What tool can do this...
by Darin Weaver · in Torque Game Engine · 09/06/2007 (11:15 pm) · 3 replies
Here's the deal. I need to make roads, smooth and seamless, hilly and curvy. This rules out construction set, or for that matter any bsp editor... my fear is that .dif's will not meet up to this demand, and I surely don't want to have to zone my roadways using .dts (pretty ridiculous anyways)
I hate the construction set, and I love blender, but I'm afraid neither are going to help me in this case. I know that blender has a .map exporter and I think from that I can convert it into .dif, but the restrictions with which I am facing will be the same regardless, no?
Ultimately I want to have curvaceous roads worthy of traveling at a high velocity, but NOT like a racetrack. Is there any tool or method that can achieve this, or, at the very least, fool the player into thinking that I achieved it?
I hate the construction set, and I love blender, but I'm afraid neither are going to help me in this case. I know that blender has a .map exporter and I think from that I can convert it into .dif, but the restrictions with which I am facing will be the same regardless, no?
Ultimately I want to have curvaceous roads worthy of traveling at a high velocity, but NOT like a racetrack. Is there any tool or method that can achieve this, or, at the very least, fool the player into thinking that I achieved it?
#2
09/07/2007 (12:09 am)
The kind of roads you looking for can be done in .dif or DTS, but ultimately you have a handful of choices as i see it. Use highly detailed DTS with LOD (actually a really good choice) Use a Highly detailed and tweaked .dif constructed from a map (constructor doesnt do hills and such very well). Use the terrain itself and paint it with layered textures, a doable task with TGEA ( but really only usable for offroad maps). The trick to all the options though is setting them up and lining up all the dif, dts or smoothing the terrain to achieve the high end velocity your looking for. Personally if you looking for the fastest, use the terrain painting. If you looking for actual roads with the highest degree of detail a gaint DTS maybe in order. beware of LOD ( you might also try scaling) a 1/4 size DTSwith a miniture car. Lots of choices. probably a few i missed. Depends on your map, your scope and exactly what you mean by fast.
#3
Instead of having complete movement control, I'd rather the bike itself have a fixed location within a single lane, to put less emphasis on staying on the track and allow more concentration to be dedicated to dodging obstacles (ie other traffic) via lane switching. Much like Need For Speed's drag-racing minigame, except at speeds in excess of 300 km/h.
Ofcourse this will more than likely have to be considerably less extreme given the nature of tge. I'm willing to compromise.
The road itself doesn't have to be incredibly detailed, yet I would imagine that if it were rendered in a completely sky-based zone it could be, without a big performance hit.
I've had TGE for about a year, just never had the time, so I'm still learning, yet I am no stranger to C++ and I am ready to get my hands dirty with some engine code. I know LOD means level of detail, but when you say that using DTS with LOD is a good approach, what do you mean? Do you mean that I should have the engine dynamically alter the level of detail of each section of road as the player is moving to allow greater detail yet reduce demand from the pc? Does it require zones? What about the models, would this affect the node structure? Is it a feasible option with TGE? Just not too clear on what you two mean there.
09/07/2007 (10:24 am)
I was thinking along the lines of jet-propelled hover-bikes that are fixed onto 4 to 6 lane highways that ascend as far as the clouds, and at points, dip back down to the ground. Instead of having complete movement control, I'd rather the bike itself have a fixed location within a single lane, to put less emphasis on staying on the track and allow more concentration to be dedicated to dodging obstacles (ie other traffic) via lane switching. Much like Need For Speed's drag-racing minigame, except at speeds in excess of 300 km/h.
Ofcourse this will more than likely have to be considerably less extreme given the nature of tge. I'm willing to compromise.
The road itself doesn't have to be incredibly detailed, yet I would imagine that if it were rendered in a completely sky-based zone it could be, without a big performance hit.
I've had TGE for about a year, just never had the time, so I'm still learning, yet I am no stranger to C++ and I am ready to get my hands dirty with some engine code. I know LOD means level of detail, but when you say that using DTS with LOD is a good approach, what do you mean? Do you mean that I should have the engine dynamically alter the level of detail of each section of road as the player is moving to allow greater detail yet reduce demand from the pc? Does it require zones? What about the models, would this affect the node structure? Is it a feasible option with TGE? Just not too clear on what you two mean there.
Torque Owner ChrisG