TGE questions...
by Matthew Baucco · in Torque Game Engine · 11/25/2003 (6:32 am) · 4 replies
Hello everyone, I will be buying Torque soon and I am looking forward to learning and making games with you all. I have a couple questions, please forgive me if these are covered, I tried a search but apparently could not come up with good search terms.
1) I want to keep zoning to a minimum. How big can I make each map and still retain high-ish visual quality for a decent range of cards? Is it possible to do a "bubble" where stuff is loaded in as needed based on player location the way they do in some mmrpgs?
2) Is there any way to change map textures based on a time setting? I would guess the only way to do this would make 4 versions of the same map and select them at program start, but I would love to have leaves disappear and change color or the ground get snowy. This may be really impractical, but I figured I would check.
At the moment I am a programming noob with limited experience in 3d and 2d art. I am a writer as well, with one published series I did for NPR. I am pretty familiar with c-like scripting languages like nwscript and I understand terms like polymorphism and inheritance, but I haven't written any "real" program code. So basically I am a noob of all trades master of none. :) If I can help anyone I will certainly try. I am currently trying to use the Reaction Engine to learn more about game design also.
Thanks in advance,
Matt Baucco
1) I want to keep zoning to a minimum. How big can I make each map and still retain high-ish visual quality for a decent range of cards? Is it possible to do a "bubble" where stuff is loaded in as needed based on player location the way they do in some mmrpgs?
2) Is there any way to change map textures based on a time setting? I would guess the only way to do this would make 4 versions of the same map and select them at program start, but I would love to have leaves disappear and change color or the ground get snowy. This may be really impractical, but I figured I would check.
At the moment I am a programming noob with limited experience in 3d and 2d art. I am a writer as well, with one published series I did for NPR. I am pretty familiar with c-like scripting languages like nwscript and I understand terms like polymorphism and inheritance, but I haven't written any "real" program code. So basically I am a noob of all trades master of none. :) If I can help anyone I will certainly try. I am currently trying to use the Reaction Engine to learn more about game design also.
Thanks in advance,
Matt Baucco
#2
I do intend to start with very simple games, I guess I just wanted to know if there were any built-in limits that would prevent these two things in particular, as the big game I am working towards would definitely benefit from them.
Thanks,
Matt Baucco
11/25/2003 (7:16 am)
Ah, that is a much better way to put it, thank you. My understanding (so far) of how Torque works is that it "builds the map" then shows it to you, so it seemed like it would be impossible to change terrain or object textures on the fly. I was also under the impression that you could only load one map at a time, so that seamless, "zoneless" linking of maps was also impossible.I do intend to start with very simple games, I guess I just wanted to know if there were any built-in limits that would prevent these two things in particular, as the big game I am working towards would definitely benefit from them.
Thanks,
Matt Baucco
#4
-Matt Baucco
11/25/2003 (10:22 am)
Many thanks for the link, this will help immensely once I am more confident in my programming abilities. :)-Matt Baucco
Torque Owner Jarrod Roberson
the reason there is no real "correct" answer to questions like these is you get the source code and get "yest you could do it you get the source code"
some people the default answer would be "no it does not do any of that by default but you do get the source code so theoretically anything is possible"
the problem lies in "theory vs practicality"
practicality dictates that lots of the "theoretical" stuff is not realistic if only one person with no advanced C++ skills is expecting to do everything or even most of everything especially on the coding side.
there are some hard limits to what can be done EASILY given the current code architecture, if what you want "fits" into it then it will be a snap otherwise it will be very painful. A good example of this is the terrain engine the coupling is quite high in alot of the code.