Game Creation Pipeline from 20,000 feet
by Ron Hiler · in Torque Game Engine · 12/30/2008 (4:38 pm) · 3 replies
I'm trying to lock down a reasonable development pipeline, and have come up with a few questions in the process.
Alright, first of all, take a look at this diagram that I've drawn up
Before I get to the questions, if anyone has comments, I'll be glad to hear them. I'm still roughing out a lot of this, so if you think I might need to change something, let me know (and please give the "why"). Or if I've missed anything (for the purposes of a 3D game, not a shooter, but it'll have more or less the same sort of requirements a shooter would have).
Currently, I have:
Borland Builder 2007 (Professional)
Torque Gamine Engine Advanced (Indie)
Paint Shop Pro
Truespace 7.6
Constructor
Atlas (which is part of TGEA, yes?)
I plan on picking up
Torsion
UU3D Pro (I used to have a license for this, but I've lost it now, I may have to rebuy it)
Something for sound capture/processing (and voice)
LT3D (??)
One thing that might throw you is that I'm using UU3D as both a UV unwrapper/mapper and as a file converter. Don't let that bug you, it's a great program for both purposes! :)
Now, as you can see, there are still a couple of blanks in my chart.
The first involves bones and animations. It seems like I should do those things in Truespace, since it has a pretty nice interface for that sort of thing, but then how do I get them from Truespace into Torque? It kind of seems like bones and animations ought to be independent of the models (because I could have 12 different biped models all of which would use the same bones and animations, for instance, and if they were independent, I could save myself a lot of duplicated work). How is this typically done?
Are there any thoughts on this? I'm a bit fuzzy on this part of it, so any clarifications would be a big help.
Another question was on LT3D. I see it gets a lot of use, but I'm not sure how it fits into the whole Atlas/Torque pipeline. Why do I want to use LT3D when I have Atlas available to me? What advantages does it give me? I've looked at it, but am not seeing the benefit. Somebody bring me up to speed on that one.
Finally, sound. Any suggestions? I'm totally clueless on sound capture and processing programs. It's one area of game programming I've never really looked into.
I appreciate any tips from you guys.
Ron
Alright, first of all, take a look at this diagram that I've drawn up
Before I get to the questions, if anyone has comments, I'll be glad to hear them. I'm still roughing out a lot of this, so if you think I might need to change something, let me know (and please give the "why"). Or if I've missed anything (for the purposes of a 3D game, not a shooter, but it'll have more or less the same sort of requirements a shooter would have).
Currently, I have:
Borland Builder 2007 (Professional)
Torque Gamine Engine Advanced (Indie)
Paint Shop Pro
Truespace 7.6
Constructor
Atlas (which is part of TGEA, yes?)
I plan on picking up
Torsion
UU3D Pro (I used to have a license for this, but I've lost it now, I may have to rebuy it)
Something for sound capture/processing (and voice)
LT3D (??)
One thing that might throw you is that I'm using UU3D as both a UV unwrapper/mapper and as a file converter. Don't let that bug you, it's a great program for both purposes! :)
Now, as you can see, there are still a couple of blanks in my chart.
The first involves bones and animations. It seems like I should do those things in Truespace, since it has a pretty nice interface for that sort of thing, but then how do I get them from Truespace into Torque? It kind of seems like bones and animations ought to be independent of the models (because I could have 12 different biped models all of which would use the same bones and animations, for instance, and if they were independent, I could save myself a lot of duplicated work). How is this typically done?
Are there any thoughts on this? I'm a bit fuzzy on this part of it, so any clarifications would be a big help.
Another question was on LT3D. I see it gets a lot of use, but I'm not sure how it fits into the whole Atlas/Torque pipeline. Why do I want to use LT3D when I have Atlas available to me? What advantages does it give me? I've looked at it, but am not seeing the benefit. Somebody bring me up to speed on that one.
Finally, sound. Any suggestions? I'm totally clueless on sound capture and processing programs. It's one area of game programming I've never really looked into.
I appreciate any tips from you guys.
Ron
About the author
#2
Check here for your model and animation exort stuff:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5523
There's also a pdf in that resource that is quite helpful as well.
And as Tony pointed out, Atlas is the terain render engine, so you will still either want to use something like LT3D to generate your terians, unless you really want to do it all within the mission editor, which is like using sculptor's tools to tunnel through a mountain. Don't get me wrong, the mission editor is great, but generating large terrains by hand with the mission editor tools can be a huge timesink when an external tool is much more efficient.
12/31/2008 (7:25 am)
Unless something changed in 1.8 or will change in T3D, you will likely want to move to Visual Studio (Express for free edition) as I don't know of anyone having any success working on TGEA under many other dev studios/ides.Check here for your model and animation exort stuff:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5523
There's also a pdf in that resource that is quite helpful as well.
And as Tony pointed out, Atlas is the terain render engine, so you will still either want to use something like LT3D to generate your terians, unless you really want to do it all within the mission editor, which is like using sculptor's tools to tunnel through a mountain. Don't get me wrong, the mission editor is great, but generating large terrains by hand with the mission editor tools can be a huge timesink when an external tool is much more efficient.
#3
Brian, awesome link, thanks! I'm reading through the docs now, and from a first scan through, it seems like it is just the thing I need. I can even drop UU3D as a file converter and use this instead. Very cool. I'm going to update my chart with this info.
As for Borland vs. VS, I'm going to give it a go with Bulder first. Theoretically, if the program can compile under GCC, it ought to do okay under builder. If I have too many issues with it, I'll drop over to VS Express (with much grumbling).
So that's better, I feel like I've got a lock on almost the entire process, with the exception of sound. I don't suppose anyone has any good suggestions on sound programs?
12/31/2008 (7:53 am)
Ah, I get it. Thanks guys, so LT3D definitely gets put into the pipeline. Thanks for clearing that up for me.Brian, awesome link, thanks! I'm reading through the docs now, and from a first scan through, it seems like it is just the thing I need. I can even drop UU3D as a file converter and use this instead. Very cool. I'm going to update my chart with this info.
As for Borland vs. VS, I'm going to give it a go with Bulder first. Theoretically, if the program can compile under GCC, it ought to do okay under builder. If I have too many issues with it, I'll drop over to VS Express (with much grumbling).
So that's better, I feel like I've got a lock on almost the entire process, with the exception of sound. I don't suppose anyone has any good suggestions on sound programs?
Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards
You still need something like L3DT to generate / edit your terrains, create your texture, light and normal maps, etc.