Torque 3D Show Off Thread!

#221 That comment was made by Kory and there was no source. Much of Gerhard's work is already in Torque 3D. The content aside, there are a few features (like the wetness shader) that we haven't folded in yet for various reasons. We've provided no final answer on whether that will be in the final release or not. I want to include, but if it comes at the cost of having to compromise the other systems we've heavily revamped and invested in (materials, GFX, Advanced Lighting etc), it wouldn't be smart to do. That said, if we can't find a way to make all Gerhard's mods available in Torque 3D, I'll look at finding a way to make them available as experimental code, a resource for Torque 3D owners, or an add-on of some kind. Again, it really depends on how this stuff shakes out on the dev side. We've still got a little ways to go. To date I've been very careful not to promise anything I wasn't *sure* we were going to deliver and I'm not going to break that practice today. Be patient. If you're not seeing some specific thing rolled into Torque 3D yet, it's because we've prioritized something with more value to you higher.

#222 Nothing special for me to post right now, just baking tonemaps/lightmaps from max and checking for any quality-shift in that area.(seems good!)
( just diffuse/color images besides for gideon..of course :P )

Thank you for adding this capability.

//Edit: textures by Andrew ~LK~ Brady

#223 eb: How did you add lightmaps? I tried using the Material Editor, but the Tone Map and LightMap features didn`t seem to work for me.

#224 For Tonemaps, You need a second uv channel in your collada export. Do you need more explanation ?

I am not aware of how to use the T3D-lightmap portion yet...and I will try to find that out, soon. I would prefer to use the T3D-lightmap for "lightmaps" and the T3D-tonemap for "dirt/grime/grunge/discoloration maps".

It is kind of ass-backwards to use the tonemaps-slot for lightmaps but it is what is currently working and it is how the purelight demo demonstrates it. .:shrugs:.

#225 The tonemap function is something we contributed to blend the diffuse textures with pureLIGHT lightmaps. If you find other uses for it that's pretty cool. We would prefer it be used for pureLIGHT of course ;)

#226 David, no offense was intended btw...I have a bit too much of NY(off kilter bluntness)in my words.

- The tonemaps-slot does work great for that purpose. As you already know. ;) I think pureLIGHT would do a much better job at lighting the scene..and in a fraction of the processing time. Let me explain...

Max baking
I had to build the room, bake, export, then place every piece into a .mis, position them accordingly(all @ POS0,0,0) & create materials for every model.
Where as with pureLIGHT
I would build the scene, export, use prelight, use pureLIGHT and export to the engine. .done.

David, You guys really took the monotony out of the process and I hope people realize that. The amount of time that pureLIGHT can save me is well worth the money..also to mention: it's easily made, beautiful lightmaps/tonemaps are a definite bonus!

#227 Like Brett said, Gerhards work is fantastic and we are trying to make his work available, but I am a bit confused. I have seen many comments expressing frustrations about features being "pulled" but like Brett said, many of the features are available already.

For example, on that blog entry, there are point lights, shadowed point lights, shadowed spot lights, and volume effects. All of those are present in T3D. We have integrated cloth, not on the GPU only, but using NVIDIA's PhysX, which can run on all hardware platforms, utilizing the CPU, GPU or SPU.

It would be helpful to know, specifically, which features you guys think we have failed to deliver on. If there are several features, it would be helpful to know the priorities of those features that you guys have. I really feel a bit in the dark on this.

#228 I could have missed things, but not sure I saw anyone saying you guys failed to deliver something. Your still in Beta first of all, and second, I'm not sure it can be said those features in question were "promised". Yes yes.. people want the wetness shader abilities and acouple other things, but I've heard great things from people concerning T3D that.. well.. aren't bashful about making their feelings known.

You guys are doing great. Keep up the good work!



............ now get the wetness stuff done! ;-)

#229

Quote:people want the wetness shader abilities and acouple other thing

Can someone name these other things?

#230 Well I do remember the promise of a 'make my game' button..

still waiting on that :D


Joking aside I'm well please with T3D beta... yeah a few bugs, yeah
a few features need some TLC, but am sure all will be ironed out before
release.

Keep up the good work guys... you are in essence helping some peoples
dreams come true, or at least giving them the tools at a price they
can afford to attempt it :)

Hewster

#231 Any chance of you guys connecting particles to materials ?
..and can I ask if soft particles are implemented yet ?

#232

Quote:can I ask if soft particles are implemented yet ?

Soft particles have been in Torque 3D for several months now.

#233

Quote:Any chance of you guys connecting particles to materials?

Its been discussed... it will probably happen on the next point release.

#234 @Tom and everyone working on T3D,
The engine is fantastic, awesome, and "off the chain", all in one!
By far the best engine, Garagegames has ever done(I'm not just saying that either). I just think concern features should be in to put the engine on the same playing field as the "big boys of the industry".

I like the NVIDIA's PhysX, cloth it's neat feature but if you don't have a nivida graphic card then you have to get the GMK to use it! That's why I like Gerhard's, his worked on any graphic card. I would also like to know more info on the Dynamically destructible objects are you still going try to implement his version or are you going to try the NVIDIA one?

Me personally would like to see things like wetness and precipitation, wind, and something like dynamic lightning flashes for the lightning class. Nonetheless I'm happy with T3D and the direction that it's going in.

Keep up the good work!

#235 Hey Kory.

Quote:features should be in to put the engine on the same playing field as the "big boys of the industry".

While of course we're always striving to match or better other engines, it is unrealistic to pin your hopes on it. If the dozen people working on T3D (and the few community members helping out) can best or even match the 100s of dedicated full time programmers at Crytek and/or Epic... WOW. We're doing all we can to get us there... but there is still so much to do.

Quote:I like the NVIDIA's PhysX, cloth it's neat feature but if you don't have a nivida graphic card

You don't need an NVidia card to run PhysX cloth... it runs on the CPU as well... and in fact it runs really really well on a dual core CPU. We haven't even tested GPU acceleration at all with it. This cloth video was running on a Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz at over 30 fps while we also captured the video.

Quote:That's why I like Gerhard's, his worked on any graphic card.

It works on any SM 3.0 card. But it has one fairly major downside... it doesn't interact with the the physics engine. So you might have a PhysX or Bullet or Havok ragdoll in your game... but since the cloth operates within its own system it doesn't know the state of other physics objects in the scene.

While this could be worked around and code could be written to solve it... why should we spend the effort to implement, debug, and maintain it?

PhysX has cloth. Bullet has cloth. Havok has cloth. Why do we need an independent cloth system that has no rigid body physics to go with it?

Gerhard did code some cool stuff... but i'd rather see these other complete physics solutions added to Torque 3D.

Quote:I would also like to know more info on the Dynamically destructible objects are you still going try to implement his version

I don't know what dynamically destructible objects Gerhard has done. He has cloth and he may have shown metal cloth (mesh made of rigid cloth that dents when shot). The dynamic destructible object shown in the Pacific video are already in the engine.

#236 @Tom
Thanks for the reply! If I recall right Brett said that some of the stuff that gerhard did, that will not be implemented into the final release of T3D, maybe released as a resource or add-on. Is this still the plan? As I stated before I'm just trying to get information, so I know what areas My team and I should be focusing on.

#237 @Kory: To be clear, I'm making no commitments to any of those three options, just voicing them.

#238 I felt like doing something a little bit more artsy than usual. This is only my first pass on this, a very rough draft. Doesn't even have any normal/specular maps, everything is just placeholder to display the concept of it. I'm just too pleased with this rough draft that I have to show it off though. :)

Also, many thanks go to deepscratch, I had him do the model for me since I don't know a damn thing about using modeling programs.. :/


Might as well also give my description of what this is even supposed to show. This is titled the Fountain of Decay, and it's meant to show exactly that, decay. The bright water in the base is life, the thing required for decay to begin. Life leads into death, obviously shown by the corpses impaled on the edges. From death, the process of decay begins, starting with the decay of the flesh, which is what the first platform is for, death flowing into the first stage. After the flesh decays away, the next stage is the bone, shown with the flesh flowing into the bone platform in the form of a stream of blood. The bone and other hard materials of the body are what last the longest, far longer than the flesh, and it is also the last physical thing to go. However even after someone has decayed physically, spiritually they may still remain. Even without the concept of the soul, people still live in through memories. These eventually fade away too though, which is what the last stage is, the decay of spirit. Eventually the memory of the person fades off into nothingness, the large spiraling pillar of energy, and finally vanishes from all existence.

So, this whole thing was made with the idea of a process we all go through: life, death, decay of the flesh, decay of bone, decay of the spirit, and finally fading away into nothing. No matter who or what you are, everyone must drink from the Fountain of Decay. :)

#239 @Jacob - Very nice. I like it.

#240 Nice deep way to make that video Jacob.