Torque 3D Development - River & Road Editors
by Brett Seyler · 04/24/2009 (7:56 am) · 124 comments
It's been more than two weeks since the last Torque 3D blog, and I know you guys are antsy to get some hands on time with the Torque 3D beta. We had planned that for this week and we're QA'ing a build over the weekend that may be good to go next week, but I didn't want to wait until then to get you guys some more Torque 3D goodness. I'm sorry I've kept you waiting this long... Okay then, on that note, let's introduce Lara!
Lara's Bio
"I co-founded Prairie Games in 2004 and shipped Minions of Mirth the following year. At Prairie Games, I designed, produced, handled PR/Marketing, ran the office and did whatever else needed doing. In June of this year, I began working at GarageGames. I'm anxiously awaiting the spring release of Gauntlet for the DS. I love buffalo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer!"
"I'm currently working on a series of video tutorials for Torque 3D. The first of this series focuses on the new River and Road Editors. Next I'll be working on tutorials for the Material Editor, and Live Asset Updates."
If you've been watching the GarageGames Vimeo channel, you've probably noticed the fantastic work Lara Engebretson has done to create high quality video tutorials to demonstrate Terrain Editing, using the Collada Loader, and Creating Objects in Torque. Lara's now turning her attention to Torque 3D, and even thought we don't have a beta out yet, we do have two great tutorials to share for using the new River and Road Editors available with the Professional license.
Let's have a look!
The next time I blog, I will be pointing all of you Torque 3D owners to a BETA DOWNLOAD!
More development blogs to come. This is post #17.
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!
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#42
04/24/2009 (8:25 pm)
Btw.: Talking about editors... is there anything known about the new terrain system? My special interest: Will it be possible to import heightmaps e.g. by grayscale pictures? 
#43
The pre-order users are getting a taste of this when the current beta documentation which shows the full process.
04/24/2009 (8:28 pm)
@Tobias - Yes, you can import heightmaps by grayscale. It also supports opacity layers so you can assign materials for the various blended levels.The pre-order users are getting a taste of this when the current beta documentation which shows the full process.
#44
04/24/2009 (8:28 pm)
@Tobias - The path info for the roads and rivers are stored as part of the mission file. You'll find something like this in the mission file....River()
{
Node = "551.042114 623.323364 122.392311 10.000000 5.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000";
Node = "532.955017 697.113892 107.351700 10.000000 5.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000";
Node = "519.442139 734.632751 99.414795 10.000000 5.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000";
Node = "506.389221 756.608215 91.793251 10.000000 5.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000";
// etc...
} 
#46
04/24/2009 (8:31 pm)
So pretty... 
#47
btw, nice terrain, is that inside T3D or a terrain editor ?.
04/24/2009 (8:31 pm)
WoW, you guys post fast :Pbtw, nice terrain, is that inside T3D or a terrain editor ?.
#48
04/24/2009 (8:32 pm)
Build a river in it Tom! Build a river in it! And a road! And a penguin. Wait. Er... 
#49
04/24/2009 (8:35 pm)
@Bo, that's in T3D.
#50
Coolies, looks like its quite high ress there, you did small smooth details it seems while still being able to do sharp peaks.
Btw
@Tom
"Ok... can't help myself any longer..."
Please dont hold back :) anything is better then nothing while we wait for the Beta :)
04/24/2009 (8:43 pm)
@RossCoolies, looks like its quite high ress there, you did small smooth details it seems while still being able to do sharp peaks.
Btw
@Tom
"Ok... can't help myself any longer..."
Please dont hold back :) anything is better then nothing while we wait for the Beta :)
#51
Whoa ... that's lovely.
Nice to see what the tut files in the Docs link does in-game. and gives me a better understanding of the opacity map concept
edit:Should have checked Flickr - ZOMG!!!1
04/24/2009 (8:49 pm)
@TomWhoa ... that's lovely.
Nice to see what the tut files in the Docs link does in-game. and gives me a better understanding of the opacity map concept
edit:Should have checked Flickr - ZOMG!!!1
#52
Sickhead == Awesome for documentation
04/24/2009 (8:56 pm)
The image Tom posted uses files that are in the TerrainBlock documentation, so right from the start you can make awesome looking terrain by following some simple steps.Sickhead == Awesome for documentation
#53
04/24/2009 (9:03 pm)
Reminds me of Farcry 2. Great Work!
#54
I will continue to sit here and bang my head on my keyboard till another pretty screenshot comes out. :)
04/24/2009 (9:06 pm)
Naw... You and Laura are awesome for documentation. These video tutorials and the new docs are freaking great stuff... better than every other engine out there.I will continue to sit here and bang my head on my keyboard till another pretty screenshot comes out. :)
#57
04/24/2009 (11:03 pm)
@Kevin - They are for pre-order users.
#58
04/25/2009 (12:26 am)
I found it, i never go to forums much so i never saw the post. 
#59
Lovely examples of the tutorials we can expect and some great tech to boot.
04/25/2009 (1:29 am)
Credit Card is twitching in my wallet!!Lovely examples of the tutorials we can expect and some great tech to boot.
#60
"Does T3D support [bold]unicode chatting[/bold]?"
I know unicode has been supported partially. But it has never been for real time chat messages.
So, please let me know what's case for T3D.
04/25/2009 (2:33 am)
Still no answer for my question. Can anybody from GG answer for this question?"Does T3D support [bold]unicode chatting[/bold]?"
I know unicode has been supported partially. But it has never been for real time chat messages.
So, please let me know what's case for T3D.
Torque 3D Owner Tobias
just a short question: How is the road information (path, texture file etc.) stored? Is it within some kind of mission file, so that it can also be edited by a normal text editor?