M.A.C.K. Released!

Meet M.A.C.K.
The Advanced Character Kit was developed to meet a need for a character system capable of taking full advantage of Torque Game Engine's functionality. ACK was designed with a Torque MMO or RPG in mind, a game or project in which the character art must support a number of advanced features beyond what's been offered in the past. In addition, we have included working engine source examples and demonstration GUI's to make sure all developers, from beginner to advanced, can utilize the features included.

You get six pre-compiled male characters. Four are themed and have been optimized for beginners to drop in as an instant replacement characters (Military, Casual, Medieval, Post-Apoc). Also included is a nude pre-compiled character for reference. The 'Advanced' character build includes the complete mesh stack (all clothing pieces) and is capable of taking advantage of all features included in the pack.


Each character build supports skin-swapping per group, so you can choose from four races, and re-skin you clothing pieces, bodies, and mounted equipment separately in real-time for endless combinations... literally.


Disclaimer: It's almost too easy!
Though the ACK system is somewhat complicated, it has been set up to integrate easily into any TGE project (TGEA soon). You can drag and drop our entire example directory into your project and read through the differences to see what's going on under the hood. Developers can also simply drag the player data only, if they don't wish to enhance the source code of their project, but additional (that is included) code may be required to fully take advantage of the pack.

Clothing and Equipment
The pack comes with a stack of over 25 clothing pieces (such as pants, shirts, armor, robes, gloves, cape, apron, shoes, boots, belt, vests and more). Body parts and clothing all have their own groups for total control over hiding meshes to optimize the look and performance, as well as individual control over each part for re-skinning in-game (%obj.setSkinName() per mesh group). In addition to the clothing pieces that are pre-rigged and have 4 LODs, the kit also includes mountable accessories like: hair, facial hair, helmets, visor, bandoleer, and a sword for melee combat! All objects include script and source files, and were built to support skin-swapping.

Click, Click, Click
The pack also comes with a GUI system to demonstrate all of the features it's capable of, as well as give specific examples of the scripts and source code needed. You click a box and change Race (body and head textures), show and hide clothing pieces (mesh hiding), mount hair and other equipment (mountEquipment), and play and blend animations all from GUI in game: Out of the box!


Animation library > the rest
Over 90 animations included! Animation source files in Milkshape and Fragmotion allow the developer to make final tweaks to the sequences and easily export them with low cost: Milkshape3D. The system follows the BVH standard which has been heavily adopted by movie-industry animators who use motion capture. This highly flexible, heavily supported format is shared by the characters and therefore opens the door for additions of new animations, as well and many 3rd-party content providers that offer BVH related content. The ACK skeleton is set up with all the essential nodes (bones) for Torque as well as standard BVH ones. In addition, the characters have fully articulated hands with fingers. Developers can use the provided skeleton to easily integrate their meshes into the system (instructions included). This allows developers to take advantage of the many animations included with future meshes they create or license. (Of course, this only works properly with bipedal figures, such as: humanoids!).

Mod-ability
It's all there for you! From source files for animations, to UV Maps for the textures, this pack is built to be modded. If there's a job that requires a human male in Torque, M.A.C.K. is the man! Programmers will also get the source files ready for insertion into their build. You can pick and choose through the well-documented code and script changes.

Unleash the Features!
The source code and scripts included with the ACK system accomplish a number of fixes and enhancements to the Torque Game Engine that can save you hundreds of hours of coding (depending on your skill...). Let BrokeAss do the heavy-lifting on these features, fixes and enhancements to TGE (TGEA soon):

Server Side Melee System.

Custom Weapon Look Animations.

Modified SetSkinName works per group instead of for whole player.

Select from multiple player datablocks.

Random death animations called on each player death.

Damage animations on each hit.

Mesh Group Hiding (Essential for managing clothing stacks).

Terrain Materials updated to provide footprints and dust puffs.

Source
The files included have been organized with ease of use in mind. For this reason, a few .DSQs and textures may be repeated within the theme_Example builds.

Source File Types include:
Mesh/Skeleton source: ms3d, ugh, cr2, obj.
Texture source: psd, jpg, png.
Engine source code modifications

Ongoing Content Support
Following the same system that's described in the manual, BrokeAss Games in association with other developers can easily create and support additions to the system. These include but aren't limited such planned releases as: Skin packs (new face textures, new clothing textures), new animations sets, custom made mountable objects like Hair packs, and more! Developers also gain access to a private forum at www.brokeassgames.com exclusively for pack owners/developers.

Features

Art

* 6 prebuilt, optimized characters with 4 LODs. Character DTS files: Medieval, Military, Casual, Nude, Post-Apoc, Advanced

* Multiple texture sets make each character available in 4 different races. 6 characters x 4 races:
That's 24 unique, prebuilt characters from just the Male.

* 25 clothing pieces rigged to character. All code and script needed to mesh hide body parts and clothing as needed.

* 90 .dsq Animations included. All the basics are covered, and much more.

* BVH based (mocap) skeleton with full Poser and motion capture compatibility.

* .dsq Animation library cross-compatibility. Properly formatted animations will work with other ACK characters.
Custom meshes can be added and work with existing ACK animations.

* All source files included for art and animations.



Engine/Script

* Server Side Melee System.

* Custom Weapon Look Animations.

* Terrain Materials updated to provide footprints and dust puffs.

* Modified SetSkinName works per group instead of for whole player. Allows for skin swapping separately for each clothing piece, or body parts.

* Random death animations called on each death.

* Damage animations.

* Mesh Group Hiding. Essential for managing clothing stacks.

* Demo GUIs for customizing characters and playing animations

* Player Datablock Selection GUI


Documentation & Support

Online Manual
Private Forums
Anim List
Node List
Mesh List

Get it here!