Possible Torque Space Game
by Andrew Smith · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 06/27/2003 (2:53 pm) · 9 replies
I've always dreamed of a space game where you could actually walk around in the ship in first person (for more of a role-playing environment or even docking and ship battles). I came up with an idea on how to do this about a year ago, but I've never had the time nor the coding experience to make it happen.
Here's what I was thinking:
The spaceships consist of two objects: a model of the outside of the ship, and a worldcraft object of the interior of the ship. The exterior would move around the "map" while the interior would be stationary. Why have two objects? Well, by doing it this way, you won't have to rewrite the engine to allow moving worldcraft objects that moves the players with the objects. You see, a player would be able to walk around in the worldcraft object (the inside) and when he chooses to fly or use a turret, he would walk to the pilots seat and then the camera would be changed from that of the player model to that of the ship's model. And if you want to go the extra step, you can add render-to-texture support to the engine to add "windows" to the ship (interior object). Also, if you would want the ship to land on a planet or dock at a station, you could "teleport" the interior and it's occupants to the spacestation and position the exterior model around it (with holes in it where the exits of the interior are).
This may not be the best or the easiest, but it is a possible way of doing it (I think). I'm not even sure how easy this would be to do, considering that I haven't looked much at the engine's source.
Thanks.
Here's what I was thinking:
The spaceships consist of two objects: a model of the outside of the ship, and a worldcraft object of the interior of the ship. The exterior would move around the "map" while the interior would be stationary. Why have two objects? Well, by doing it this way, you won't have to rewrite the engine to allow moving worldcraft objects that moves the players with the objects. You see, a player would be able to walk around in the worldcraft object (the inside) and when he chooses to fly or use a turret, he would walk to the pilots seat and then the camera would be changed from that of the player model to that of the ship's model. And if you want to go the extra step, you can add render-to-texture support to the engine to add "windows" to the ship (interior object). Also, if you would want the ship to land on a planet or dock at a station, you could "teleport" the interior and it's occupants to the spacestation and position the exterior model around it (with holes in it where the exits of the interior are).
This may not be the best or the easiest, but it is a possible way of doing it (I think). I'm not even sure how easy this would be to do, considering that I haven't looked much at the engine's source.
Thanks.
#2
06/28/2003 (9:07 am)
Render to texture would be a big win for Torque.
#3
06/28/2003 (10:06 am)
Render to texture would be a big win for Torque.
#5
07/12/2003 (11:43 am)
Torque would experience a big win with Render to Texture 
#6
There are time lords among us! ;)
07/12/2003 (1:56 pm)
@Ken: How did you go back in time to post your last message?There are time lords among us! ;)
#7
07/12/2003 (7:04 pm)
What do you want to do with render to texture? Right now with my game I'm messing with effects and I'm rendering the guiCanvas to texture. It's actually a pretty simple operation. 
#8
07/12/2003 (7:27 pm)
I want to render GUIs to a material, either on a shape or on the wall of an interior. Some sort of portal with a configurable source point would also work.
#9
07/13/2003 (10:59 am)
Ok, let me throw some code together and post a resource.
Torque Owner Badguy
this would work.
and easy to code too.
specially if you take that teleporting to the next level.
and dont allow him to "Walk" into the ship.
but instead teleport him inside.
you could code That in about 1hr.
another option would be to create the content as mirror images of each other.
(the interior looks Exactly like the Shape model)
that way you can use the Shape model for all visual movements.
and you could "park" the interior and walk into it.
as for windows.
now your getting more complex.
render to texture would prolly get to expensive.
and so would just using a viewport ....
hmm ..
just super hack it.. make it so the window is the only viewport you can see... when you look out it.
that way you can just use the camera transform of that position on the actual moving ship. and apply that view to your player.
might be tough to make that look good :)