WorldForge Media Pipeline (First Draft)

Kai Blin alias nowhere

What is it?

The WorldForge Media Pipeline is a try to standardize the creation of ingame media, from the idea down to client media.
This document intends to document these steps, so we can evaluate if our current system is up to the task, to check what tools are planned or already in place to do the job, and to minimize duplicate effort.

How does it work?

Basically there's three steps in the creation of ingame media:
idea --> model creation --> game media (client usage)

Of course each of these steps can be split up into multiple substeps:

idea:
Substep
 existing tool
 planned tool
check if it fits the current world setup
 game clients
 N/A
check if anybody else is working on that object
 ???
 A developer list, maybe...
come up with a good description of the object, so media and rules people will know what to do
 brain
 N/A (brain should be fully sufficient)

model creation:
Substep
 existing tool
 planned tool
concept art
 pen, paper, graphics program
 N/A
isometric sketches
 pen, paper, ruler
 N/A
mesh modelling
 blender, 3ds Max, Maya, Milkshape, et. al.
 N/A
texture mapping of the texture template
 see above
 N/A
texture creation
 graphics program
 N/A
skeletal animation
 ???
 EntityForge?
exporting the model to cal3d / omf
 3d graphics program
 EntityForge

game media:
Substep
 existing tool
 planned tool
importing omf file to create a client media
 ???
 EntityForge, model2sprite
telling the server about the object
 text editor, cvs client
 EntityForge
create some rules so the game server knows how to deal with the object
 text editor, cvs client
 ???

Some examples on how to work with the media pipeline will follow soon.