Plan for BobTheCBuilder (John Kabus)
by John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder) · 05/15/2004 (4:26 pm) · 15 comments
Overview
As most people using the Synapse Gaming Lighting Pack already know, there's an update coming out shortly that will provide many new modeling options, especially for outdoor scenes.
One of the scenes I've been displaying lately around the forums was pulled directly from the Torque 1.2 demo and shows a few of these features:
I will post another plan closer to the update's release outlining all of its changes and fixes.
Right now I want to to discuss a Lighting Pack feature that's far more important than anything I could've imagined, in fact I didn't know how effective it was until I sat down and used it...
Lighting Pack Light Editor
To facilitate rapid content development, I've created the Lighting Pack Light Editor, which allows real-time editing, saving, reverting, and creating of light object datablocks via the mission editor without having to edit any scripts.
The Light Editor enhances the already-simple and reusable datablock light model, which allows for sharing many common light configurations through datablocks, with the added ability to quickly create, edit, and save new and existing datablocks.
The Light Editor has a simple and unintrusive interface that allows users to quickly make real-time changes and view dts lighting changes real-time as well. Tight integration with the Torque mission editor allows scene navigation, object selection, and scene re-lighting without exiting the Light Editor.
Video of the Lighting Pack Light Editor in action (4M).
I was way too excited to hold off showing the Light Editor until the Lighting Pack update was ready, so here it is. :)
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
As most people using the Synapse Gaming Lighting Pack already know, there's an update coming out shortly that will provide many new modeling options, especially for outdoor scenes.
One of the scenes I've been displaying lately around the forums was pulled directly from the Torque 1.2 demo and shows a few of these features:
I will post another plan closer to the update's release outlining all of its changes and fixes.
Right now I want to to discuss a Lighting Pack feature that's far more important than anything I could've imagined, in fact I didn't know how effective it was until I sat down and used it...
Lighting Pack Light Editor
To facilitate rapid content development, I've created the Lighting Pack Light Editor, which allows real-time editing, saving, reverting, and creating of light object datablocks via the mission editor without having to edit any scripts.
The Light Editor enhances the already-simple and reusable datablock light model, which allows for sharing many common light configurations through datablocks, with the added ability to quickly create, edit, and save new and existing datablocks.
The Light Editor has a simple and unintrusive interface that allows users to quickly make real-time changes and view dts lighting changes real-time as well. Tight integration with the Torque mission editor allows scene navigation, object selection, and scene re-lighting without exiting the Light Editor.
Video of the Lighting Pack Light Editor in action (4M).
I was way too excited to hold off showing the Light Editor until the Lighting Pack update was ready, so here it is. :)
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
#2
05/15/2004 (5:15 pm)
Light Editor...YES!!!
#3
05/15/2004 (6:07 pm)
Excellent, it'll definitely be super handy. It gets tiring editing the scripts over and over :) 
#4
05/15/2004 (6:42 pm)
Nice... Finally something other than a bill to blow my cash on =D 
#5
05/15/2004 (6:42 pm)
Geez, I love this!
#6
05/15/2004 (7:38 pm)
Hehe, glad you finally looked into it John. Tell me, are you reading values from the datablock and then from the object class or just editing the datablock?
#7
05/15/2004 (10:34 pm)
Oh man, that light editor is cool! I'm actually curious about how it works, too. Because I thought datablock elements couldn't be edited at runtime?
#8
05/16/2004 (7:28 am)
@David: They can, you can modify them and then dump them so they are saved, but changes aren't sent to the clients, unless you resend the whole datablock. Which normally is fine if you are working on maps, you normally don't do that while playing. 
#9
Your lighting pack is motivating me to merge my code with the latest HEAD sources. Once I do that I plan to buy the lighting pack. Keep up the good work!
05/16/2004 (12:13 pm)
I have been thinking about something like this for the generic case. Some way of identifying datablocks you want to tweak, and the source files those databloccks exist in. It's aweseome to see this for light datablocks for your Lighting pack!Your lighting pack is motivating me to merge my code with the latest HEAD sources. Once I do that I plan to buy the lighting pack. Keep up the good work!
#10
05/16/2004 (4:25 pm)
Awesome, John. Really good work.
#11
05/17/2004 (2:18 am)
Hmmmm.... I think i need this
#13
Anyway, great stuff John, wish everyone contributed great work like this (or at least, I wish *I* could contribute great work like this...)
~ Jeff
05/17/2004 (1:18 pm)
Awesome work John, definately on my list of things to buy if I ever pick a good project to do work the TGE. Am I reading the title of that light in the example screen properly? Have you gone and implemented spotlights? That would be pretty sweet :) Another question for you, are these static lights or can they be attached to objects, say... Vehicles? IE Headlights comes to mind using a spotlight...Anyway, great stuff John, wish everyone contributed great work like this (or at least, I wish *I* could contribute great work like this...)
~ Jeff
#15
05/19/2004 (10:50 am)
The outdoor scene you posted with the shadows from the trees is exactly the kind of thing i am looking for 
Associate Matt Summers
Dark Industries