ABSTRACT

Placeholder assets are temporary resources used during the development of a game in place of final resources that haven’t been created yet. Even though they are an integral part of game development, placeholders are often overlooked or perceived negatively rather than being seen as useful development tools. The objective of this gem is to have a discussion on the use, integration, and construction of efficient placeholder systems in a game engine and provide a concrete example of such a system. The first part of the chapter begins with a brief discussion underlining the technical advantages a well-thought-out placeholder system can provide beyond simple art replacement. This leads to the second part of the chapter, which consists of a detailed and technical presentation of a procedural method that automatically generates articulated placeholder meshes from animation skeletons. The last part of the chapter discusses how to transparently integrate the technique in the various pipelines of a game engine.