Synapse Gaming: Exciting New Product Announcement
by John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder) · in Torque Game Engine · 08/07/2006 (12:09 pm) · 49 replies
Hello Torque Lighting Kit Community!
GarageGames and Synapse Gaming are excited to announce the Torque Lighting Kit will be integrated into the Torque Shader Engine. Starting with milestone 4, TSE will include all of TLK's advanced lighting and rendering, and offer all of the same key features and tools TLK owners are accustomed to, with the added advantage of HDR, TSE's fully integrated shaders, and complete access to, and support for, the DirectX API.
This is the first official announcement or mention of the collaboration, and we wanted TLK licensees to be the first to know!
What does this mean for TLK?
Great things! TLK bug fixes and optimizations made during the development of TSE will be ported back into TLK for TGE.
And we already have another TLK release planned that rolls in fixes, optimizations, TGE 1.4.2, TGE Mac universal binaries, Xcode 2.x, RTS Kit 1.4 auto-patch support, and much, much more!
Will having TLK help me migrate to TSE?
Absolutely! TSE now uses the same lighting and rendering models as TLK, so you can easily port your existing assets to TSE with minimal effort or changes.
Because the lighting tools and methodologies are the same, using TSE will feel very familiar and comfortable.
TSE Milestone 4: Lighting and Shadows
Along with the existing TLK features, TSE's lighting and shadows include: self-shadowing DTS objects, lighting and shadows on Atlas terrain, High Dynamic Range Lighting and Tone Mapping (including a DRL solution), and full shader support for all lighting types - even on automatically generated shaders!
(assets provided by Exis Exchange)
More images and videos:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Video 1
Video 2
Ok, enough teasing - when will MS4 be ready?!?
The most exciting news is that TSE MS4 will be released in mere days! Stay tuned for more details!
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
GarageGames and Synapse Gaming are excited to announce the Torque Lighting Kit will be integrated into the Torque Shader Engine. Starting with milestone 4, TSE will include all of TLK's advanced lighting and rendering, and offer all of the same key features and tools TLK owners are accustomed to, with the added advantage of HDR, TSE's fully integrated shaders, and complete access to, and support for, the DirectX API.
This is the first official announcement or mention of the collaboration, and we wanted TLK licensees to be the first to know!
What does this mean for TLK?
Great things! TLK bug fixes and optimizations made during the development of TSE will be ported back into TLK for TGE.
And we already have another TLK release planned that rolls in fixes, optimizations, TGE 1.4.2, TGE Mac universal binaries, Xcode 2.x, RTS Kit 1.4 auto-patch support, and much, much more!
Will having TLK help me migrate to TSE?
Absolutely! TSE now uses the same lighting and rendering models as TLK, so you can easily port your existing assets to TSE with minimal effort or changes.
Because the lighting tools and methodologies are the same, using TSE will feel very familiar and comfortable.
TSE Milestone 4: Lighting and Shadows
Along with the existing TLK features, TSE's lighting and shadows include: self-shadowing DTS objects, lighting and shadows on Atlas terrain, High Dynamic Range Lighting and Tone Mapping (including a DRL solution), and full shader support for all lighting types - even on automatically generated shaders!
(assets provided by Exis Exchange)
More images and videos:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Video 1
Video 2
Ok, enough teasing - when will MS4 be ready?!?
The most exciting news is that TSE MS4 will be released in mere days! Stay tuned for more details!
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
#42
Just so you know, we're all jealous!!
08/09/2006 (9:45 am)
Speaking of Constructor... I see John just had to post a screenshot of him using it :pJust so you know, we're all jealous!!
#43
08/09/2006 (6:50 pm)
I haven't noticed that, it sounds like your textures might vary in intensity. As a test try running your mission with all gray textures (solid 127, 127, 127). I do that at times to get a better sense of lighting balance in the scene. It should show that the lighting is relatively even across the board. If so the textures need to be adjusted so they are closer in relative intensity.
#44
08/10/2006 (5:46 am)
Quote:That's a brilliant idea! Thanks for the tip.
I haven't noticed that, it sounds like your textures might vary in intensity. As a test try running your mission with all gray textures (solid 127, 127, 127). I do that at times to get a better sense of lighting balance in the scene.
#45
- Peter
08/10/2006 (2:11 pm)
Hey John, videos look great. Drop me a line if you want me to send you an alternate idle animation for the character.- Peter
#46
If we have TLK (for TGE) and TSE, will we be able to use the lighting models in TSE, or are they just not needed?
08/15/2006 (3:22 pm)
@John,If we have TLK (for TGE) and TSE, will we be able to use the lighting models in TSE, or are they just not needed?
#47
The lighting models that come with TLK are already in TSE and any custom models you've created can also be added (and will work automatically with static and dynamic lighting and shadows).
08/15/2006 (3:59 pm)
Hi Desmond,The lighting models that come with TLK are already in TSE and any custom models you've created can also be added (and will work automatically with static and dynamic lighting and shadows).
#48
08/15/2006 (5:34 pm)
Thanks John, I can't wait.
#49
08/16/2006 (10:04 am)
Peter, if you have an extra animation or two that would be awesome - definitely send them over. :) 
Torque Owner Tim Heldna
No. I just found things like ambient light affecting terrain vs dif vs dts very inconsistent. E.g. dif interiors appear very dark compared to the terrain. If I adjust the sun to darken the lighting on the terrain, my dif files appear excessively dark. Shadows cast from the player onto a dif are divine, terrain not so bad, on other dts shapes the quality seems to degrade somewhat. Shadows cast from difs onto the terrain (and itself) are often inaccurate (meaning they look completely wrong, to the extent of looking like a rendering glitch) resulting in me having to fiddle around with sun position to find a happy medium.
I suspect constructor will solve many of the dif issues. Perhaps the others are me needing to learn the artistic side of Torque better or me being too anul.