Torque 3D Development - Wetness & Precipitation

After last week's pricing / licensing stuff, I'm looking to get us back on the dev train. Probably no better way that introduce you all to Gerhard Botha.

Gerhard's blog drew a lot of attention from TGEA users last Fall. With just 8 posts in about 3 weeks, Gerhard woke a lot of people up to what was possible with TGEA and modern rendering techniques.

My first thought on reading Gerhard's blog was "brilliant!" Using shader model 3.0 and adding multiple render passes, he demonstrates what's possible at the high end of Torque performance with good hardware. This is something GG has never really done before for Torque demos because we've been so concerned about supporting lower-end hardware and backward compatibility. Given a chance to take those 'cuffs off and stretch Torque's legs, I couldn't resist asking Gerhard to contribute to Torque 3D.



I got in touch with Gerhard after his first TGEAE post and asked if he'd be interested in working with us directly on Torque 3D. At the time, we had our own plans for improving Torque's rendering capability and performance, so I was anxious to get his feedback and to see if he thought his ideas were compatible with out own.

Today both Gerhard and Ruan West (his partner-in-crime artist who I'll profile later) are working pedal-to-the-metal on Torque 3D. Their work will culminate in a number of high-end demos (and perhaps one that encompasses them all) that we'll be showing at GDC.

Gerhard's Bio

"I am the head of software development in South Africa for an England based company developing software and hardware solutions for fatigue testing and structural analysis for the automotive and aerospace industries. My weekend hobby is the development of plugins for 3D Studio Max as well as the development of advanced gaming features and shaders for Torque. I am currently working on some AI and advanced shaders for Torque 3D which includes:

Screen Space shaders (Ambient Occlusion (SSAO), Bloom, Depth of field, Geometry smoothing. Motion blur)
GPU cloth dynamics.
GPU simulated water effects.
GPU soft particles.
GPU soft/rigid body dynamics.
Dynamically destructible objects.
Computational intelligence algorithms for AI usage.
Multi-pass deferred CustomMaterial shaders."


It's one thing to talk about all this stuff of course. It's quite another to see it. Below is just the barest glimpse at what's to come.




More development blogs to come. This is post #7.

Torque 3D development blogs:

• Post #1 - Kickoff
• Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
• Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
• Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
• Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
• Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
• Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
• Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
• Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
• Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
• Post #11 - Depth of Field
• Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
• Post #13 - Soft Particles
• Post #14 - World Editor
• Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
• Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
• Post #17 - River & Road Editors
• Post #18 - Beta is UP!
• Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, Material Editor
• Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
• Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
• Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
• Post #23 - pureLIGHT
• Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
• Post #25 - Beta 3!
• Post #26 - Coming Soon!