Plan for Leadwerks

First, let me say hello to the Torque community. This is my first Plan, and I hope you find it useful.

3D World Studio is the new version of my map editor, Cartography Shop. I realized early on that I wanted the new editor to support many engines out-of-the-box, unlike its predecessor, which relied on many third-party plugins. During the process of integrating Torque into the workflow, I have learned much about this engine, and have come to appreciate its power and elegant design.

Brushes
The first phase I integrated was simple brush export. This is acheived using a .map exporter preset to call a map2dif compiler, included with the program. Of course, you can use your own custom copy of map2dif, or change the export options. I put a lot of work into making sure texture mapping coordinates translated 100% to Torque. Textures are automatically copied to the output directory.

Meshes
One of the important new features is support for referenced meshes, ala UT2004 staticmeshes. I have found these to be invaluable when building anything more than simple BSP scenes. I'm presently working on .dts import, which allows you to create instances of a .dts mesh in the map. After I am satisfied with the .dts import, I am adding .mis export, alongside the .map/.dif export. This will export a .map, compile it into a .dif, then save a .mis file listing the .dif to load, along with all .dts meshes that occur in the scene. It's a complicated task, but I think the end results will be worthwhile.


Entities
3D World Studio supports the main Torque light entity classes. Use the lightmapper to get a preview of your lighting, without having to launch Torque. A Torque light entity definition file is included, and is being added to, to make a complete entity definition file, listing all Torque entity classes.

Terrain
I won't say much about terrain yet, because I am just finishing it up in the editor. However, it is my intention for 3D World Studio to integrate with Torque as closely as possible, including terrain. I'll definitely keep you updated as more information becomes available. One cool feature is you can paint meshes right onto the terrain. You'll soon be able to select a .dts mesh like these grass clumps, paint them onto the terrain, and export a .mis file with all meshes positioned and oriented.


Further Integration
I'm in the process of adding a Torque viewer to include with the editor. This is not really a necessary option, but it's just an extension of the new "out-of-the-box" philosophy. It's pretty neat to be able to export a .dif in one step, launch the map in Torque straight from the editor, and have everything look the same in engine and editor. Exit Torque, go back and change a light setting or entity placement, and launch it again to see how your changes affect the engine. Ah, takes me back to the old days of Worldcraft and Quake editing.

www.leadwerks.com