Qtvr Effect

#1 If you mean moving between pre-rendered screens to create the illusion of moving around (like myst did back in the day, i havent seen the games you mentioned), point and click, couldnt you have clickable navigation items, or navigation hud on each image, pre layed out in a tgb level, and move the camera to that images position when the user clicks to go there (kinda like html navigation)?

i dont know if thats what you mean, but from what i understood that would be an easy way to do it.

if you actually want 3d movement, you would need tge.

i hope that helps

Neil

#2 Thanks for your reply Neil.

I was meaning something more 'fluid', but not real 3D.

I'm probably not good at explaining this, however it is like the camera is on a tripod in the middle of the room not moving from that spot. But it can rotate left, right, up, and down. Like those real estate tours or any panoramic or cubic VR.

I've seen this implementation in current 'detective' games.

I'm just trying to find out if Torque (TGB or TGE) can do this and how.

If so, I'm buying.

#3 TGE can definitely do it, especially if you want it in 3D. TGB wouldn't be good if you want it in 3D, also TGB would look like you're just panning the camera around a flat surface.

#4 Off the top of my head I would say that this would be possible using a scroller in TGB.

I know that you can make a image scroll left and right, but I am unsure if you can get it to scroll up and down.

You might want to play around with it and see what it can do.

#5 Anthony, I'm 100% certain you can do that in TGB. It just won't look like you're moving your head this way and that.

#6 I don't use tgb that much, if you rendered out your 'view' (and i mean 360 left and right) in a horizontal strip, you could pan left and right (limited up and down) to create the rotating effect. if your pre-render camera is at the right angle/fov, you should get the qt-vr effect, and retain the ease of editing and layout in tgb.
to move in and out, you would then have to zoom in and then move the camera to the new render etc.

you may also wish to consider laying out your 2d pre-render art in 3d tge (maybe on spheres , cylinders or planes) to truly manipulate the art in 3d (will also give you access to real-time lighting effects), even throw in a few objects with pre-rendered art mapped on them and it could give you a cool, mix of depth and pre-rendered backgrounds.. something to think about.

again, i hope that helps, not knowing exactly 100% what you are trying to do makes it hard to offer advice, but i think that kinda answers your question.

Neil

#7 Thanks again (to everyone).

My preconception of TGB & TGE is low poly use only.

I guess the reason / purpose of this particular question should now be rephrased...

If I have a higher-res scene (say a furnished room) would the camera pan smoothly if it is fixed to one spot and only rotates left/right/up/down?

In other words, can I get away from the low-poly look with this method?

#8 Your polly count is really based on your target system, not the engine (tge, tgea handles more large polly numbers better) for polly based data, if used wizely, levels of details and portals can give you high polly 'next gen' level scenes, as long as the pc running it can handle it (this is uaually scaled to your target). so it will depend on your target audience. pre-rendered art lowers the pc hardware requirement alot, but limits what you can do and possibly limit gamers perceptions to a casual genre.

it can work many ways, it depends what you want to do and what your requirements are.

i would advise to plan/play/prototype the methods and see what works best for your purpose,
mapping pre-rendered on to the inside of a sphere and panning the camera inside with free tilt movement may work great, or it may not (in thory it sounds great, but i have never tried it).

i hope that answered your q, but without knowing more info....

Neil