Creating crops graphically
by Drethon · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 03/23/2009 (12:49 pm) · 2 replies
I just wanted to bounce my thoughts off the heads more knowledgable in TGEA and see if I'm going the right direction or if there is something avaialble in TGEA I didn't know about...
I want to be able to create farms in my game all the way from tilling bare ground to growing crops and harvesting. As far graphics are concerned I've considered changing the appearance of the terrain (I believe TGEA allows in game changes to terrain textures...) or using 3d objects.
I know of no way to make 3d objects follow the terrain which causes me to reject that idea for the complete graphics as I want to show the terrain going from wild to tilled. For this it seems that changing the appearance of part of the terrain texture would be best.
Then I can use 3d objects to render the crops themselves growing out of the ground.
Does this sound like the best approach in TGEA?
I want to be able to create farms in my game all the way from tilling bare ground to growing crops and harvesting. As far graphics are concerned I've considered changing the appearance of the terrain (I believe TGEA allows in game changes to terrain textures...) or using 3d objects.
I know of no way to make 3d objects follow the terrain which causes me to reject that idea for the complete graphics as I want to show the terrain going from wild to tilled. For this it seems that changing the appearance of part of the terrain texture would be best.
Then I can use 3d objects to render the crops themselves growing out of the ground.
Does this sound like the best approach in TGEA?
#2
03/23/2009 (6:04 pm)
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out to see what info I can find on that approach. 
Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
You can align the "tilled soil" object to the normal of the terrain it sits on top of in a way that if you plow up a low slope (or a steep one), then the object would follow the angle of the terrain. I think vehicles conform to terrain, and you can start by looking at that. Otherwise, then you can do the change of terrain textures under the plow as it moves.
Changing the texture is possibly easier than aligning the objects, but I don't remember what needs to be done for aligning, so I can actually be wrong...