Is this possible with Torque?
by Benjamin · in Torque Game Engine · 04/27/2004 (4:20 am) · 9 replies
Hi,
I'm thinking about designing a snake movement (check out www.axysoft.com - there is an awesome 3D snake game).
Would this be at all possible in Torque? How would you achieve this snake motion (would you use bones or , I've gathered that Torque has a good scripting engine. Is the script compiled so that everything runs nice and fast?
I've checked out 3D-GameStudio and it's okay, but I'm certainly leaning much more towards Torque because I've seen the demos with Torque and the rendering speed is utterly incredible.
I'm planning this project for TSE, but is it actually possible to get a "snake" movement like there is in AxySnake. The snake isn't the player, it's just an enemy. In my game project there will be a few enemies, most of them will be animals, a few vehicles, a few plants and so on. My game will be a platformer, so is it possible to have moving/rotating platforms?
Torque is obviously shaping up to be an incredible game engine, and I doubt anything else out there could ever beat it, and oh the price, oh the price!!! I can't believe how awesome that price is, $295 for an indie for the TSE and $995 if I go commercial and sell more than $USD250,000 games? This means that I only have to save up about $AUD500 to get it, which is not really an issue because anyone can save that if they are prepared to make a some sacrifice on the junk food snacks - not only will I get a cool game engine I'll also shed some kilos too - double winner!
Caligari GameSpace needs a bit of work (particularly to the UV side of things), but it IS an awesome polygon modeller.
I currently own a license for Cosmos Creator (ver 1.8), but it sits on the shelf so to speak (I have no use for it anymore so it's for sale) as I have my sights set on the upcoming TSE.
I LOVE those screenshots of the Marble Blast FX. The shaders look so cool!
Regards,
Ben
I'm thinking about designing a snake movement (check out www.axysoft.com - there is an awesome 3D snake game).
Would this be at all possible in Torque? How would you achieve this snake motion (would you use bones or , I've gathered that Torque has a good scripting engine. Is the script compiled so that everything runs nice and fast?
I've checked out 3D-GameStudio and it's okay, but I'm certainly leaning much more towards Torque because I've seen the demos with Torque and the rendering speed is utterly incredible.
I'm planning this project for TSE, but is it actually possible to get a "snake" movement like there is in AxySnake. The snake isn't the player, it's just an enemy. In my game project there will be a few enemies, most of them will be animals, a few vehicles, a few plants and so on. My game will be a platformer, so is it possible to have moving/rotating platforms?
Torque is obviously shaping up to be an incredible game engine, and I doubt anything else out there could ever beat it, and oh the price, oh the price!!! I can't believe how awesome that price is, $295 for an indie for the TSE and $995 if I go commercial and sell more than $USD250,000 games? This means that I only have to save up about $AUD500 to get it, which is not really an issue because anyone can save that if they are prepared to make a some sacrifice on the junk food snacks - not only will I get a cool game engine I'll also shed some kilos too - double winner!
Caligari GameSpace needs a bit of work (particularly to the UV side of things), but it IS an awesome polygon modeller.
I currently own a license for Cosmos Creator (ver 1.8), but it sits on the shelf so to speak (I have no use for it anymore so it's for sale) as I have my sights set on the upcoming TSE.
I LOVE those screenshots of the Marble Blast FX. The shaders look so cool!
Regards,
Ben
#2
04/27/2004 (7:25 am)
Quote:;-)
Asking the question, "can torque do this" is kind of like asking "can a spoon cut fish". Sure, not as it stands but with the appropriate modifications, yes.
********************************
Melv May
#3
04/27/2004 (7:43 am)
I think you would make the movement as an animation.
#4
04/27/2004 (2:55 pm)
You would probably use the bone system to make it easier to get the snake movement, then just animate the bones yourself. Would be a bit interesting to code but not impossible...
#5
I can't see how this could be too difficult.
04/27/2004 (4:54 pm)
What I'm thinking of is setting up a bones rig in my snake, and then just manipulating the bones in the Torque engine via TorqueScript whilst moving the snake forward along terrain, everything would be based on the head bone (first bone) and the other bones would simply follow it (just like a train), etc.I can't see how this could be too difficult.
#6
But I still say the easiest way is to make preset animation.
You could, of course, hand animate it which would take time to get it to "look" right OR you could make a script in your modling program (max script) that would animate the body if the the "head" bone is moved again getting the algorithm to "look" right wil take just as much time.
Either way both of these options, I would presume, would be 100 percent easier to do then dynamically generating movement.
04/29/2004 (4:35 pm)
I belive controling the "head" bone would have to be done in C++ not scripting. TorqueScript only really allows you to start/stop/pause/revese preset animations, by default. Now you could code some greater control functionality. But I still say the easiest way is to make preset animation.
You could, of course, hand animate it which would take time to get it to "look" right OR you could make a script in your modling program (max script) that would animate the body if the the "head" bone is moved again getting the algorithm to "look" right wil take just as much time.
Either way both of these options, I would presume, would be 100 percent easier to do then dynamically generating movement.
#7
PS-I looked back over my notes on REPTILES:
LOCOMOTION:
1. Serpentine Locomotion- classic "S" curve and most common method
2. Sidewinding Locomotion- similar to lateral undulation in the pattern of bending, but moving at a diagnal relative to tracks, and snake actually lifts it's body more than sliding along the ground plane
3.Concertina Locomotion- alternate bending up the body like an accordian and then restretching to include new ground plane, used mostly in crawling thru tunnels and tree climbing
4. Rectiliner Locomotion- moving straight ahead in a line, using the muscles of the underbelly to ripple along while the scales actually grab ground plane; most of the worlds' HUGE snakes move like this
...there is probably a few more obscure methods of snakey locomotion, but these are the main outline of my notes.
Good Luck, I'm working on this type of shape also...;)
Rex
05/02/2004 (5:35 am)
I would animate the snake's Bones/IK structure along a Spline Shape of the body's snakey pose...hope that made some sense. There is about 4 different locomotion modes of the Snake animal in nature. FK animation will look dreadful, IK will work better, depending on your Toolset; but I think IK Spline is the way to go.PS-I looked back over my notes on REPTILES:
LOCOMOTION:
1. Serpentine Locomotion- classic "S" curve and most common method
2. Sidewinding Locomotion- similar to lateral undulation in the pattern of bending, but moving at a diagnal relative to tracks, and snake actually lifts it's body more than sliding along the ground plane
3.Concertina Locomotion- alternate bending up the body like an accordian and then restretching to include new ground plane, used mostly in crawling thru tunnels and tree climbing
4. Rectiliner Locomotion- moving straight ahead in a line, using the muscles of the underbelly to ripple along while the scales actually grab ground plane; most of the worlds' HUGE snakes move like this
...there is probably a few more obscure methods of snakey locomotion, but these are the main outline of my notes.
Good Luck, I'm working on this type of shape also...;)
Rex
#8
05/02/2004 (6:50 am)
How about vertex animation,if you could add preset geometry to the end of the snake and count it as a section in an array. The you go through the array and animate the vertex's in that location. now you would have to incorporate delays between each location to get the consist curve.
#9
05/02/2004 (12:51 pm)
I think Rex's idea is best, or one of the spline things.
Torque 3D Owner Gareth Davies
Gamestudio is a fine product, however I don't believe that it and Torque actually serve the same section of the market (despite some similarities). You'll be coding very game specific movement like that in any package.
I don't think you can leverage torques bone animation for this, as it's not an 'active' IK rig it's just for playing animation. There have been some rumblings of some tech that might be of use to you though.