Question about terrain
by Derry Bryson · in Torque Game Engine · 07/27/2007 (10:04 pm) · 4 replies
I've just purchased the TGE and was looking at using the Hammer level editor (from Half Life 2) instead of Quark, since I own HL2. In reading the docs for Hammer about creating levels, I discovered that they create the terrain (and everything) in Hammer as part of the level. This seems quite different from what I understand about the Torque engine where there is a separate terrain and you can use one or more interiors/"half life levels" in a given mission (please correct me if I am wrong).
There would obviously be pro's and con's to both methods, which we can discuss, but I wonder if:
a) Torque supports doing terrain the way Half Life does?
and
b) Which way is more efficient/better?
There would obviously be pro's and con's to both methods, which we can discuss, but I wonder if:
a) Torque supports doing terrain the way Half Life does?
and
b) Which way is more efficient/better?
#2
TGE handles indoor and outdoor scenes with full terrain very well. There are limitations and caveats, of course, but that is true of most technologies. Personally, I can't imagine wanting to build all of a world's terrain using Hammer or any other "interior" modeling app. Sculpting landscapes like clay in the game engine feels very natural to me. Building terrain with Hammer, QuArK or any other such tool just sounds like torture to me.
However, for true interior structures, you might consider using Torque Constructor. It's free and very powerful.
Remember, not every tool is suited for every job. Test various applications, demos and spend some time with the built-in TGE tools (like the world editor). Once you have a feel for what each does best, then your decision making process will be a whole lot easier.
Good luck and have fun.
07/31/2007 (9:19 pm)
@DerryTGE handles indoor and outdoor scenes with full terrain very well. There are limitations and caveats, of course, but that is true of most technologies. Personally, I can't imagine wanting to build all of a world's terrain using Hammer or any other "interior" modeling app. Sculpting landscapes like clay in the game engine feels very natural to me. Building terrain with Hammer, QuArK or any other such tool just sounds like torture to me.
However, for true interior structures, you might consider using Torque Constructor. It's free and very powerful.
Remember, not every tool is suited for every job. Test various applications, demos and spend some time with the built-in TGE tools (like the world editor). Once you have a feel for what each does best, then your decision making process will be a whole lot easier.
Good luck and have fun.
#3
@Aaron: I think it would be much more difficult to model terrain using the tools in an interior modeling app as well, but they do have tools to automatically generate the interior from a heightmap. Since in Halflife apparently the only way to create terrain is as part of the level, they have made it as easy as possible. However, my real questions are 1) if Torque can handle the huge interiors one would have if they created the terrain as part of the interior and 2) which would render better/faster?
08/04/2007 (11:22 am)
@Deception: thanks, I'll check those out.@Aaron: I think it would be much more difficult to model terrain using the tools in an interior modeling app as well, but they do have tools to automatically generate the interior from a heightmap. Since in Halflife apparently the only way to create terrain is as part of the level, they have made it as easy as possible. However, my real questions are 1) if Torque can handle the huge interiors one would have if they created the terrain as part of the interior and 2) which would render better/faster?
#4
08/09/2007 (6:57 am)
Well iv been using blender and torque for a few days and im nowhere with, but since im a little younger than 15 years maybe i should wait 5 or 6 years when im 20 or 21 
Torque Owner Deception Games