Tips and Tricks
by Tom Spilman · in Artist Corner · 04/03/2005 (6:06 pm) · 5 replies
Any of your pros out there feel like sharing some of your favorite tips and tricks when building maps? I'm collecting some now to include in our exporter documentation, but can always use more.
About the author
Tom is a programmer and co-owner of Sickhead Games, LLC.
#2
04/04/2005 (6:18 am)
This isn't so much Torque specific, but I have piles architecture and travel books that I pick up for cheap from the bargain area at Barnes & Noble. Lots of great photos to look at for reference when designing environments.
#3
Then go back to editing, detaliing, texturing etc... keep checking as you progress.
Nothing special, just some common sense.
04/04/2005 (7:25 am)
A good thing to do is to "block out" a level with simple prim shapes like Cubes, cylinders etc... build a rough layout of the level with no textures. Fire the map up in your game and check it out for pace, gameplay, size, time to move between important locations, composition,etc...Then go back to editing, detaliing, texturing etc... keep checking as you progress.
Nothing special, just some common sense.
#4
When building a town or city, the environment around it should be suitable for a town to prosper. This means having water nearby for citizens to use, a source of wood for building, mountains nearby if there are stone buildings. More than often, some form of protection will be along at least one side of the city. Normally a mountain range, or the river, or sometimes woods (not usually good if it's the only form of protection).
Building resources for muds offer good ideas on how to make your areas "less lifeless". Read up on building mud areas. It is a different medium, but the same techniques still apply. Think of what is necessary for things to be the way that you'd like them to be. If the population is big, where are the farms (and cows for blizzard fans) going to be located? What do the residence do for a living? Yes that tower you've built really rocks, but why is it there? A sort of unspoken history should be conveyed when someone steps into your world.
Time to go home! yay Fridays!
06/03/2005 (1:28 pm)
Along the lines of common sense...When building a town or city, the environment around it should be suitable for a town to prosper. This means having water nearby for citizens to use, a source of wood for building, mountains nearby if there are stone buildings. More than often, some form of protection will be along at least one side of the city. Normally a mountain range, or the river, or sometimes woods (not usually good if it's the only form of protection).
Building resources for muds offer good ideas on how to make your areas "less lifeless". Read up on building mud areas. It is a different medium, but the same techniques still apply. Think of what is necessary for things to be the way that you'd like them to be. If the population is big, where are the farms (and cows for blizzard fans) going to be located? What do the residence do for a living? Yes that tower you've built really rocks, but why is it there? A sort of unspoken history should be conveyed when someone steps into your world.
Time to go home! yay Fridays!
#5
10/17/2005 (4:18 pm)
I'm with Hokuto... definitely prototype your structures before going hog-wild with the details. =) Ya gotta get em into the engine ASAP and make sure they really look and work the way you want em to. For example, a basic structure that I was building recently seemed fine in the editor but ended up being too small in Torque. I was able to adjust it before I put too much work into it. 
Torque Owner Ed Johnson