Torque 3D Development - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
by Brett Seyler · 06/18/2009 (3:46 am) · 85 comments
With Beta 3 just around the corner, I wanted to share with you guys a collection of recent highlights from the Torque 3D dev team. They're making incredible progress and everything you see here will be in next week's release. There's so much here, I'm going to let what's below speak for itself. Enjoy...
Advanced Lighting Tutorial from Lara Engebretson
Normal and Parallax Mapped Terrain from Sickhead
Detail Map
Detail and Normal Maps
Detail and Normal Maps plus Parallax
Nice Hifi Terrain!
Player Ripple Particle Effect from Sickhead and Todd Pickens
DIF --> Collada from Matt Fairfax
From Torque 3D
Burg DIFs in 3ds Max
PhysX Cloth from Sickhead
If you're ready to move to Torque 3D, you can still get the pre-order discount.
$100 OFF Torque 3D pre-order discount
This discount will expire when we've released a final version of Torque 3D. If you're already a Torque 3D owner, congrats! Please remember to post your Beta 2 feedback in Torque 3D Private Forums. Thanks!More development blogs to come. This is post #24.
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 - Coming Soon!
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#2
06/18/2009 (5:47 am)
Wow !!! the terrain looks fantastic. Good job, really. Congrats to both Garagegames and Sickhead !!! 
#4
06/18/2009 (6:34 am)
DIF --> to Collada? Ok need to hear more details on that will this be a new Constructor Feature or a Direct coding change with TGEA ie, export from Constructor, its imported as Collada (which is a extra step vs just simply a new exe that exports it as a Collada). If we can import a DIF inside of T3d, we should be able to export direct as a Collada format.
#5
06/18/2009 (6:45 am)
@edward - It's mentioned on another thread. It's an export of the Dif from T3D - constructor is not involved. I've thought about adding a collada export from constructor, but I don't know. First, it's a lot of work to do for free, and I'm not sure many people would use it if I did. I would however export the lightmaps if possible. :)
#6
06/18/2009 (7:25 am)
well i suppose as long as the process is complete, yah lightmaps might be important, i know i prelight my stuff in constructor, to save objects in Fantasci, so yah, if i have to make a extra step so be it, but its sad to think that one of the torque tools (that really needs to be updated, which is why folks arent using it as much as they could and there is that whole push to DTS/polysoup thing) But Constructor and Showtools need Collada support as well as DDS support, at the very least, so its not just constructor that needs love. Intergrating Showtools into T3d as a feature would be a awesome tool box bonus. or even Constructor as a toolbox feature. Just as a thought. 
#7
@ALL - DO NOT FORGET ABOUT IRC HOUR TONIGHT.
IRC Hour will be going down at 3:00pm (PST), which is 6:00pm (EST). We will be discussing the Torque 3D updates, Beta 3, Documentation (all engines), upcoming GG events and conferences, and whatever YOU want to talk about.
06/18/2009 (7:50 am)
Very nice blog Brett. Lara did a fantastic job with the video and Sickhead never ceases to amaze me with their contributions.@ALL - DO NOT FORGET ABOUT IRC HOUR TONIGHT.
IRC Hour will be going down at 3:00pm (PST), which is 6:00pm (EST). We will be discussing the Torque 3D updates, Beta 3, Documentation (all engines), upcoming GG events and conferences, and whatever YOU want to talk about.
#8
@Jaimi- I would love to have the dif to collada feature added to constructor. And as a bonus add support for Normal and Parallax mapping for those feature I would be willing to pay for it (considering the price being reasonable).
06/18/2009 (7:51 am)
great work, can't wait until beta 3! I'm sure we'll start seeing some truly amazing visual eye candy! One quick question is the physx cloth and gerhard's implementation the same or different?@Jaimi- I would love to have the dif to collada feature added to constructor. And as a bonus add support for Normal and Parallax mapping for those feature I would be willing to pay for it (considering the price being reasonable).
#9
06/18/2009 (7:57 am)
uh...isn't 5 pm PST 8 pm EST?
#10
Thanks, made the change =)
06/18/2009 (8:09 am)
@Steve - Shhhhhhush! It's still very early here, leave me be.Thanks, made the change =)
#11
06/18/2009 (8:09 am)
@steve - were running on GG time 5pm PST may or may not be actually 8pm EST until it actually arrives. 
#13
06/18/2009 (8:50 am)
Sexy stuff!
#14
06/18/2009 (9:26 am)
..keep up the good work! Lookin' nice! 
#15
06/18/2009 (9:30 am)
it all looks so cool! 
#16
06/18/2009 (9:48 am)
Nice job! Glad to see James got my ripples ported over from TGEA. 
#17
Cloth is nifty, the terrain is even more awesome than it was before, and the capability to export some old Interiors is wonderful!
06/18/2009 (9:48 am)
Ripple Shader? You know, technically that's just an aligned and animated particle :DCloth is nifty, the terrain is even more awesome than it was before, and the capability to export some old Interiors is wonderful!
#18
06/18/2009 (10:06 am)
so is it a "shader" or an "aligned particle eff." ? Inquiring minds want to know.
#19
We are having it a 3:00pm to accommodate some of our Euro friends in the community.
06/18/2009 (10:16 am)
Damn, screwed up again. I'll see if I can post a blog about IRC Hour, but just in case:IRC Hour will be going down at 3:00pm (PST), which is 6:00pm (EST). We will be discussing the Torque 3D updates, Beta 3, Documentation (all engines), upcoming GG events and conferences, and whatever YOU want to talk about.
We are having it a 3:00pm to accommodate some of our Euro friends in the community.
Torque 3D Owner Nicolas Buquet
Can you be more precise about when, next week, will beta3 be available, because I will go and visit some customers next week and have been waiting for beta3 to show some Torque3D to my customers.
I go with my MacBook Pro, so I hope beta3 will be available soon in next week, in order for me to bring it to my customers and 'enlight' them.
PS : can you precise too, if beta3 will run on Mac as it was told, and if advanced lighting will be available on Mac with this beta3. Thanks.
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/