Torque 3D Development - 1.1 Alpha!

Greetings Torque 3D users! In the last Torque 3D dev blog, we showed that the Torque 3D team has no plans of slowing down after the 1.0 release. In this blog, we're thrilled to unveil some more of the new tech we have been working on.

Download Torque 3D 1.1 Alpha from your account now!

Got your downloads started? Good, now read on...

Torque 3D 1.1 Alpha New Features

Forest Editor

Since GDC '09, you've all been patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for Sickhead Games' foliage rendering and painting technology. We showed you videos of Tom demoing the 'Forest Kit' and Pacific Demo. For those of you who have not heard about it, the Forest Editor is a tool that allows you to quickly create massive amounts of vegetation for your level. This includes patches of trees, forests, and fields of smaller elements such as shrubs and plants. You can paint an entire forest using multiple brushes, which will lay down 3D models for you. In addition to these great tools, Sickhead has done a tremendous amount of work to make sure Torque 3D can render vast forests with ease.

We never officially announced pricing for 'Forest Kit' (now officially 'Forest Editor'), and of course, in the end it was Sickhead's creation and their choice to put an appropriate price on it. For what it provides, we were looking at prices anywhere from $100 to $500 / seat as an add-on. Sometimes, where it's appropriate for Torque, we try to work out a deal to offer 3rd pary add-ons like this as a fully integrated feature of the core engine. I'm happy to say that we were able to work out this kind of deal with Sickhead. As great as these guys are to work with on development, they are also very flexible on the business side, with the best interests of Torque and Torque users in mind.

Let me make this crystal clear for all you anticipating use of the new Forest Editor then, but perhaps fretting the cost...it's now included in Torque 3D Professional, free of charge. All current Torque 3D license holders can download the 1.1 Alpha and begin using this amazing tool. The Official Documentation will be updated later today to show you how to use it. I'd suggest jumping on IRC hour today to say thanks to Sickhead for helping us make this happen and to ask questions about how to get the most from this new feature.


            

Sketch Tool

We have another surprise feature for the 1.1 Alpha, yet another fantastic Sickhead creation. The Sketch Tool allows you to quickly generate convex meshes without going to 3rd party modeling applications, such as Maya or 3DS Max. The interface allows you to quickly sketch out convex shapes via simple mouse actions. You can edit the faces of your mesh to roughly resemble what your final assets might look like. As with the Forest Editor, the Official Documentation will be updated later today with a guide to using the Sketch Tool. Again, big thanks to Sickhead for making rapid iteration in Torque 3D ever more powerful.

In the hands of a non-artist, such as myself, I was able to create a few simple houses which I then duplicated to create an entire village:


            



For experienced artists, such as Sickhead's Russell Fincher, the levels you can create in less than 2 hours is amazing:

Prefabs

Another major win for rapid iteration in Torque 3D is the addition of prefabs. Rather than copying and pasting multiple selections (rinse & repeat), the prefab system allows you to group multiple objects together and combine them into a single file. Imagine you are making a city with hundreds of working lamp posts? Simply combine the lamp model and point light into a single prefab. You can now load the prefab file into your level as much as you want without having to create each lamp and point light by hand.


            


We also put together a quick and dirty version of this new feature in action. Please forgive the lack of editing, narration and music...we'll build something nicer to show this later on.

Major GUI Editor Improvements

Rene Damm performed a full usability pass on Torque 3D's GUI Editor to clean up the interface and add new adjustment options, making the GUI Editor much easier to use. Of course, he couldn't stop with just general improvements...

Gone are the days of manually editing every single GUI profile by hand via TorqueScript. Rene Damm integrated a Profile Editor into Torque 3D's GUI Editor! If you didn't already know, GUI Profiles are what determine the overall appearance of your interface elements. Want your buttons to be opaque? Need to use 20 different fonts depending on the text control type? Making these changes are as simple as loading the Profile Editor.

            

Major SFX Upgrades

Speaking of Rene, his SFX work also deserves major spotlight time in this blog. The overall goal was to move from the very rudimentary and primarily code-driven SFX system in 1.0 to a primarily data-driven system that can be set up and controlled entirely from within the editors.

• Ambient Audio: Audio behavior can be directly assigned to objects within a level as well as to levels themselves. As the listeners roams around, an ambient audio mix is automatically created and maintained by the system.


• Interactive Audio: Audio can be set up to react to game state changes using SFXParameters and SFXStates. The system automatically responds to changes to these objects.


• FMOD Designer Support: Complex game audio effects and interactive music can be designed in the FMOD Designer tool and dropped right into Torque. Events can be used just like any other track type.

      

Ground Cover

Torque 3D's Ground Cover system is very powerful and can make level building go much faster, especially when used in conjunction with the Forest Editor. There has always been confusion about how to properly use a GroundCover object, such as getting it to paint the terrain based on the material. Previously, you had to hard code the material for the foliage and figure out which terrain layer to cover (based on a numerical index) from memory. Rejoice, for we have given the system a major usability pass to make it much easier to use. You can now select the cover material (such as grass) and the terrain texture right from the object using our Material Selector:

      

      

Shape Editor and COLLADA

Nothing seems to slow Chris Robertson down. Improving Torque 3D's asset pipeline is a constant effort and for the 1.1 Alpha he has delivered again. Chris has improved the COLLADA Importer (both backend and interface) and added new functionality to the Shape Editor. The two biggest improvements to the Shape Editor include viewing and controlling LODs, and linking the Material Editor to the Shape Editor. While viewing a shape, you can switch to the materials tab then edit a selected material without having to switch to an entirely separate editor.


            


This is an exciting time to be involved with Torque 3D, whether you a part of the development team or a licensed owner. This month, most of the team are picking up their lives and making the move to our new Las Vegas headquarters. With such a great internal team and so much support from our external dev partners, I doubt you'll see us miss a beat. Torque 3D and 2D are both making rapid progress toward the vision you've helped us create. Thank you for your consistent, constructive feedback. You all help us make Torque better.

Torque 3D development blogs:

• Post #1 - Kickoff
• Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
• Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
• Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
• Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
• Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
• Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
• Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
• Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
• Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
• Post #11 - Depth of Field
• Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
• Post #13 - Soft Particles
• Post #14 - World Editor
• Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
• Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
• Post #17 - River & Road Editors
• Post #18 - Beta is UP!
• Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, and the Material Editor
• Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
• Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
• Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
• Post #23 - pureLIGHT
• Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
• Post #25 - Beta 3!
• Post #26 - Documentation
• Post #27 - Beta 4!
• Post #28 - Shape Editor
• Post #29 - Beta 5!
• Post #30 - Collada Import GUI Dialog
• Post #31 - 1.0 Release!!!
• Post #32 - The only good bug...
• Post #33 - 1.1 Alpha!
• Post #34 - Coming Soon!