Tools for Atlas, 3d Studio Max?
by Myk Sanders · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 11/25/2005 (2:29 pm) · 10 replies
Here's a question for all you programmer types.
Ive been working with Atlas the past couple days, and I kinda dislike that I have to use tools outside of the ones I own to get work into TSE. For instance, theres plenty of references of people using L3DT, FreeWorld3d, Terragen, etc on the forums. From what Ive been able to deduce from the current Atlas pipeline, these tools are only being used to produce a heightmap until more robust tools come down the pipe.
Being a crafty artist, I can produce decent heightmaps all by my lonesome with Photoshop, I can then Displace that onto a mesh in max, and acheive some decent reults with just those tools. Is there anyone out there who might be looking into a max -> atlas exporter?
My thinking is that- speaking as an artist,I would have more control over the process and tools for map / world creation, with less tools. Its not that these tools are expensive, or unreliable. I've tried them , and they work great, I just prefer a level of control that they dont offer easily.
I might be jumping ahead of development, but details are'nt available on what the pipeline will eventually be (at least afaik, from my limited access to the TSE forums) Anyone have any thoughts on how an export could come together?
Ive been working with Atlas the past couple days, and I kinda dislike that I have to use tools outside of the ones I own to get work into TSE. For instance, theres plenty of references of people using L3DT, FreeWorld3d, Terragen, etc on the forums. From what Ive been able to deduce from the current Atlas pipeline, these tools are only being used to produce a heightmap until more robust tools come down the pipe.
Being a crafty artist, I can produce decent heightmaps all by my lonesome with Photoshop, I can then Displace that onto a mesh in max, and acheive some decent reults with just those tools. Is there anyone out there who might be looking into a max -> atlas exporter?
My thinking is that- speaking as an artist,I would have more control over the process and tools for map / world creation, with less tools. Its not that these tools are expensive, or unreliable. I've tried them , and they work great, I just prefer a level of control that they dont offer easily.
I might be jumping ahead of development, but details are'nt available on what the pipeline will eventually be (at least afaik, from my limited access to the TSE forums) Anyone have any thoughts on how an export could come together?
#2
-Edit:
I can also change the UVW mapping of the terrain, so I wouldnt get stretched textures.
11/25/2005 (4:38 pm)
Yea, I like L3DT as well, I just want more control over the contours of the terrain. Dealing with pixel based heightmaps rather than polys yeilds artifacts where I dont really want them at times, but overall its not bad. Plus, if i could use max, i could better plan out my environments (buildings and such) because I can preview the terrain. I'm also guessing that painting a texturemap would be easier as well, again because I can preview the terrain. -Edit:
I can also change the UVW mapping of the terrain, so I wouldnt get stretched textures.
#3
My next big task is rolling out the next revision of Atlas & tools; better integration with max & co. is definitely something that's under consideration.
11/25/2005 (5:22 pm)
You'd have to load an approximately 60million polygon mesh into Max for that, and I've heard that doesn't work very well...My next big task is rolling out the next revision of Atlas & tools; better integration with max & co. is definitely something that's under consideration.
#4
.
I've created scenes in max with roughly 11 million polys, with out too big a performance hit, anything more than that seems to bog my machine down. ZBrush seems to handle polys much better. Even at that high detail I couldnt imagine creating that much terrain for a single level in a project unless one was trying to create an entire world.
I hope someone considers this a viable option, speaking not only to garage games, but to other developers as well.
edited BBcode.
11/26/2005 (3:28 pm)
60 Million polys for what? I'm guessing your talking about project design, in how big the terrain sizes are? my experiments at the current scales, 720,000 polygons give plenty of detail in max, with a fairly large terrain size (with the current player : world ratio)..I've created scenes in max with roughly 11 million polys, with out too big a performance hit, anything more than that seems to bog my machine down. ZBrush seems to handle polys much better. Even at that high detail I couldnt imagine creating that much terrain for a single level in a project unless one was trying to create an entire world.
I hope someone considers this a viable option, speaking not only to garage games, but to other developers as well.
edited BBcode.
#5
The current "large" terrains are 60 million polygons, with very coarse detail. 134 million if you want to use triangles. I think it's safe to say people won't be editing the entire world at once in Max. :)
This is for an 8k by 8k terrain.
Let's not discuss texture detail yet. ;)
11/26/2005 (4:25 pm)
I think editing in a real 3d modelling tool is a great idea. I'll be exploring that option soon.The current "large" terrains are 60 million polygons, with very coarse detail. 134 million if you want to use triangles. I think it's safe to say people won't be editing the entire world at once in Max. :)
This is for an 8k by 8k terrain.
Let's not discuss texture detail yet. ;)
#6
11/26/2005 (6:48 pm)
Is it possible to make a small terrain with lot of small polys so we can make smaller cave holes?
#7
11/26/2005 (8:29 pm)
There are these convenient "scale" parameters that control all that... Any scale you want is quite possible, and without having to reprocess anything, either.
#8
11/26/2005 (8:30 pm)
For reference, the "small" terrain has a smaller scale value than the "large" terrain. 
#10
11/27/2005 (8:47 pm)
Quote:looked like Maya's manipluator toolThey stole "maya's"manipulator for max a number of versions back. =)
Torque 3D Owner Matt Huston
Atomic Banzai Games