Mission, Camera, Mouse, Non-FPS Questions
by Jono MacAlpine · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 07/14/2009 (11:46 am) · 4 replies
I'm exceedingly new to TGEA, and my goodness is there a hundred different ways that I can see how this engine will be flexible and extensible! That being said, it's a bit overwhelming to take it all at once. So! I'm trying to just dive in and do what I can.
I've looked at the various FPS-related highly-newbie tutorials that I could find, but I'm not finding anything that deals with the types of things that I'm interested in doing with Torque. For example, if I wanted to 'break the ice' by making some kind of Asteroids-esque game, I have no idea even how to get the camera permanently out of first-person -- let alone trying to hook up some controls to allow for point-and-click aiming!
Much of this is almost certainly going to come with trial-and-error as I explore the engine and how all the cogs fit together. A couple big question marks after digging for a few hours last night are:
- Is there a relatively easy way that I can say for a mission something like "The camera goes here and tracks this actor", or "The camera is at this fixed vector from this actor"?
- How do you transition between missions? Is there going to be a big loading screen every time you do so?
- Two-prong question... Can I translate mouse-screen coordinates into world coordinates, and is there some way to say to an actor, "Hey! You! Pathfind to that location!"
- Related to that last question, is it possible to flag brushes in something like Constructor in such a way that they would allow 'click-through' but block actor movement? Like, if the camera was placed outside of a room looking in, with the walls towards the camera invisible, such that the room looks like the set from a TV show.
I'm sure that I can find these answers myself given enough time and digging. I figure that bursting onto the TGEA scene with a series of questions is as good of an entrance as any. :)
Thanks for any help/directions/wristslaps you can provide!
I've looked at the various FPS-related highly-newbie tutorials that I could find, but I'm not finding anything that deals with the types of things that I'm interested in doing with Torque. For example, if I wanted to 'break the ice' by making some kind of Asteroids-esque game, I have no idea even how to get the camera permanently out of first-person -- let alone trying to hook up some controls to allow for point-and-click aiming!
Much of this is almost certainly going to come with trial-and-error as I explore the engine and how all the cogs fit together. A couple big question marks after digging for a few hours last night are:
- Is there a relatively easy way that I can say for a mission something like "The camera goes here and tracks this actor", or "The camera is at this fixed vector from this actor"?
- How do you transition between missions? Is there going to be a big loading screen every time you do so?
- Two-prong question... Can I translate mouse-screen coordinates into world coordinates, and is there some way to say to an actor, "Hey! You! Pathfind to that location!"
- Related to that last question, is it possible to flag brushes in something like Constructor in such a way that they would allow 'click-through' but block actor movement? Like, if the camera was placed outside of a room looking in, with the walls towards the camera invisible, such that the room looks like the set from a TV show.
I'm sure that I can find these answers myself given enough time and digging. I figure that bursting onto the TGEA scene with a series of questions is as good of an entrance as any. :)
Thanks for any help/directions/wristslaps you can provide!
#2
If there's nothing in place for pathfinding in TGEA, it's not a big deal. :) Not the first time in my life having to write A*! ;)
Cheers!
07/17/2009 (9:12 am)
Thank you for the information, Mark! That Advanced Camera resource looks like just what I was looking for! I did see a couple things on click-to-move since making this post, but haven't gotten around to trying anything out yet.If there's nothing in place for pathfinding in TGEA, it's not a big deal. :) Not the first time in my life having to write A*! ;)
Cheers!
#3
07/19/2009 (8:12 pm)
I've dropped in that Advanced Camera resource, but when I use it, my camera goes all jittery. Like, the camera position is updating in realtime, but the 'look at' of the camera is updating at a slower rate, so it stutters. This was happening with both Orbit and God View modes... 
#4
07/19/2009 (10:01 pm)
i dont remember but the laggy is with some settings in the advanced camera, check the posts in the resource... or you can put in third person camera with the standard camera and add offset... 
Torque 3D Owner Mark Dynna
* First, why don't you try the Advanced Camera Resource. I'm not going to promise that it's a "fix all" but it might get you closer to the camera functionality that you want.
* You transition between missions with the loadMission function. Yes, there is going to be a loading screen between them.
* There are some Resources posted that deal with "click to move" kind of functionality. It's not a simple thing, but it will be a great learning experience for you. Note that Torque (as default) does not have what you would call "pathfinding." The AIPlayer class will move in a straight line from its position to destination. Pathfinding is a whole 'nother bag of hammers.
* Not that I know of.