Gamespace Lite

#21 Any eta on that dts exporter tutorial? I just purchased gameSpace and am having trouble figuring out how to get my textures to export.

#22 Eustacia,

Make sure that you have properly installed the DTS exporter from Dark Industries. It should be an icon of a 3d box with the letters "DTS" on it. If you are using the save as option in gameSpace you are using the wrong exporter. (this is the most common problem I answer.)

To use your own custom textures you should use the material editor to apply your textures and for complex shapes you should use the UV mapping editor first to give you object proper UVs then export that uv map and paint your texture on to the UV map image. (keep in mind that Torque textures must be a power of two ie: 512x512, 256x128 etc.) Read the gameSpace manual for more information on the uv editor and the material editor and texture shaders in general.

Once your object has proper uv maping apply your texture using the material editor. The docs assume that you know how to both use gameSpace or trueSpace and that you have some technical knowledge of the DTS format so somethings were left out because that information is available elsewhere. Textures are "what you see is what you get" if the object is uv mapped and textured, when it exports it looks the same in game. Color is not a valid material for Torque you must texture map your object.

Open the material editor (paint pallet icon) right click on the color shader (click the blue triangle pointing right to see the other shaders), from the color shader selector choose textures map (the one with the caligari logo on it) and load in your texture (any jpg or png file you create or have on your computer).

For transparency (optional):

1.)The texture map should be a png and have an alpha channel.

2.) In the color shader menu at the top next to the red triangle is the trasparency type selector. Choose "plain transparency".

3.) At the bottom of the color shader is the "set tranparency" slider. Set it to 0.5 The object should now export with transparency properly.

For environment mapping (optional):
right click on the reflectance shader (in the material editor), from the reflectance shader selector choose environment map.

1.) use the reflectance settings from the PDF manual. (I don't have them memorized) :-)

2.) in the material name box at the bottom of the shader(default is caligari.jpg) choose the image you want to use for your environment map. This image should be a PNG with an alpha channel. (this is because torque reads the alpha chanel of the image to determine how reflective the surface is.)

Here is a sample file with everything uv mapped and textured properly.

Torque only supports JPG and PNG image formats.

Subtractive and Additive are transparency effects. additive makes the object look ghostly, subtractive makes the object look inverted from the rest of the world. both effects are have good uses in game.

if you are still having problems email be and let me know the specifics.

Later,
Matt

#23 Thanks a lot, Matt! I was wondering if that example scene was available. Also, is the example scene rigged to attach to the default DSQ files? I guess I'll find out when I examine it...but until ground transforms are completed, I'm tied to using the good default ones...:) Those death sequences are really nice...kudos to the author! It will take some time to become proficient with gS's animation system, trying right now to figure out how to construct a system that contains more than one IK solution; hoping to keep from positioning the Nail so much.

#24 Rex,

We are working to add Motion Studio support to the gameSpace and trueSpace exporter so anyone who uses the Motion Studio TSX will add its more powerful animation capabilities like weighted verticies, multiple bones per vertex, better IK animation, multiple nails, easier rigging just to name a few.

If you are not familliar with the Motion Studio TSX do your self a favor and download the demo from Primitive Itch.

Later,
Matt

#25 ...ah, good work, Matt! Multiple Nails...exactly what I was attempting, I'll have to look into this plugin...:)

#26 Thanks Matt for the reply this will help. All though the problem I had at the time was that I forgot to copy the texture file to the same spot as my dts file doh!

#27 Thanks for all the good info on GameSpace! As an early buyer (months ago), I was very disappointed in the built-in Torque exporters for both DTS and the "level exporter" - neither really worked very well and had just about nil useful info for exporting to Torque.

Since then, there have been a number of useful exporters: first Ted Southard and Mark Owen and now Dark Industries (is that right?).

I was always pleased with GameSpace itself - extremely easy to model, VERY good user manual (combined with a good Color Printer at work :)), and useful features.

For Michael Arrington, I'd offer one suggestion to pass onto "those in the know". While not everyone shares GarageGame's passion for release cutting edge technology for $100, I wonder if GameSpace couldn't find a LOT more users for introducing this product at that rate? I'd be a little upset at first (maybe a rebate for those of us who paid $269? :)), but I'd get over it. The question is, would they sell 3 times as many copies (or more) at that rate than at their current rate? Who knows...

But, more users has a bigger benefit than just money. With more users comes more plugins, free ones like the ones provided here. That encourages more people to buy the product, especially at such a cheap price. Just a suggestion...

For the record, I am now VERY pleased with my purchase. I have yet to get into the animation in any depth, but my modelling purposes it is great.

-Nerseus

#28 Hey, Dan, haven't been on for a while and just saw this. It's true that we would sell more product at a lower price (maybe not enough though) but it's more complex that that unfortunately.

For instance, each unit has a fixed cost associated with it - box, CD (or bandwidth if downloaded). Plus we pay a certain percentage to creaters of the technologies we use in gS such as the renderer, export technologies, and several other tools.

All of those issues make a price of $100 impossible in the near term. What we instead try to do is include additional products in bundles and offer them at something close to the basic gameSpace price. The Torque bundle, for instance, included two $79 videos, a $20 exporter, and a free exporter and was initially offered for the same price as gameSpace by itself.

We will continue to find ways to add to the value of gameSpace and improve its basic stability and functionality.


[edit]BTW, Rex, I'm trying to work with Chumbalum to see if we can resolve this issue. Not sure if I sent you an e-mail about that or not.[edit]

#29 Thanks for letting me know, Michael; I have not received any emails yet...and just now viewed this. Good luck getting things sorted.