Object formats supported in torque

#1 .dif format is supported... but can be converted from valve .map

#2 Valve220 .map format is supported.

I think Matt Fairfax has released a resource that will directly load Quake3 files into Torque, but I do not thing that you can use those in a commercial product.

#3 Just to clarify,

.map files can not be directly loaded into a Torque mission

They can be converted into .dif files with the map2dif utility and .dif files can be directly loaded into a Torque mission.

I never released the Quake 3 .bsp loader b/c of the licensing conflicts. Ideally I'd like to see all of the same features added to Torque Interiors someitme this year =)

#4 What features are missing?

#5 Mostly curved surfaces (bezier patches) and superior lightmaps.

#6 Matthew, pure curiosity:
what kind of licensing conflicts did you run into?

#7 Ok so let me lay out this fictional scenario for you, and you tell me what you see happening to this project come beta test.

about 70% of the games assets, towns buildings, props, trees ect. are built in 3ds max using concave surfaces, so they can't be converted to .dif, so they use .dts. 70% of the games models are .dts

What do you see happening to this game once cities are put together inside the level editor and tested on lets say a machine with a 1 ghz processor. I already know the answer, I just want clarification on this so I know it's true.

#8 I think that the most common licensing problems would be using the compilation and editing tools for Quake 3, which cannot be used for commercial purposes without paying a hefty chunk of change (I believe it was $5k for the tool license). id has stated quite openly that it doesn't believe in copyrighting formats, but they definitely believe in copyrighting the tools to produce those formats. If you can't realistically create the formats, there's little reason to release a loader for them.

#9 Its true paul, what you are expecting plus worse probably. especially if the players need to not walk thru things, that is where the real problem is, .dts files don't support collision with players as well as .dif files because of the way they are designed and they can't really be made to.

each is a highly specialized data format for a reason, don't fight it.

#10 @Matthew,

Is there a roadmap for Torque that includes curved surfaces this year? If so, can you point me to it?

The only thing I've seen mentioned in the forums is some kind of tool exporter that stuffs references to DTS objects inside unused parts of the .dif file, and some code patches to make the interiors auto-load and place these shapes. Which would be nifty, but as pointed out above, would need some new collision detection to really work.

#11 To further clarify the situation: what if the entire series of boundaries was determined by the level editors, meaning that the models' shapes themselves played no part in collision detection? Aside from collision detection issues, are there any other serious disadvantages to using .dts as opposed to .dif?

For instance- what if the 3d map was built in the level editor, and then the level designers switched over to "collision mode" or "boundaries mode", where they could essentially paint on invisible walls?

*ponders, takes form of second personality. <_<*

So for overworld levels, the Y (or Z, depending on which axis set you use- the vertical) axis position of the characters would be determined by the heightmap- easy as pie. But for cities and indoors and whatnot, with things such as docks, bridges, and other "walkable" objects that couldn't be done via heightmap, is there method for determining the y-bounds?

If not, couldn't even this be worked around with painted "floors" and "stairs"?

If there is, in fact, no alternate to using .dif, what needs to be done in order to allow a model to be exported to .dif?

This is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with, before our modelers find themselves starting over, because their media is unusable.

#12 @Sanctus:
As far as I can figure (don't quote me on this, since I'm no QuArK/Torque expert by a long shot), You should be able to do exactly that. Say, create your maps a la UT2k3/4, whereby the BSP (.dif) would be used to create the overall shape of the level, with static meshes (.dts) used to decorate and trim. Do it right, and you'll have all the advantages of .dif collision and portaling, with the speed and aesthetic advantages of static meshes. The caveat? Static meshes use vertex lighting. If you simply stick a bunch of static meshes into your .dif constructions, the static meshes will stick out like a sore thumb, unless you play with their brightness settings (not sure if this is doable in Torque). The reason the static meshes looked so integrated in UT2k3/4 is that the level designers/modellers baked the lighting information into the textures (model, texture, place lights in the modelling package to simulate those in the level editor, and then render-to-texture). If you've ever wondered why the official maps are so bloody huge, disk cost-wise, there's your answer.

#13 I need help to export max to dts