Some nooby questions
by Phillip M · in Torque 3D Professional · 06/24/2009 (2:15 am) · 8 replies
Hey guys, I decided to take the plunge and I have a few questions. :)
- How are we supposed to approach creating buildings / levels? Originally I thought this was going to be done in the World Editor, but I soon discovered you can't, and the more I think about it I guess it makes a lot more sense to do them as separate models so you can reuse them in multiple levels + extra detail. So is that the right approach? Create a building, and store it in say... /arts/buildings/, and then load the model into the world editor to figure out placement? What would you do with simple things that aren't related to a building, like say a low wall running along the outside of a building which you may use in multiple places but it would be of different lengths or a simple square acting as a fence blocking off an alleyway?
- Whats the difference between between /arts/ and /core/arts/? It seems like they should all be merged in together. The documentation doesn't really explain the difference, just that core/arts is needed by all games. :
- When the game is all bundled up for release to end users, are the script files still accessible? Or do they all get compiled together?
- Umm, bounding boxes (err, collision on models, might be the wrong word :p) I noticed were abit off on some models I downloaded from Dex Software and also from the ones included with the engine, I was able to go inside of them kinda, and one of the Dex models actually had no collision at all which was abit strange. Is the first part a problem with the collision on the models or a problem with the collision of the player (I'm using Full template and haven't made any script changes yet). I spose the second I would need to edit the model and add in a bounding box? I tried turning on polySoup collisions, but it wasn't exactly great :p
- Which file has the default map that the compiled exe runs when you click play? Atm it keeps opening up simple.mis, had a look in config and prefs and a few other game related scripts but couldn't spot it.
One last point, not sure if this is actually a bug or not, but I was playing around with the terrain editor and increased the height, ran across it with the robot dude and he was suffering from a bad case of the jitters. Tried smoothing it out and no luck, closed the World Editor a few times after playing around with a few other things and suddenly he was walking across it fine. Not sure if something fixed it or it just needed to be reloaded.
Oh and pleaaaaaaaaaase change the extension of the script files, its so annoying having to right click -> open with all the time to avoid opening up Visual studio. :p
Thanks! :)
- How are we supposed to approach creating buildings / levels? Originally I thought this was going to be done in the World Editor, but I soon discovered you can't, and the more I think about it I guess it makes a lot more sense to do them as separate models so you can reuse them in multiple levels + extra detail. So is that the right approach? Create a building, and store it in say... /arts/buildings/, and then load the model into the world editor to figure out placement? What would you do with simple things that aren't related to a building, like say a low wall running along the outside of a building which you may use in multiple places but it would be of different lengths or a simple square acting as a fence blocking off an alleyway?
- Whats the difference between between /arts/ and /core/arts/? It seems like they should all be merged in together. The documentation doesn't really explain the difference, just that core/arts is needed by all games. :
- When the game is all bundled up for release to end users, are the script files still accessible? Or do they all get compiled together?
- Umm, bounding boxes (err, collision on models, might be the wrong word :p) I noticed were abit off on some models I downloaded from Dex Software and also from the ones included with the engine, I was able to go inside of them kinda, and one of the Dex models actually had no collision at all which was abit strange. Is the first part a problem with the collision on the models or a problem with the collision of the player (I'm using Full template and haven't made any script changes yet). I spose the second I would need to edit the model and add in a bounding box? I tried turning on polySoup collisions, but it wasn't exactly great :p
- Which file has the default map that the compiled exe runs when you click play? Atm it keeps opening up simple.mis, had a look in config and prefs and a few other game related scripts but couldn't spot it.
One last point, not sure if this is actually a bug or not, but I was playing around with the terrain editor and increased the height, ran across it with the robot dude and he was suffering from a bad case of the jitters. Tried smoothing it out and no luck, closed the World Editor a few times after playing around with a few other things and suddenly he was walking across it fine. Not sure if something fixed it or it just needed to be reloaded.
Oh and pleaaaaaaaaaase change the extension of the script files, its so annoying having to right click -> open with all the time to avoid opening up Visual studio. :p
Thanks! :)
#2
06/24/2009 (2:40 am)
As for the scripts: You can enable the DSO generation in the torque settings header file as with TGEA. Its just simpler and more stress free to have it disabled during development as you can be sure that no orphaned DSO is crossing your path
#3
Sorry, perhaps I didn't explain it very well. Whats the best way of creating a level entirely from scratch? Should I build parts of the level separately as individual models or build the entire thing in a modelling program as a single model?
06/25/2009 (6:12 pm)
deepscratch:Sorry, perhaps I didn't explain it very well. Whats the best way of creating a level entirely from scratch? Should I build parts of the level separately as individual models or build the entire thing in a modelling program as a single model?
#4
If you're making soemthing that is very large but fairly low poly you can make it as one large model, I made a town that's all one model (though I might change that) and then bolted 4 of them together and it works nicely in T3D.
06/25/2009 (6:31 pm)
It's usually best to build the parts of a level seperately, that way you can add LODs to the models so they change to a low resolution model when teh player/camera is further away.If you're making soemthing that is very large but fairly low poly you can make it as one large model, I made a town that's all one model (though I might change that) and then bolted 4 of them together and it works nicely in T3D.
#5
06/25/2009 (6:43 pm)
With beta 3, the zone - portal system was added which gives good reasons to do it in "lego style" to prevent whole areas from rendering for example.
#6
06/25/2009 (7:35 pm)
Ahh cheers Steve. If I did do them as separate models, how would I deal with things that don't really belong to a building and are in multiple places on the map in different sizes like the low walls in your first link? It'd suck having a separate model file for each wall :\ 
#7
of course you can do what I did is I just use the right-click > open with > select program then selected notepad. then check "always use this program" but prolly gonna buy Torsion next week.
06/25/2009 (8:02 pm)
I agree they need to change the extension now and just get it over with. I know there was some discussion over this early but I'm not sure what became of it. It would be nice to have them be .ts or .tscrpt or something.of course you can do what I did is I just use the right-click > open with > select program then selected notepad. then check "always use this program" but prolly gonna buy Torsion next week.
#8
06/25/2009 (8:03 pm)
You could make them in smaller groups of buildings rather than just a large one or too many little ones. Think of it like sections that you bolt together. The reason that I started messing around with single, large scale models was that I noticed lots of individual instances of models took a toll on the processor back in TGE. To some extent that is still the case, but things (especially with DTS instead of DIF) are a lot better now. 
Torque Owner deepscratch
DeepScratchStudios
still accessible.
right click on the file, choose "select default program", select you favorite text editor, check the box that says "always open with".