Animated Main Menu Screen - Questions

#1 I think people have done this as a separate mission. Also, there may be a way to do this with the 3D/3space GUI objects. If it is a separate mission you just record the player settings somewhere then launch the normal mission and use those settings for spawning the player.

#2 A seperate mission would probably do the job. I also had the amusing thought of using a gigantic sprite of the player instead of an actual model in a 3d space. :D

I'll look into it.

#3 Search for the "Mission in main menu gui" Resources. There are several of them for various versions of TGE. These are easily ported for use in T3D.

#4 The cool thing about doing a mission would be panning around objects and theme music and even some action in the background. The player could be placed anywhere and just float in air while being equipped. I love the idea of animated backgrounds. Halo 2 did this and it was just awesome.

#5 @Michael - I found an old TGE 1.5 resource for this and have implemented it and tested it. It works, but I have no idea what was actually changed. I just did a fresh install and override then tested it. It's not high on my list of priorities at this stage. I'm still at the paper stage really, but I get excited about ideas and just HAVE to see it in-game or what have you... I'll see if I can collect the changes, test it, then see if I have patience left over to attempt a port to T3D. No promises however. I do want this at some stage but right now I need to 1) familiarise myself with the tools in my pipeline and 2) prototype the key gameplay concepts for my project.

Frank, animated backgrounds are very cool when done well. Halo rocked (Combat Evolved) but the best main menu screen I've ever seen was in Ground Control 2. Enemy Territory and STALKER both had one as well. Let's also not forget EVE's main menu which is basically a looped movie with a single control for logging in. Makes me wonder "how about a pre-rendered Theora movie loop?".

This is what I personally love about Torque; it gives us the flexibility to create almost anything we want, but it does it within certain limits. It's almost a game in itself really. Hmmm.....

#6 @Dan,
Those limits being: time, money, and creativity! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

#7 Actually I already have the exact menu in mind, and I'm totally ripping it off!

View the example here.

#8 One thing to keep in mind that Mich and I learned when we did this back in our sim days, is to keep the mission you want to use for your menu background small and simple. Make something too large, complicated or with a whole lot of objects in it and you can end up with a main menu that takes a while to load.

#9 Thanks for the tip Scott. I had planned to fake most of the detail in the background. Got some ideas cooking and I'll post a blog for the project soonish.