Modeling / Animation / Game Engine all in one?
by Jarrod Roberson · in Torque Game Engine · 11/08/2002 (7:39 pm) · 4 replies
I just picked up a very interesting book called Programming Dynamic Character Animation and it has an interesting concept that I would like to hear some discussion about relating to Torque.
It has a basic idea that the same rendering/animation engine should be used by the game and all the tools that support the game. Note that I am sure this is not a "new" concept/idea as I had already considered it and I am sure that LOTS of other people have also.
There are few game engines that have plugins for Max that do this to varing degrees of success, allow you to actually model and animate the characters in the game engine rather than the application engine.
This is an extension of the idea that the mission editor is built into the game engine right now.
What I was looking for is information from you guys that know the rendering part of the engine better than me.
Might this be as "simple" as writing a new "game" application to do the modeling and animation that uses the rendering engine to display the models and animation directly. This way it really is "WYSIWYG" content development.
I don't think the scripting engine would be appropriate because the mission editor takes a big performance hit on both my machines ( 1gHz Athlon w/Prophet 4500 and a 1.6gHz P4 with a Radeon 7500 ) along witht he fact that the scripting language would be a nightmare to do code something like this in.
I am sure that there would have to be some additional functionalty added to the render engine to support picking and what not?
I am considering hiring someone to do some render engine coding ( major overhauls ) and while they are digging around in there it might be worth my while to have them do some of this work also.
edited to get the damn url to work right, on little space at the end mucks up the entire works
It has a basic idea that the same rendering/animation engine should be used by the game and all the tools that support the game. Note that I am sure this is not a "new" concept/idea as I had already considered it and I am sure that LOTS of other people have also.
There are few game engines that have plugins for Max that do this to varing degrees of success, allow you to actually model and animate the characters in the game engine rather than the application engine.
This is an extension of the idea that the mission editor is built into the game engine right now.
What I was looking for is information from you guys that know the rendering part of the engine better than me.
Might this be as "simple" as writing a new "game" application to do the modeling and animation that uses the rendering engine to display the models and animation directly. This way it really is "WYSIWYG" content development.
I don't think the scripting engine would be appropriate because the mission editor takes a big performance hit on both my machines ( 1gHz Athlon w/Prophet 4500 and a 1.6gHz P4 with a Radeon 7500 ) along witht he fact that the scripting language would be a nightmare to do code something like this in.
I am sure that there would have to be some additional functionalty added to the render engine to support picking and what not?
I am considering hiring someone to do some render engine coding ( major overhauls ) and while they are digging around in there it might be worth my while to have them do some of this work also.
edited to get the damn url to work right, on little space at the end mucks up the entire works
About the author
#2
I use Lightwave as it is now. Blender is NOT any better solution than any of the other non-integrated solutions available, it does not even have a .dts exporter as far as I know of.
Try re-reading the original question, if it still sounds like I am looking for a third party standalone solution, I will edit my post and try to make it clearer.
11/08/2002 (9:37 pm)
I am talking about integrating the Torque rendering engine as THE rendering engine of an integrated modeling and animation solution.I use Lightwave as it is now. Blender is NOT any better solution than any of the other non-integrated solutions available, it does not even have a .dts exporter as far as I know of.
Try re-reading the original question, if it still sounds like I am looking for a third party standalone solution, I will edit my post and try to make it clearer.
#3
I understood quite clearly what you were asking. I know my answer was not completely on topic. I was basically suggesting blender as an alternative to what you're trying to do with torque. FYI, there's a .dts exporter on the way for blender, but that's not even the point. All I was saying is that you could use blender as a complete solution, engine and everything else instead of torque.
Of course, you probably don't care about that. I understand that you want something which is integrated with torque. I think it's quite possible for this to be done, and I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate such a tool added to torque, but I don't think it's a simple as you might think.
11/08/2002 (9:51 pm)
Jarrod,I understood quite clearly what you were asking. I know my answer was not completely on topic. I was basically suggesting blender as an alternative to what you're trying to do with torque. FYI, there's a .dts exporter on the way for blender, but that's not even the point. All I was saying is that you could use blender as a complete solution, engine and everything else instead of torque.
Of course, you probably don't care about that. I understand that you want something which is integrated with torque. I think it's quite possible for this to be done, and I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate such a tool added to torque, but I don't think it's a simple as you might think.
#4
Some of the things that really appeal to me about it - no longer do you have to deal with the quirks of an exporter for Milkshape (or modeling package of choice). If it's possible to do in Torque, it's possible to do in the editor. No more, no less.
Also would mean that everyone on the team would have access to the same toolsets (right now for Trajectory Zone, some are using Lightwave, some are using 3DS, and I'm using Milkshape.) The end user could also have access to the same cool tools if ya' leave it in the engine :-)
11/09/2002 (2:54 pm)
Jarrod - you aren't the only one who thinks along these lines. One of the things I keep eyeballing the idea of is a way to generate .dts and .dif objects within the engine. If I ever slow down long enough to actually DO something besides think about it, I'll be sure to post it ;-)Some of the things that really appeal to me about it - no longer do you have to deal with the quirks of an exporter for Milkshape (or modeling package of choice). If it's possible to do in Torque, it's possible to do in the editor. No more, no less.
Also would mean that everyone on the team would have access to the same toolsets (right now for Trajectory Zone, some are using Lightwave, some are using 3DS, and I'm using Milkshape.) The end user could also have access to the same cool tools if ya' leave it in the engine :-)
Torque Owner Yacine Salmi