Wall cration tool?
by Zergcow · in Torque 3D Beginner · 03/29/2010 (2:00 pm) · 4 replies
I like the new river and road creation tools and was curious if there is a mesh tool like that. An example would be, the ability to create a wall using a spline or the ability to create a pipe using a spline.
Basically how nice would it be to take a cube with a wall texture and extrude it along a spline and choose segments and lengths and all of that jazz? It would be even cooler if I could take a static mesh like a fence and extrude it along a spline.
Things I would like to see from this tool:
Pick a mesh
snap to terrain
specify number of segments
specify segment length
edit mesh properties as you would any other mesh but it effects the whole spline
Mesh will act as it should for collision, AI, ect.
Anyways, does this exist yet? Are there plans for this?
It would make the creations of railroads, bridges, walls, pipes, wires, fences, hedges, and more much easier and faster.
Basically how nice would it be to take a cube with a wall texture and extrude it along a spline and choose segments and lengths and all of that jazz? It would be even cooler if I could take a static mesh like a fence and extrude it along a spline.
Things I would like to see from this tool:
Pick a mesh
snap to terrain
specify number of segments
specify segment length
edit mesh properties as you would any other mesh but it effects the whole spline
Mesh will act as it should for collision, AI, ect.
Anyways, does this exist yet? Are there plans for this?
It would make the creations of railroads, bridges, walls, pipes, wires, fences, hedges, and more much easier and faster.
#2
Either way, I haven't upgraded to Torque 3D yet so I wanted to ask about this before I did because a lot of what I want to do involves walls, and fences that span for long distances.
On a similar note if I did have to just make my long fence in my 3D app then go back and forth between Maya and Torque would it just update my model in Torque when I save my model from Maya in Collada format? I mean I save my file in the proper folder in collada format, place it in the environment, go back to Maya and tweak it and re-save it in collada format. Then would I see the update in Torque much like the video where the woman changes the scale of some boxes in the collada text file and clicks save and the boxes scale automatically?
03/29/2010 (3:33 pm)
Yea I just found some post in a blog or something about a mesh road tool that can extend verticies down the spline. I could see easily making a castle wall with an interior using this. But it probably isn't the best for something like a wooden or barbwire fence with posts.Either way, I haven't upgraded to Torque 3D yet so I wanted to ask about this before I did because a lot of what I want to do involves walls, and fences that span for long distances.
On a similar note if I did have to just make my long fence in my 3D app then go back and forth between Maya and Torque would it just update my model in Torque when I save my model from Maya in Collada format? I mean I save my file in the proper folder in collada format, place it in the environment, go back to Maya and tweak it and re-save it in collada format. Then would I see the update in Torque much like the video where the woman changes the scale of some boxes in the collada text file and clicks save and the boxes scale automatically?
#3
As for other methods, I would suggest creating fence pieces to construct your long fence. In the past Torque never played well with excessively large models. Create a section of fence that's missing the post on one end, then when you place it in the world select the object, hold shift while using the move gizmo and a copy is automatically created perfectly inline with the previous one. Just do that down the line and when you get to the use a model of just the endpost.
Oh, and yes if you re-export your model from Maya and copy it into the directory it will automatically update the object in-game.
03/29/2010 (6:46 pm)
The last project I did for my soon-to-be former employer I had actually toyed with the idea of using mesh roads for telephone poles. In the end we opted to just place them by hand because we didn't need that many of them, plus I had just spent an entire day laying out 4 city blocks worth of decal roads so my curiosity to see if it worked just wasn't there at the time. In theory though, it should work.As for other methods, I would suggest creating fence pieces to construct your long fence. In the past Torque never played well with excessively large models. Create a section of fence that's missing the post on one end, then when you place it in the world select the object, hold shift while using the move gizmo and a copy is automatically created perfectly inline with the previous one. Just do that down the line and when you get to the use a model of just the endpost.
Oh, and yes if you re-export your model from Maya and copy it into the directory it will automatically update the object in-game.
#4
As for the laying out pipes, fences and walls via a road mesh tool. I only ask because I make virtual worlds for the oil industry and wanted to play with this engine to see if it was any quicker as far as recreating oil fields.
The last project I did involved a field 14 miles by 4 miles with over 4,000 oil wells, 200+ tanks, 10,000+ pipe runs, 100+ roads and a lot of fences and utility lines of varying type and size. Needless to say it was not polished and most of it was created in Maya as large chunks.
Now if I could get a tool to make that faster and easier and then get a tool for importing GIS, CAD, and CAD data points I would be in heaven and my work would be a thousand times easier.
03/29/2010 (7:05 pm)
Thanks for the heads up on the model update stuff.As for the laying out pipes, fences and walls via a road mesh tool. I only ask because I make virtual worlds for the oil industry and wanted to play with this engine to see if it was any quicker as far as recreating oil fields.
The last project I did involved a field 14 miles by 4 miles with over 4,000 oil wells, 200+ tanks, 10,000+ pipe runs, 100+ roads and a lot of fences and utility lines of varying type and size. Needless to say it was not polished and most of it was created in Maya as large chunks.
Now if I could get a tool to make that faster and easier and then get a tool for importing GIS, CAD, and CAD data points I would be in heaven and my work would be a thousand times easier.
Associate Scott Burns
GG Alumni