Mecha- first engine tests
by Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski · 02/20/2006 (3:20 am) · 4 comments
It's been a pain... I mean- after about a year since I've touched Torque I managed to forget almost everything I knew. Finaly I've managed to get back into it but it was by no means easy.
"Chicken" walker got into engine with all animations, mount points etc. I'd say it looks quite good although now, after compairing this with HL2 I've been working with last 2 years I just have to buy TSE- I mean: ok, I can fake a lot- I can burn shadow maps, per vertex colour, use env mapping etc (plus with large areas- let's be honest- the only thing that player will be able to see more or less exactly is his own vechicle but still difference between two version is just too big. Simple as that.
Now comes painfull part- finding a programmer and convincing him to replacing standard player with my model. I think I'll first try using dirty tricks like replacing model and playing with config files- after all structure of model does not differ to much- mount points are mount points, animation names can match. Only real problem I can see is getting separate model of cockpit interior, visible and rendered only in first person mode but it's really way too early to worry about it.
Plan for today is to get this "chicken" actually working as player model, then playing around with weapon effects. In simple words- I want to have fully implemented, functional model in gaming environment, capable of performing all actions necessary for a shooter. Only if that will work then I can start thinking about gameplay- I do not want to come up with briliant story, characters, designs, levels only to discover that I am not capable of making it work. Let's see...
"Chicken" walker got into engine with all animations, mount points etc. I'd say it looks quite good although now, after compairing this with HL2 I've been working with last 2 years I just have to buy TSE- I mean: ok, I can fake a lot- I can burn shadow maps, per vertex colour, use env mapping etc (plus with large areas- let's be honest- the only thing that player will be able to see more or less exactly is his own vechicle but still difference between two version is just too big. Simple as that.
Now comes painfull part- finding a programmer and convincing him to replacing standard player with my model. I think I'll first try using dirty tricks like replacing model and playing with config files- after all structure of model does not differ to much- mount points are mount points, animation names can match. Only real problem I can see is getting separate model of cockpit interior, visible and rendered only in first person mode but it's really way too early to worry about it.
Plan for today is to get this "chicken" actually working as player model, then playing around with weapon effects. In simple words- I want to have fully implemented, functional model in gaming environment, capable of performing all actions necessary for a shooter. Only if that will work then I can start thinking about gameplay- I do not want to come up with briliant story, characters, designs, levels only to discover that I am not capable of making it work. Let's see...
About the author
#2
02/20/2006 (4:20 am)
I love the Chicken Walker! 
#4
Radoslaw > I think for most of your problems, browsing trough the resource section of this site will get you a long way withoout a dedicated programmer.
I am in no way skilled in C++ but has managed to customize some of these resources to extend their original funtionality.
Getting the mecha ingame as the player shouldn't be at all impossible, there are lots of different tutorials on the subject.
Rendering the cockpit in 1st person view would be no different than, say, rendering separate weapons and such in 1st person view which recently got covered in this resource:
First/Third Person Different Weapon Models resource
And here is the thread that led to that resource:
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=6702
Now look at that resource and replace the word weapon with mecha-cockpit and I think you have a winner :)
Hope this helps.
02/20/2006 (6:10 am)
lol, a new hobby; kork-spotting :)Radoslaw > I think for most of your problems, browsing trough the resource section of this site will get you a long way withoout a dedicated programmer.
I am in no way skilled in C++ but has managed to customize some of these resources to extend their original funtionality.
Getting the mecha ingame as the player shouldn't be at all impossible, there are lots of different tutorials on the subject.
Rendering the cockpit in 1st person view would be no different than, say, rendering separate weapons and such in 1st person view which recently got covered in this resource:
First/Third Person Different Weapon Models resource
And here is the thread that led to that resource:
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=6702
Now look at that resource and replace the word weapon with mecha-cockpit and I think you have a winner :)
Hope this helps.
Torque Owner Josh Moore