TPDC

Trespasser Dinosaur Creator

I wrote this program to allow users to create new dinos for the 1998 game Trespasser. Unlike in other games, creatures in Trespasser are entirely driven by ridgid body physics and inverse-kinematics instead of key framed animation. While this doesn't allow much customization of the animation itself (the animations are believed to be hard-coded into the engine) it is relatively easy to create new skins. This is where TPDC comes in.

Skins can be exported from the game's original levels with TresEd, the unofficial level editor created by Andres James, or from 3DSMAX/GMAX using a MaxScript to the TPM format. This format was developed by me and Andres James to replace the somewhat limited .3ds file format. TPM files are ASCII text files, with syntax a bit similar Java or C++, which contain the geometry data.

These files can be loaded with TPDC. Vertices can be selected and assigned to move with the joints in the bones system accordingly. The file can be saved, and then imported into a level. And there you have your living, breathing dinosaur. Well, sort of. ;-)

The Trespasser-engine also supports shadow meshes. These are lower resolution meshes (=faster) that are used to generate the shadows in realtime. TPDC also has a wizard, that allows you to create new creatures quickly using the original dinosaurs from Trespasser as template.

TPDC uses OpenGL for 3d rendering. It supports both 24-bit and 8-bit Windows Bitmaps as textures. There are several basic options like, ortho/perspective camera views, wireframe/solid, lines, textures, backfacing, lighting and vertex culling (using two pass depth buffer rendering).

Screenshots

Some of the dinosaurs I have created and rigged using TPDC:

Download

0.2.7:

• now released under modified MIT licence
• no other changes since 0.2.6 BETA

0.2.6 BETA:

• fixed saved weights file corruption
• added "unassign all" prompt when "unassign" button is clicked and no bone is selected
• fixed weight mirroring bug
• added weight mirroring re-assign/un-assign options
• decreased default weight mirroring thresholds
• fixed "Bone Alias Names" menu option toggle bug
• bone alias names are now working when file is loaded via command line argument
• bone alias names are now working after using the "New Dinosaur" wizard
• textures with absolute file paths are now loaded properly
• added file drag-and-drop loading
• added mouse wheel zooming
• added middle mouse button panning

0.2.5 BETA:

• greatly improved performance, no longer uses 100% CPU when TPDC has focus
• fixed viewport redraw when windows overlapped
• fixed arbitrary crash when selecting vertex
• fixed minor bone rendering glitch when no skin was selected
• clicking cancel on revert confirmation dialog now works properly
• it is now possible to run multiple instances of TPDC
• info log window will now automaticly hide when TPDC is minimized
• added file menu keyboard shortcut (New, Open, Save, Revert, Exit)
• changed view option "unlit" to "lighting" (functionality is now reversed)
• minor view menu reorganization
• removed frame counter, no longer applies
• removed 16-bit display warning, no longer applies

For more information on older releases, check out the included readme file.

Download

The program files including templates, and source code:

Download: tpdc027.zip (437 kb)

Please do not attempt to install TPDC in the same folder of an older version.

Additional files

A package with runtime libraries is also available. You do not need these files to run TPDC unless the operating system complains about missing libraries.

Download: tpdc_runtimes.zip (2.18 MB)

If you are running Windows Vista, copy these files to the "system\" directory.
If you are running Windows XP/2000, place these files in "c:\windows\system32\".
If you are running Windows 95/98 or then you can put them in "c:\windows\" or "c:\windows\system\".
Do NOT overwrite any files if Windows asks you to.