Newbie Question - Moving Interiors in Torque?
by James McKenzie · in Torque Game Engine · 01/24/2005 (3:43 am) · 37 replies
Hi all,
I've been a member of Garagegames for quite a while now, but never thought about using Torque for my games. Until now...
I have a great idea for a game, (as we all do!) but I'm wondering if it will be possible in Torque. From what I understand about the engine, indoor environments are BSP rendered, and static lightmapped by the engine. This seems pretty cool for doing both indoor and outdoor environments, but I plan on "moving" buildings. As an example, say I want to do a huge spaceship or hovership or standard floating ship, that can fly or move around a map, and players can see it, but you can also wander around inside the ship while it's moving. Can this be done?
If I understand correctly, I would need an indoor environment for something like this, but the problem is the lighting on buildings is done statically, so it wouldn't look very good if the "building" was moving around. Would it be possible to do something like this using standard object models, (maybe double sided and not backfaced culled,) but that would probably require writing a whole slew of code for things like gravity and wall collision, etc, basically re-creating the indoor portion of the Torque engine?
What about having different game levels, and when the user enters a ship from the outside environment, they load into a new level inside the ship? This would probably be the easiest, but it wouldn't provide support for things such as windows would it?
Can anyone help me? Is this going to be possible? If it is, can it be done with minimal change to the Torque engine? I imagine the reason you haven't seen many games with this sort of feature is that it is hard to code.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
I've been a member of Garagegames for quite a while now, but never thought about using Torque for my games. Until now...
I have a great idea for a game, (as we all do!) but I'm wondering if it will be possible in Torque. From what I understand about the engine, indoor environments are BSP rendered, and static lightmapped by the engine. This seems pretty cool for doing both indoor and outdoor environments, but I plan on "moving" buildings. As an example, say I want to do a huge spaceship or hovership or standard floating ship, that can fly or move around a map, and players can see it, but you can also wander around inside the ship while it's moving. Can this be done?
If I understand correctly, I would need an indoor environment for something like this, but the problem is the lighting on buildings is done statically, so it wouldn't look very good if the "building" was moving around. Would it be possible to do something like this using standard object models, (maybe double sided and not backfaced culled,) but that would probably require writing a whole slew of code for things like gravity and wall collision, etc, basically re-creating the indoor portion of the Torque engine?
What about having different game levels, and when the user enters a ship from the outside environment, they load into a new level inside the ship? This would probably be the easiest, but it wouldn't provide support for things such as windows would it?
Can anyone help me? Is this going to be possible? If it is, can it be done with minimal change to the Torque engine? I imagine the reason you haven't seen many games with this sort of feature is that it is hard to code.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
#22
@Tim: Mr. Garney informed us at igc that movers will not be implemented into the 1.4 version of the engine.
They have surprised us in the past with more then they promised to deliver so, maybe there is still a chance that this, more standard feature of professional game engines, will be included... :)
If not then... Matthew is our new best friend. Unless you are already Matthews best friend then... umm... er... I guess nothing changes for you.
10/28/2005 (7:52 am)
I know it has been a couple of months since the last post but this issue is an important one to keep alive.@Tim: Mr. Garney informed us at igc that movers will not be implemented into the 1.4 version of the engine.
They have surprised us in the past with more then they promised to deliver so, maybe there is still a chance that this, more standard feature of professional game engines, will be included... :)
If not then... Matthew is our new best friend. Unless you are already Matthews best friend then... umm... er... I guess nothing changes for you.
#23
Now I have talked to the Project Owner, and have agreed we should release a pack that demo's the MovingInteriors, what you can do with it, and source changes. Just dont know the timeline yet, but will try and let you know.
10/28/2005 (8:50 am)
Actualy, the MovingInteriors is alive and works great. Unfortunetly, right now, I'm under an NDA with another project that I have incorporated the MovingInteriors. I can tell you that we have some Monorails running around the area and it looks and works great.Now I have talked to the Project Owner, and have agreed we should release a pack that demo's the MovingInteriors, what you can do with it, and source changes. Just dont know the timeline yet, but will try and let you know.
#24
10/30/2005 (5:14 pm)
Thanks guys for the continous feedback and keeping the issue alive. Sounds good Simon, should open some real possibilities for developers to add some neat things to their Torque games.
#25
11/17/2005 (7:10 am)
@Simon, Thanks for the update. I hope you will be able to release this soon... ;)
#26
This way you wouldn't hurt any NDA since you don't give code away, and some inspired mind would know what way to follow.
11/17/2005 (8:24 am)
@Simon: do you think you could share some info on how this can be done in general?This way you wouldn't hurt any NDA since you don't give code away, and some inspired mind would know what way to follow.
#28
As for what Simon is working on, it may take a couple of months (or more depending on his schedule) but it will be worth the wait and the purchase price when it is released. Riding a monorail around a world is a pretty cool experience.
11/17/2005 (9:47 am)
What Robert was referring to is a new resource by Anthony Lovell. If you have access to the TGE private board you can look up resources by Anthony Lovell and you will find a great new resource titled, "Attachable SceneObjects in Hierarchical Coordinate Spaces". I am interested in checking it out myself.As for what Simon is working on, it may take a couple of months (or more depending on his schedule) but it will be worth the wait and the purchase price when it is released. Riding a monorail around a world is a pretty cool experience.
#29
Can anyone tell me if this functionality is available in the 1.4 release?
-Surge
03/24/2006 (3:22 pm)
Apr 15, 2005 (almost a year ago)Matt F spoke about moving platforms. Can anyone tell me if this functionality is available in the 1.4 release?
-Surge
#30
03/30/2006 (7:11 pm)
It is not in the 1.4 release nor will it be in any of the 1.4.x releases. It is however one of the *highest* priority improvements to the engine for the next version and we put some pretty significant research and development into this while working on Marble Blast Ultra. However, I have to finish Constructor before I can circle back on this.
#31
This is one of the things i really miss in the engine.
It's really worth waiting for .
Keep up the good work !
03/31/2006 (4:59 am)
Sounds very promising Matt !This is one of the things i really miss in the engine.
It's really worth waiting for .
Keep up the good work !
#32
04/03/2006 (7:11 pm)
DAmn, well that blows... Can't wait for it!
#33
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=10167
04/05/2006 (5:06 pm)
Isn't this what you're looking for? (Or did I miss something...):www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=10167
#34
I personally would love a moving interior and I can't wait.
1.5 Maybe? Please?
09/22/2006 (7:58 pm)
Thanks for you input Matt, I personally would love a moving interior and I can't wait.
1.5 Maybe? Please?
#35
08/28/2007 (4:24 pm)
Any Chance this is now able to be finished now that constructor is done?
#36
08/29/2007 (6:29 am)
Constructor has the entities for it, but I have no idea when it will be fully integrated either into the engine or into Constructor. Especially since Constructor is far from done.
#37
02/08/2009 (2:55 am)
Any progress on this guys?
Torque 3D Owner James McKenzie