Modelling Stars, nebulae etc for Torque.
by Jack Stone · in Artist Corner · 07/02/2005 (5:57 pm) · 5 replies
I use max 6 for my 3d modelling, and am currently working on two games. (or at least two game concepts, I wouldnt call them games at all yet :P )
One is a space simulation game. What I want to know is how would I go about creating:
Stars. I can make great looking stars with particles in torque, but they are far too small. They look perfect, but even with the particle size set to its highest value, they are far too small. And even if I could scale them up, I would think the performance hit would be unplayable.
So how would I make a star in max which would look halfway decent?
Nebulae. I need my ship to be able to fly through dense fields of space dust, which would have pockets of different densities, and other dynamic properties. I can use a whole bunch of particle emitters, but for a large cloud, again, the performance hit would be huge.
So basically I need to scale up the particle effects of Torque by a factor of... 15 - 20 at least, without killing my CPU/GFX card, or find an alternative method.
Any ideas?
JS
One is a space simulation game. What I want to know is how would I go about creating:
Stars. I can make great looking stars with particles in torque, but they are far too small. They look perfect, but even with the particle size set to its highest value, they are far too small. And even if I could scale them up, I would think the performance hit would be unplayable.
So how would I make a star in max which would look halfway decent?
Nebulae. I need my ship to be able to fly through dense fields of space dust, which would have pockets of different densities, and other dynamic properties. I can use a whole bunch of particle emitters, but for a large cloud, again, the performance hit would be huge.
So basically I need to scale up the particle effects of Torque by a factor of... 15 - 20 at least, without killing my CPU/GFX card, or find an alternative method.
Any ideas?
JS
#2
07/02/2005 (6:07 pm)
I'd recommend looking into the precipitation system and fxSunFlare system, they are both really powerful and can do things you wouldn't expect. Make the rain drops huge, take away the gravity, and boom, unmoving dust field. :-)
#3
I wonder though... This is probably not possible, but could you somehow make a particle effect envelop a model? I know you can attach particle emitter to models, but could you get them to completly surround them, and then set the opacity to maybe. 50%? so it would look like the corona of a star. You could see the dts shape, and the particle effect would be the corona. Just a thought, im not sure how I would actually go about doing it.
JS
07/03/2005 (1:28 pm)
Thanks, I hadnt thought of using the precipitation system, Ill try that. I guess Ill mess around with different dts shapes to try and get a star. Maybe a high self-luminance value would look good...I wonder though... This is probably not possible, but could you somehow make a particle effect envelop a model? I know you can attach particle emitter to models, but could you get them to completly surround them, and then set the opacity to maybe. 50%? so it would look like the corona of a star. You could see the dts shape, and the particle effect would be the corona. Just a thought, im not sure how I would actually go about doing it.
JS
#4
07/03/2005 (1:36 pm)
Couldnt you just make a giant billboard?and have so if you got to close you just burned up?
#5
07/03/2005 (3:30 pm)
Yes I could... But would that look good? It would need to look fairly realistic. 
Torque Owner Matt Vitelli