Idea? Disney Infinity modding? Hear me out...

[xenic]

Okay, so I think the way the figures work is basically the character data is stored on an NFC chip in the base. The game reads that info and then displays the appropriate character/level. So my question is this.....

 

Would it be possible to make a mod/app/program (im not even sure what to call it) that would let us be able to plug a portal into our PC and summon an Infinity character into another game, like skyrim or fallout. 

 

OR

 

Alter an existing character's clothing to be something else? 

 

I'm not really sure what we could do with this ability but the idea has been bouncing around in my head.

 

Maybe an infinity based Smartphone game where we treat them like Tomagachi's? (Maybe I just really miss those...)

[iCallisto]

In terms of whether it would be possible with Skyrim or Fallout, I would think that the answer is no. It's more than likely possible to port the in-game assets into Skyrim, but using the action figures in the same way Infinity uses them ("teleporting" them in-game) is something that is more than likely impossible.

 

In theory, if it were possible, you would need some talented programmers to get together to mod the chips on the toys (and the teleporting platform) to interface with a program/mod they would also have to create themselves. This program would then have to essentially load the data/assets from the toy into Skyrim. All of this would likely need to be running in the background at all times.

 

That would require a lot of work just for the novelty of teleporting characters into a game. This doesn't count the ripping of assets from Disney Infinity that you'll need to be dynamically adding them into the game when you use the action figure with your computer. Or, you could do all of that with assets you made yourself (more work). Plus I can imagine these toys (and the teleporting platforms) use propitiatory technology, and modifying them might be illegal if the companies were to get upset (plus the assets you might need to port). I also don't know if how moddable these toys are. Would we need to make our own physical devices to send the data to out third party program? I'm not aware of how the game works outside of what I've seen in demos.

 

The reality is this, those game (Disney Infinity, Skylanders, etc.) were designed with this in mind. The game was programmed to function like this. While it is certainly an ambitious, and novel idea to apply this concept to existing games though mods, the engines themselves were never designed to support it. Knowing how much Skyrim loves to crap itself when loading in simple mods, I can only imagine the fit it would have if something like this were possible, and you tried to put it to work.

 

Note: I'm not a programmer, nor am I a modding guru. So do take my entire response with a massive grain of salt. For all I know there is some tech wizard out there that knows far better than me and will say that this is all very possible.

 

P.S. Outside the context of modding entirely, and onto games development - it would be perfectly possible to adopt a Disney Infinity-like model on the mobile devices platform. It's already happening.

 

Infinite Arms:

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/infinite-arms-jumo/