Talk:Class Ability:Disguise

Stuff

The only real thing left to resolve is the viewmodel effects when disguised as another class. A few ideas:

Ideas

• A: ETF style translucent weapons. The weapon actually equipped shimmers and changes into the weapon people see you carrying in 3rd person mode.
• B: Display the corresponding viewmodel as held by the class you're disguised as. Forget the spy's weapons.
• C: Display the spy's viewmodel. Forget the disguise weapons.
• D: Same as B or C, but instead of just forgetting the spy or disguise weapon, use some kind of HUD element to indicate which weapon you're holding.

Advantages / Disadvantages of each:

• A: Cool, good blend of both worlds / Harder to implement. Probably requires more resources to do (both time, effort and computer resources [lower framerate etc]). Requires weapon models to be activated to be of any use.
• B: It's easy to remember which weapon you've got selected as spy anyway, pretty easy solution / Requires weapon models to be activated, will probably require more memory as you will potentially be displaying more viewmodels.
• C: Simple, no hassle, no extra resources required. Newbies probably won't care about the intracacies of holding the correct weapon anyway. The veterans can learn the combinations anyway / Not as easy as it could be. No wow factor.
• D: All the advantages of either B or C, but with the extra functionality if people need it. Doesn't require viewmodels to be on. Could be turned off if a player finds it annoying / No wow factor.

Considerations

The main thing I'm (Defrag) wondering about is memory. If you play as a certain class, then does the game cache only the viewmodels & viewmodel textures for the class? If so, then playing as spy would potentially cause all of the class viewmodels to be cached because as spy you can potentially disguise as any class and hold any weapon.

If all viewmodels are cached regardless, then it's not an issue. However, if models are selectively cached, then it could be a problem.

I'm leaning towards D at the moment. The only downside with that approach is we'd need icons for every weapon, and the icons to be easily distinguishable.

Thoughts?