ive seen in most games, new body models (or addons) are created for each new look of the model. One example is the Hitman series. Throughout the game he changes clothes often to blend into the surroundings and aid in the mission. The changes in clothes seem to be a quick flick and a new body is loaded in the blink of an eye (suit, patient robe, surgical gown, police uniform, etc) which appears as an enormous amount of work seeing as you can swap clothing with just about any npc you can knock out (all of em for most part). The first method you mentioned would seem to be the most practical, although tweaking the animations to work with many types of clothes could be a pain (chicken suit vs new shirt).
World of Warcraft seems to have a massive database of clothing and items based on the predefined body sizes. Few games seem to allow clothing changes outside of the MMO/RPG genre, probably because its soo much work unless your simply creating different textures for the same clothing style or where it is crucial to gameplay (Hitman). GTA Vice City seems to repaint the model some of the time with slight changes to the model other times (big 80s shirt collars). Splinter Cells, Sam Fisher has short sleeves in a few of the levels and standard black body suit for most of the game.
It would seem that most have the resources to simply model all the looks they want for their characters and in some cases probably consider each new look a new character. Something like WoW or Dungeon Siege proably have a strict setup for character looks and item creation.

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Original post by Steven yeah The 1st method i tried was to model a shirt which i attached to one of the bones of the model, but it makes the poly count go up, and when the model bends the body, the shirt cuts into the body.

If you're swapping different geometry in and out, can't you do the same with the piece of the torso that gets covered by the shirt?

To do what you want to do, you'd have two different torso models. One naked, and one with a T-Shirt and pieces of the naked model. You'd just model the T-Shirt over the body (making sure the edgeflow is similar), delete most of the hidden faces, and attach the visible faces (such as the forearms) to the Tshirt. This sort of modelling, based on 'Kits', has become quite common even outside of the RPG genre. The difference is RPG's let you change the kits, while with other games the swapping goes on at the developer level, behind the scenes.

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Original post by Logodae Quote: Original post by Steven yeah The 1st method i tried was to model a shirt which i attached to one of the bones of the model, but it makes the poly count go up, and when the model bends the body, the shirt cuts into the body. If you're swapping different geometry in and out, can't you do the same with the piece of the torso that gets covered by the shirt?

Yes. You should divide the body up in to various parts for each item type that can be equipped. This normally looks like: Feet, lower legs, waist, torso and upper arms, forearms, hands, head / hair / beard. If these are all correctly rigged you shouldn't have any trouble swapping clothing or appearance meshes for the default body part.

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Original post by DogCity Quote: Original post by Logodae Quote: Original post by Steven yeah The 1st method i tried was to model a shirt which i attached to one of the bones of the model, but it makes the poly count go up, and when the model bends the body, the shirt cuts into the body. If you're swapping different geometry in and out, can't you do the same with the piece of the torso that gets covered by the shirt? Yes. You should divide the body up in to various parts for each item type that can be equipped. This normally looks like: Feet, lower legs, waist, torso and upper arms, forearms, hands, head / hair / beard. If these are all correctly rigged you shouldn't have any trouble swapping clothing or appearance meshes for the default body part.

Hm.. in other words, creating the model like a stikfas toy, with changable limbs? hm.. sounds interesting. I guess to do this, i'll have to export a empty biped, and model the various bodyparts and then attached it to the biped within the engine.

Will try it out

Just talked to the programmers.

Our current engine (using TV3D) don't seem to allow the attached meshes to deform with the bones. I guess that this will mean i'll need to have a seperate mesh for every joint, and when the limbs bend, we'll have to take care to make sure the break in the meshes don't show up. Sounds pretty painful.

Based on the various replies, i guess that the stikfas way is the most common method, and it don't seem like an option for us due to the enigne.

Right now, it seems to me like the only viable option is to have a seperate model for each big permutation like long sleeve shirt/short sleeve shirt, shorts and long pants, (pain pain pain), and for details that don't need to deform, like boots, just texture the feet brown, and add a small mesh that looks like the calf portion of the boots.

Can each piece have their own bones?

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Original post by Kelly G Can each piece have their own bones?

huh?