Is that really Mars?
by Stephen Zepp · 10/15/2005 (12:14 am) · 33 comments
I got some (valid) heat for my last .plan, where I mentioned things that I wasn't allowed to talk about (yet), and how that type of "tease" wasn't fun for the community as a whole. While I'm still very excited about some of the incredibly cool stuff I'm working on that I can't talk about....I did get permission to talk about (and show!) some of the really cool things being done with Torque in the commercial/military space (pun intended!) that I am aware of (even though I'm not working on it myself)...so here we go.
Many people have played around with getting real world terrain into TGE, and while some have been successful, the restrictions of the TGE terrain implementation (as strong as it is) really don't allow for much in the way of real world/large size terrains. With milestone 2, the Atlas terrain implementation in TSE allows for some incredibly amazing terrain capabilities, including the ability to bring large (and extremely large) real world terrain into your simulation.
But why limit ourselves to just one world? Earth is cool and everything, but other planets are even cooler...and when it comes to cool factor, it doesn't get much better than real terrain data (captured from satellite surveys) of the planet Mars:
Yes, for those still in doubt: that is actual terrain information from the planet Mars loaded into TSE, with a very nice model of the Mars Rover(s) in place. Here's another:
Ok, so we don't see any amazing shaders in play here, nor do we really see anything that couldn't have been done in Photoshop, but if you attended IGC this year you may have seen Valador's demo running on the main screen during session breaks on Sunday. The Rover is fully controllable, and has a "weapon" that gives you a beam to check line of site distances and rangefinder target coordinates of terrain impacts:
And let me tell you what--this was simply a proof of concept demo for a money saver project designed to package Rover capabilities in a less expensive presentation format. Once this little demo made it's splash, the brains at NASA started thinking about some really nifty stuff! I apologize for pulling the "can't talk about that" card again, but let me put it this way: would you rather see a Mars Rover in action, or read about it via lines of text?
One last shot:
Many people have played around with getting real world terrain into TGE, and while some have been successful, the restrictions of the TGE terrain implementation (as strong as it is) really don't allow for much in the way of real world/large size terrains. With milestone 2, the Atlas terrain implementation in TSE allows for some incredibly amazing terrain capabilities, including the ability to bring large (and extremely large) real world terrain into your simulation.
But why limit ourselves to just one world? Earth is cool and everything, but other planets are even cooler...and when it comes to cool factor, it doesn't get much better than real terrain data (captured from satellite surveys) of the planet Mars:
Yes, for those still in doubt: that is actual terrain information from the planet Mars loaded into TSE, with a very nice model of the Mars Rover(s) in place. Here's another:
Ok, so we don't see any amazing shaders in play here, nor do we really see anything that couldn't have been done in Photoshop, but if you attended IGC this year you may have seen Valador's demo running on the main screen during session breaks on Sunday. The Rover is fully controllable, and has a "weapon" that gives you a beam to check line of site distances and rangefinder target coordinates of terrain impacts:
And let me tell you what--this was simply a proof of concept demo for a money saver project designed to package Rover capabilities in a less expensive presentation format. Once this little demo made it's splash, the brains at NASA started thinking about some really nifty stuff! I apologize for pulling the "can't talk about that" card again, but let me put it this way: would you rather see a Mars Rover in action, or read about it via lines of text?
One last shot:
About the author
#2
10/15/2005 (1:13 am)
It is awesome to see this project finally coming to fruition!
#3
10/15/2005 (1:14 am)
Wow, cool!
#4
@All: While my name is the one becoming attached to "Torque Boot Camp", and the military/commercial space for Torque, Matt (and Bravetree as a whole before they became part of GG, not to mention Paul Dana, Justin Mette and 21-6, and a couple of other community entities) started off the entire "Teaching Torque" movement--I'm just standing on their shoulders while reaching for the stars (or planets in this case).
10/15/2005 (1:29 am)
@Matt: didn't mean to steal your thunder man! I just finally got screenshots and wanted to get them up...@All: While my name is the one becoming attached to "Torque Boot Camp", and the military/commercial space for Torque, Matt (and Bravetree as a whole before they became part of GG, not to mention Paul Dana, Justin Mette and 21-6, and a couple of other community entities) started off the entire "Teaching Torque" movement--I'm just standing on their shoulders while reaching for the stars (or planets in this case).
#5
I bought Torque originally so I could make a persistent RPG that used real mars surface topographical data. Unfortunately mars surface topographical data is almost impossible to find in any reasonable form.
This is really cool, hopefully someday you can release a demo for us =)
10/15/2005 (1:34 am)
That's awesome! I love Mars.I bought Torque originally so I could make a persistent RPG that used real mars surface topographical data. Unfortunately mars surface topographical data is almost impossible to find in any reasonable form.
This is really cool, hopefully someday you can release a demo for us =)
#6
10/15/2005 (1:38 am)
please resize those images! I can't afford a 2560 px monitor yet ;)
#7
Hehe...I'm not an image kind of guy unfortunately...hell, at least I HAVE pics in this .plan :P No apps or even ideas about resizing 'n stuff...I just teach for a living!
10/15/2005 (1:51 am)
@Fruit: Bah...just scroll...it's part of the anticipation!Hehe...I'm not an image kind of guy unfortunately...hell, at least I HAVE pics in this .plan :P No apps or even ideas about resizing 'n stuff...I just teach for a living!
#8
Big props to Valador for pushing on engine limitations and making them move.
10/15/2005 (2:44 am)
Stephen: If I'm not mistaken, that's TGE. Big props to Valador for pushing on engine limitations and making them move.
#9
Nice pics, and really cool news. It bugged me that you got slammed over your last .plan. One of the reasons why I enjoy this community so much is because you guys at GG seem to genuinely love your jobs and get really excited about the stuff you're working on. I see these .plans and forum posts as evidence of this. And that's something the rest of us should hope for in our own development spirals.
Anyway, thanks for posting the pics.
.
10/15/2005 (2:46 am)
@StephenNice pics, and really cool news. It bugged me that you got slammed over your last .plan. One of the reasons why I enjoy this community so much is because you guys at GG seem to genuinely love your jobs and get really excited about the stuff you're working on. I see these .plans and forum posts as evidence of this. And that's something the rest of us should hope for in our own development spirals.
Anyway, thanks for posting the pics.
.
#10
10/15/2005 (4:37 am)
Ok, that is seriously-geekishly cool. You need to change the title, of course. "Valador"? Meh. May I propose "Little Rover That Could"? ;)
#11
At the Natural History Museum in Alb., NM there is a full size mockup of the mars rover and the video cameras are remote control-able and hooked up to a monitor. That's pretty fun. It might be a good enhancement to your TSE tech demo, to have like picture-in-picture display showing the rover's eyeball view.
10/15/2005 (5:27 am)
I like the hollywood style "green shit" that the rover is shooting out for it's range finder. :-)At the Natural History Museum in Alb., NM there is a full size mockup of the mars rover and the video cameras are remote control-able and hooked up to a monitor. That's pretty fun. It might be a good enhancement to your TSE tech demo, to have like picture-in-picture display showing the rover's eyeball view.
#12
So when do we see "Sim Mars", or would it be "Planet Tycoon" :O)
Congratulations to everyone involved, and best of luck with whatever its future holds.
10/15/2005 (8:54 am)
Very cool!So when do we see "Sim Mars", or would it be "Planet Tycoon" :O)
Congratulations to everyone involved, and best of luck with whatever its future holds.
#14
10/15/2005 (10:56 am)
Wow, that really does look like water. Everything looks good, shadows from a few of the rocks and such, just need to get shadow for the rover itself.
#15
But I am not using atlas. That terrain in the shots above looks so sweet.
10/15/2005 (11:27 am)
That's cool stuff. I have been working on a Mars Expedition One game for a few months with TSE.But I am not using atlas. That terrain in the shots above looks so sweet.
#16
Would be nice to have thumbnails linking to larger piccys so we don't have to scrolll right then back again to read your inbetween text.
Those pictures are really firing the imagination :)
10/15/2005 (11:49 am)
Very cool :) Looks a little strange with the rover not yet having a shadow though.Would be nice to have thumbnails linking to larger piccys so we don't have to scrolll right then back again to read your inbetween text.
Those pictures are really firing the imagination :)
#18
10/15/2005 (12:42 pm)
Very nice... of course... you did mispell "line of sight"... :)
#19
@All: Not sure if that is water or not...they mentioned they were playing around with waterblocks just to "pretend", but I don't know if it was this particular mission or not.
@Mark McCoy: It's possible this is still TGE, but the Rover demo at IGC was certainly TSE, and I'm reasonably confident these shots are as well. Valador is working with both TGE and TSE in various projects.
Not sure why the rover in the shots doesn't have a shadow...could be these shots weren't from their most recent build. Pretty confident the IGC demo had a shadow, but again can't be sure.
10/15/2005 (4:17 pm)
Just to be clear, I haven't done any work on this particular project/demo--I'm just the primary person working with the commercial client, and they had some screen shots I could display for you guys.@All: Not sure if that is water or not...they mentioned they were playing around with waterblocks just to "pretend", but I don't know if it was this particular mission or not.
@Mark McCoy: It's possible this is still TGE, but the Rover demo at IGC was certainly TSE, and I'm reasonably confident these shots are as well. Valador is working with both TGE and TSE in various projects.
Not sure why the rover in the shots doesn't have a shadow...could be these shots weren't from their most recent build. Pretty confident the IGC demo had a shadow, but again can't be sure.
#20
10/15/2005 (6:52 pm)
Say, I remember seeing this at IGC. Very cool.
Torque Owner Matt Sayre