Game Development Community

REL: Show Tool v2 Alpha 1

by John Vanderbeck · in Torque Game Engine · 04/26/2004 (7:19 am) · 34 replies

It's here!

The first public alpha of the new Show Tool. There is still a heck of a lot left to do on this, but the very basics are in and i'm releasing whats here now for others to see and play with, and give comments on.

Get it here.

Whats in this version?
Not much, but the basics are there. Essentially you can load a DTS (either as a static or a player) and play animation sequences. Loading of DSQ's is not yet in (I haven't figured out how to load them yet).

What's not in this version?
Oh boy that's too numerous to list :p

How does it work?
Pretty simple really. Fire it up and you will see it load then you will be dropped into the main screen. You will see 4 buttons on the left hand side of the screen.

Load Static - Loads a DTS file as a STATIC SHAPE (un-animateable) such as environment models.
Load Player - Loads a DTS file as a Player object. Player objects act just like they would in game with physics and everything. They can be animated.

Play Animation - When you click this button, a text box will appear next to it. Type in the name of the animation sequence (EG root, run, side, etc) and press ENTER. The box will vanish and the player will play the animation sequence.

Quit - Duh.

Note on loading DTS files. Currently you czan load them as either Static of Player. In the future you will also be able to load them as Wheeled Vehicle, Hover Vehicle, and Flying Vehicle. The purpose of this is to provide rudimentry behaviour like you would see in game. If you aren't sure how to load the DTS, LOAD IT AS STATIC. If you try to load a static shape as a Player or Vehicle there is a good chance the tool will crash.

The camera works prety much exactly like it does in the editor. CLick and hold the right mouse button to mouselook around, "wasd" to move.

Collision is not in this build.

Enjoy, and please give feedback, good or bad!
NextNext Thread
PrevPrevious Thread
More from Torque Game Engine
Page «Previous 1 2

Torque Owner Ben Woodhead
#1
04/26/2004 (9:30 am)
Hey, very cool.. Going to check it out now.. :)

Associate Ben Garney
#2
04/26/2004 (9:38 am)
John,

Very nice. I especially like how it doesn't depend on any hardcoded showtool crap.

Love the button styles. :)

I did notice that WASD tends to drop out; after I loaded a player they didn't do anything.

It would be nice to have a dropdown toggle so that I can choose to control the object or the camera.

I like the loading screen. :P

I'll show this around the office when I get in.

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#3
04/26/2004 (5:52 pm)
@Ben #1
Quote:Hey, very cool.. Going to check it out now.. :)
Let me know what you think!

@Ben #2
Quote:Very nice. I especially like how it doesn't depend on any hardcoded showtool crap.
Not a one :)

Quote:Love the button styles. :)

Me too but I can't take credit for the style lol.

Quote:I did notice that WASD tends to drop out; after I loaded a player they didn't do anything.
I had it happen once, about 30 minutes before I Released it, but I can't figure out why or accurately reproduce it. At the moment the camera movement is completely "stock".

Quote:It would be nice to have a dropdown toggle so that I can choose to control the object or the camera.
That toggle is planned, it just hasn't been put in yet.

Quote:I like the loading screen. :P
Unfortunately its blatantly ripped form Relam Wars. I hope they don't mind. For the life of me I could not find a high qualut, alrge size Torque Logo. I searched and searched with no luck.

Quote:I'll show this around the office when I get in.
Heh well it isn't all that exciting yet. Only very basic functionality.

@Ben #3
err wait.. too many Bens

Associate Stefan Beffy Moises
#4
04/26/2004 (10:32 pm)
Quote:
I did notice that WASD tends to drop out; after I loaded a player they didn't do anything.
this happens everytime I type in an animation name to run... the text control disappears when you hit "Enter", but it's still sucking up all key events... you can see it if you open the text control again to play another animation.

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#5
04/26/2004 (11:46 pm)
John,

thank you very much, will give feedback today.

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#6
04/27/2004 (12:02 am)
Showtoolers,

i made a quick mod to main.cs because i wanted to keep the option to load showtool v.1 and showtool v.2 when ever i felt like it, so just copy show2 to the main directory.

here is the mod:

in main.cs line 175 inser the following code:
//--------------------
     case "-show2":
     // A useful shortcut for -mod show
     $userMods = strreplace($userMods, "show2", "");
     $userMods = pushFront($userMods, "show2", ";");
     $argUsed[$i]++;
     $modcount++;

  //--------------------

* i would strongly suggest using a debug exe and not a release one.
Ori.

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#7
04/27/2004 (12:14 am)
Guys,

here is an update on my latest post :

Quote:I imported a new model instead of the orc, it works perfectly in the showtool.

but in torque it crashed on 2 occasions in BOLD:
1. when i am close to a static object "unhandled exception in function "rendershadow"
void TSShapeInstance::renderShadow(S32 dl, const MatrixF & mat, S32 dim, U32 * bits)
{
   // if dl==-1, nothing to do
   if (dl==-1)
      return;

[b]   AssertFatal(dl>=0 && dl<mShape->details.size(),"TSShapeInstance::renderShadow");[/b]

2. when i am close to an npc (which is the same model as me) "access violation in void TSShapeInstance::animate(S32 dl) in line 834: U32 dirtyFlags = mDirtyFlags[ss];

void TSShapeInstance::animate(S32 dl)
{
   if (dl==-1)
      // nothing to do
      return;

   S32 ss = mShape->details[dl].subShapeNum;

   // this is a billboard detail...
   if (ss<0)
      return;

[b]   U32 dirtyFlags = mDirtyFlags[ss];[/b]

**** a small update, when i play the real orc, elf or Fman nothing like this happens

help me?

Ori.

* basically until now i only had those 2 debugger errors.
now i get some other stuff, which is kinda cool coz it might hint someone about my issue.

Loading compiled script show2/client/GenericPlayerDatablock.cs.
Validation required for shape: kq9/data/shapes/kq9/player/player.dts
Could not locate texture:
Could not register dust emitter for class: GenericPlayer
Could not register dust emitter for class: GenericPlayer
Could not register dust emitter for class: GenericPlayer
Fatal: (f:\torque\torque.16.04.2004\engine\ts\tsshapeinstance.cc @ 1582) TSShapeInstance::renderShadow

@john what do you say now ?

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#8
04/27/2004 (3:14 am)
Sounds like your model has screwed up LOD. That assert is thrown when it tries to render an invalid detail level. Its either a problem in your model or the export.

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#9
04/27/2004 (3:18 am)
What is an LOD?

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#10
04/27/2004 (3:22 am)
Level of Detail. Also known as Detail Levels.

Which exporter are you using? Might want to re-read the docs.

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#11
04/27/2004 (3:23 am)
Quote:this happens everytime I type in an animation name to run... the text control disappears when you hit "Enter", but it's still sucking up all key events... you can see it if you open the text control again to play another animation.

Doh! Thanks a million! I know whats wrong now, and that explains why I only saw it just before release. That's when I added the animation text box.

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#12
04/27/2004 (3:25 am)
I am using the maya exporter. and i do have detail level.
only one which is detail2. the exporter doesnt complain about the detail level.

anything else beside that ?

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#13
04/27/2004 (3:28 am)
Well the exporter may not be complaining, but i'm 99% sure that's your problem. I'm not a modeller though so I don't know the correct way to do it. I'm a programmer and I know what the code says. It says your detail levels are goofed :p

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#14
04/27/2004 (3:29 am)
Detail2? Shouldn't you start with detail1?

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#15
04/27/2004 (4:05 am)
Not according to my modeller friend.
but even with detail1 it died :)

Torque Owner Ori Cohen
Ori Cohen
#16
04/27/2004 (10:50 am)
Its fixed, check http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=17928

Torque 3D Owner Spencer Boomhower
#17
05/01/2004 (3:19 pm)
Is this new showtool still available? The link in the first post is broken. I'm trying to find a way around the current Torque demo's broken showtool (it won't stop animating and it won't let you scrub the animation), and I thought this new tool might be just the ticket.

Even if it doesn't fix my current predicament, I'd like to check it out!

-Spencer

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#18
05/01/2004 (5:48 pm)
The link is down to due problems with the web host. Hopefully it will be back up soon.

In the current version, you will still have the same animation problems. Not because of but because it isn't finished :p

I'm going to be doing another release sometime this week which will have a more robust animation system working.

Torque Owner Ben Woodhead
#19
05/02/2004 (1:06 pm)
Hello John.

If you want I can host it for you. Send me an email if you are interested. zander@echotech.ca

Ben

Torque Owner John Vanderbeck
#20
05/02/2004 (4:46 pm)
If the host isn't back up by the next release i'll put it in another webserver.
Page «Previous 1 2