Modeling for TSE
by Markus Nuebel · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 06/05/2004 (3:04 am) · 7 replies
As a programmer I do not have much knowledge of the art pipeline or the used tool. That's why I want to ask for some information, or pointer on how to model for TSE.
So far with TGE I used the Torque build-in models and the BraveTree Warsparrow.
All these models came with just one base (or skin?) texture.
My understanding of TSE is, that you can now do a model with more than one base texture and afterwards, (in the engine) associate the different materials with a texture.
The materials are used, to describe the rendering path with their associated shaders.
Is this right?
The question is: Is it difficult, to build a model with more than one base texture? (In Milkshape, or 3DS)
The spaceorc and it's gun, have up to six, I think.
Do you need the new map2dif and the new milkshape exporter, to compose a model out of multiple textures, or was this already possible with TGE?
Last but not least, I have a question about the show tool. I checked it out and did not see much difference to the TGE version,
I expected it to support the association of materials to textures, to check out the shaders "in game".
Is this planned, or maybe it is already in, but I overlooked it?
-- Markus
So far with TGE I used the Torque build-in models and the BraveTree Warsparrow.
All these models came with just one base (or skin?) texture.
My understanding of TSE is, that you can now do a model with more than one base texture and afterwards, (in the engine) associate the different materials with a texture.
The materials are used, to describe the rendering path with their associated shaders.
Is this right?
The question is: Is it difficult, to build a model with more than one base texture? (In Milkshape, or 3DS)
The spaceorc and it's gun, have up to six, I think.
Do you need the new map2dif and the new milkshape exporter, to compose a model out of multiple textures, or was this already possible with TGE?
Last but not least, I have a question about the show tool. I checked it out and did not see much difference to the TGE version,
I expected it to support the association of materials to textures, to check out the shaders "in game".
Is this planned, or maybe it is already in, but I overlooked it?
-- Markus
About the author
#2
Each texture that you map on to your model can be mapped to a material definition. Just model your stuff normally, and then when you are done, you can remap the textures that you applied to your model to a material definition.
The material definitions are located in server/scripts/materials.cs. The mapping of the texture name to the material name is done in data/materialMap.cs.
The show tool loads these scripts and displays the model as it would look in game.
I know this is a little rough right now, we haven't spent a bunch of time making the tools easier to use with the materials. The focus has been in getting the shaders up and running properly.
Hope this helps a bit.
06/05/2004 (10:20 pm)
The short explanation:Each texture that you map on to your model can be mapped to a material definition. Just model your stuff normally, and then when you are done, you can remap the textures that you applied to your model to a material definition.
The material definitions are located in server/scripts/materials.cs. The mapping of the texture name to the material name is done in data/materialMap.cs.
The show tool loads these scripts and displays the model as it would look in game.
I know this is a little rough right now, we haven't spent a bunch of time making the tools easier to use with the materials. The focus has been in getting the shaders up and running properly.
Hope this helps a bit.
#3
I think I used a setSkinName in torque
06/09/2004 (2:30 am)
Is is viable (now or eventually) to change the different materials on the model on the fly? i.e for damage levels, or different armor, or teams etcI think I used a setSkinName in torque
#4
06/09/2004 (4:11 am)
I'm wondering this too... will it cause any performance hits by changing the texture on the fly?
#6
06/09/2004 (8:00 am)
No, no performance hit (unless you do it a whole lot). The logic is going to be identical to the reskin code.
#7
06/18/2004 (4:26 am)
If I may recommend as a resource, the book ShaderX2 (the 2 looks like a 'squared') Introductions and Tutorials has a nice chapter at the end that discusses making models "shader friendly" as well. And of course...ShaderX2 Intro and its sibling book are great resources for writing DirectX Graphics shaders in general. 
Associate Kyle Carter