Torque X 3D Update - July 10

It's that time again! After nearly a month, it's time for another Torque X 3D community status update. This one will be a little shorter than the first one, but hopefully just as interesting. If you haven't read the previous update, check it out first.

For this update I'll gab on a bit about what I've been working on. Adam will likely be posting soon with an update of his own, so I won't go into too much detail on what he's been up to.

First off, some pretty:


You might recognize this patchy terrain from the the first update - now with one minor difference: a detail map. I was amazed how much it added to the apparent detail of the terrain. Another thing you might notice in this shot is the distance fog and fullscreen bloom effect. Adam worked on all the postprocessing stuff, so I'll leave it to him to post about that.

The fog can be used to create some pretty neat effects:



Another major addition that wasn't covered in the last update was the inventory, pickup, and equipment system. Here you can see the new Torque X FPS robot dude holding his flag and gun on a hilltop:


This can now be set up entirely in the scene file with simple interface. As Adam and I have mentioned before, everything is componentised. To give you an idea of exactly what that means (and also just how the inventory and equipment system is manipulated) here's the current player template from our FPS test scene with the inventory component definition expanded and all other component definitions collapsed:

<TorqueObject type="GarageGames.Torque.Core.TorqueObject" name="Player">
	<IsTemplate>true</IsTemplate>
	<Components>
		<ShadowCasterComponent type="GarageGames.Torque.Lighting.BlobShadowCasterComponent">
		<T3DInventoryComponent type="StarterGame.T3DInventoryComponent">
			<ItemDropSceneGroup>PlayerMesh</ItemDropSceneGroup>
			<ItemDropNode>cam</ItemDropNode>
			<ItemDropOffset>
				<X>0</X>
				<Y>2</Y>
				<Z>0</Z>
			</ItemDropOffset>
			<ItemSlots>
				<ItemSlot type="StarterGame.T3DMountedEquippableItemSlot">
					<ItemName>CTFFlag</ItemName>
					<EquipmentTemplate nameRef="FlagTemplate"/>
					<OwnerSceneGroupName>PlayerMesh</OwnerSceneGroupName>
					<OwnerAttachNode>LeftHandEnd</OwnerAttachNode>
					<DroppedObjectTemplate nameRef="FlagPickupTemplate"/>
				</ItemSlot>
				<ItemSlot type="StarterGame.T3DMountedEquippableItemSlot">
					<ItemName>UglyGun</ItemName>
					<EquipmentTemplate nameRef="GunWeaponTemplate"/>
					<OwnerSceneGroupName>PlayerMesh</OwnerSceneGroupName>
					<OwnerAttachNode>Mount0</OwnerAttachNode>
				</ItemSlot>
				<ItemSlot type="StarterGame.T3DMountedEquippableItemSlot">
					<ItemName>UglyGun2</ItemName>
					<EquipmentTemplate nameRef="GunWeaponTemplate2"/>
					<OwnerSceneGroupName>PlayerMesh</OwnerSceneGroupName>
					<OwnerAttachNode>Mount0</OwnerAttachNode>
				</ItemSlot>
			</ItemSlots>
		</T3DInventoryComponent>
		<T3DMountComponent type="GarageGames.Torque.T3D.T3DMountComponent">
		<InputComponent type="StarterGame.FPSPlayerInputComponent">
		<AnimationManager type="GarageGames.Torque.T3D.T3DAnimationComponent">
		<T3DTSRenderComponent type="GarageGames.Torque.T3D.T3DTSRenderComponent">
		<T3DSceneComponent type="GarageGames.Torque.T3D.T3DSceneComponent">
		<ControlComponent type="StarterGame.FPSPlayerControlComponent">
		<RigidComponent type="GarageGames.Torque.T3D.T3DRigidComponent">
		<PlayerCamera type="StarterGame.FPSPlayerCameraComponent">
	</Components>
</TorqueObject>

That's all from me for now. Thanks for reading. ;D