Semi-professional new to Torque
by Juan Rubio · in Torque Game Engine · 02/22/2004 (8:57 pm) · 6 replies
Hello Everyone,
Ive worked a little in gamedev (mostly doing cinematics and being a Technical Artist) and my current background is VFX for film. I just picked up Torque and I had some questions that would help me out. Sorry if they have been asked before.
1) How far off are you guys from releasing a official Maya exporter? I know the engine handles bone based skeletal animation but is there also support for blendshapes? (morphing) If the source gets released as well then I could just add it for my own purposes.
2) Do I have to setup my own computer as a server to be a master server? Also are there any game lobby type features or will I have to roll my own? (if anyone knows of any third party apps for matching and lobby services that would be great). One of my design docs calls for friends to be able to find each other online so they can initiate a challenge.
3) Is terrain only composed of a single heightmap? Or can you have multiple heightmaps make one large terrain.
4. Resource management. Does Torque load textures and meshes only when they are needed or do I have to load all of the textures, animation, geometry etc into memory all at once? This is more for question 3 because if this isnt the case id have to write my own streaming code.
I think that is it for right now. Any input would be most appreciated. Also if testing or help is needed on the Maya plugin please let me know. Ive done a bit of Maya API work.
Thank You,
Juan
Ive worked a little in gamedev (mostly doing cinematics and being a Technical Artist) and my current background is VFX for film. I just picked up Torque and I had some questions that would help me out. Sorry if they have been asked before.
1) How far off are you guys from releasing a official Maya exporter? I know the engine handles bone based skeletal animation but is there also support for blendshapes? (morphing) If the source gets released as well then I could just add it for my own purposes.
2) Do I have to setup my own computer as a server to be a master server? Also are there any game lobby type features or will I have to roll my own? (if anyone knows of any third party apps for matching and lobby services that would be great). One of my design docs calls for friends to be able to find each other online so they can initiate a challenge.
3) Is terrain only composed of a single heightmap? Or can you have multiple heightmaps make one large terrain.
4. Resource management. Does Torque load textures and meshes only when they are needed or do I have to load all of the textures, animation, geometry etc into memory all at once? This is more for question 3 because if this isnt the case id have to write my own streaming code.
I think that is it for right now. Any input would be most appreciated. Also if testing or help is needed on the Maya plugin please let me know. Ive done a bit of Maya API work.
Thank You,
Juan
#2
I have heard that the official exporter will be done very soon.
The engine already supports unblended morph animations. The MAX exporter supports it, but it is seldom used.
Morphs save off a transform for every vertice in your model on every frame of every blendshape. This makes for a HUGE exported model.
Much better to approach the problem by using a skeletal facial rig. The skeletal approach will allow you to use the already built in skeletal blending, transitioning, and interpolation bewteen different sequences.
It is already in, already works, does not bloat the model size.
If you really need it, I am sure that you can add it in (as you will have the source)
02/23/2004 (4:31 am)
Quote:1) How far off are you guys from releasing a official Maya exporter? I know the engine handles bone based skeletal animation but is there also support for blendshapes? (morphing) If the source gets released as well then I could just add it for my own purposes.
I have heard that the official exporter will be done very soon.
The engine already supports unblended morph animations. The MAX exporter supports it, but it is seldom used.
Morphs save off a transform for every vertice in your model on every frame of every blendshape. This makes for a HUGE exported model.
Much better to approach the problem by using a skeletal facial rig. The skeletal approach will allow you to use the already built in skeletal blending, transitioning, and interpolation bewteen different sequences.
It is already in, already works, does not bloat the model size.
If you really need it, I am sure that you can add it in (as you will have the source)
#3
TgeLobby looks good.
I can't get a hold of gorpe though. When I setup winCVS to download from \cvs\gorpe instead of \cvs\torque, and set the module name to gorpe it complains about authentication issues even though I can download torque fine.
Yeah Ill take a look at bone based facial animation. But I tend to get better results using blended morph targets. If I have to stream the facial animation from the drive it shouldnt be too bad. I don't really care about disk space vs speed, and memory.
Itll be a bit of getting use to the engine before I need to import assets out of Maya so I hope itll be out by then.
Thank you,
Juan
02/24/2004 (2:08 pm)
Thank you guys for the reply.TgeLobby looks good.
I can't get a hold of gorpe though. When I setup winCVS to download from \cvs\gorpe instead of \cvs\torque, and set the module name to gorpe it complains about authentication issues even though I can download torque fine.
Yeah Ill take a look at bone based facial animation. But I tend to get better results using blended morph targets. If I have to stream the facial animation from the drive it shouldnt be too bad. I don't really care about disk space vs speed, and memory.
Itll be a bit of getting use to the engine before I need to import assets out of Maya so I hope itll be out by then.
Thank you,
Juan
#4
GG hosts their own master server, which you're welcome to use. It's only a directory service for online servers, so you don't need to worry about authentication issues. If you're trying for MMO type stuff you'll have to write your own "master server" anyway as the stock Torque master would not be suitable for your needs.
Torque loads stuff as needed, though it tries to get all the loading done at... load time, by use of datablocks and such. You'd have to do some tweaking to get realtime streaming to happen, as the resource manager reads the file system once, to speed access, rather than checking it every time you try to load something.
02/24/2004 (9:59 pm)
You might have to do something extra to get access to GORPE; I'm not quite sure why this is. Mailing Tim Gift or Rick Overman would probably be a good way to get an answer.GG hosts their own master server, which you're welcome to use. It's only a directory service for online servers, so you don't need to worry about authentication issues. If you're trying for MMO type stuff you'll have to write your own "master server" anyway as the stock Torque master would not be suitable for your needs.
Torque loads stuff as needed, though it tries to get all the loading done at... load time, by use of datablocks and such. You'd have to do some tweaking to get realtime streaming to happen, as the resource manager reads the file system once, to speed access, rather than checking it every time you try to load something.
#5
I wanna know about the Maya export too.. I got friends who'll help if I can give them Maya.
08/13/2004 (10:02 am)
If you mean do you need a seperate computer to make/run the examples and your own game, no. I run them all routinely on one system.I wanna know about the Maya export too.. I got friends who'll help if I can give them Maya.
Torque 3D Owner Marco Meier
Slickware Games
3. TerrainManager is exactly what you are looking for. Do a search on the forums for that. I think the TerrainManager is hosted by gorpe. You have to get the gopre source via garagegames cvs.