T3D 1.1 Preview - normal maps not rendering on difs - LOGGED (THREED-1578)
by x-ming-x · in Torque 3D Professional · 04/10/2011 (9:14 am) · 5 replies
Hello all
first off greatwork on the 1.1 preview im really excited to finally get my hands on it :)
ive just tested out some normal maps on difs and they dont appear to be rendering.
there is a thread discussing this here
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/122197
this was an issue in earlier versions and when you added normal maps the textures seemed to glow as if they were emmisive, they dont seem to glow now when i add the normal maps so i assume some work has been done in this area.
Thanks
first off greatwork on the 1.1 preview im really excited to finally get my hands on it :)
ive just tested out some normal maps on difs and they dont appear to be rendering.
there is a thread discussing this here
http://www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/122197
this was an issue in earlier versions and when you added normal maps the textures seemed to glow as if they were emmisive, they dont seem to glow now when i add the normal maps so i assume some work has been done in this area.
Thanks
About the author
ive been making games since they used to be on floppy discs, ive been all over the industry and worked for / with all types of companies, big and small. Now im lucky enough to be indie and working full time for myself and my team :)
#2
04/11/2011 (12:16 pm)
great thanks :) 
#3
[Edit 2]eww forum bug ! lol... thats apparently the Euro character...
04/11/2011 (12:21 pm)
[�dit] doh, double post.[Edit 2]eww forum bug ! lol... thats apparently the Euro character...
#4
Ming, youre referring to zones and portals in your difs within T3D in that other thread, these dont work, yeah their compiled into the DIF however thats for TGEa use, and arent even brought into the engine when you spawn a DIF model within T3D. I understand where youre frustration is, as I am also verymuch a BSP style mapper going back to HL1, however thats over a decade ago and un/fortunately things move on...
Whats wrong with converting your difs over to collada ? What snags are you hitting with that. If its the fact that by default you have to use polysoup colission, you can always use the .dae file to add your own basic colission to the models. This in turn lets you use all the lighting/texturing options that comes with using a DTS over a DIF, and it also lets you have smooth curves :o
The main important things about DIF's to me was as you say, the zoning/portaling aswell as the ability to define custom ambient lighting within that zone, neither of which are in T3D, and I dont see them being reinstated to be honest.
The manually placed zone object is getting some love, although ive not looked into the status of them at the moment they are hammering out some of the bugs aswell as improving the usability of them, these would then ofcourse be able to be used with DTS/Collada shapes.
04/11/2011 (12:31 pm)
Thought difs were being depreciated, are they remaining in use after 1.1 ? or just basic loading functionality so they can be converted to collada from within the world editor?Ming, youre referring to zones and portals in your difs within T3D in that other thread, these dont work, yeah their compiled into the DIF however thats for TGEa use, and arent even brought into the engine when you spawn a DIF model within T3D. I understand where youre frustration is, as I am also verymuch a BSP style mapper going back to HL1, however thats over a decade ago and un/fortunately things move on...
Whats wrong with converting your difs over to collada ? What snags are you hitting with that. If its the fact that by default you have to use polysoup colission, you can always use the .dae file to add your own basic colission to the models. This in turn lets you use all the lighting/texturing options that comes with using a DTS over a DIF, and it also lets you have smooth curves :o
The main important things about DIF's to me was as you say, the zoning/portaling aswell as the ability to define custom ambient lighting within that zone, neither of which are in T3D, and I dont see them being reinstated to be honest.
The manually placed zone object is getting some love, although ive not looked into the status of them at the moment they are hammering out some of the bugs aswell as improving the usability of them, these would then ofcourse be able to be used with DTS/Collada shapes.
#5
well hmmmmmmm
first thing i did when i got t3d 1.0.1 back a year or so ago is test out the optimisation. because its really really important,
it took a while but once i got the portals worked out i was away and building lovely working portalised difs that ran like a dream in T3D.
after reading your comments i went and copied the difs from the old version into the new preveiw version and..... they are no longer portalised.
ive taken screenshots showing the hull of my space battlecruiser (muwwhahah)in the 2 versions
please look at the pictures, that ship has around 40 zones and would be impossible to do with the current portal tools.
the pictures speak for themselves.
http://www.teamsportgames.com/?p=49
ill post this up as a bug and pray they fix it.
btw im not using difs because i have problems with the other formats.
if you read my other post (link above) it gives details of why, but basically because they work best.
i dont think things that work best are in fashion at the moment though and theres seems to be a firm commitment to phasing out all that is good in the world ( like mappers ) ;(
04/14/2011 (7:40 pm)
Hi Andy well hmmmmmmm
first thing i did when i got t3d 1.0.1 back a year or so ago is test out the optimisation. because its really really important,
it took a while but once i got the portals worked out i was away and building lovely working portalised difs that ran like a dream in T3D.
after reading your comments i went and copied the difs from the old version into the new preveiw version and..... they are no longer portalised.
ive taken screenshots showing the hull of my space battlecruiser (muwwhahah)in the 2 versions
please look at the pictures, that ship has around 40 zones and would be impossible to do with the current portal tools.
the pictures speak for themselves.
http://www.teamsportgames.com/?p=49
ill post this up as a bug and pray they fix it.
btw im not using difs because i have problems with the other formats.
if you read my other post (link above) it gives details of why, but basically because they work best.
i dont think things that work best are in fashion at the moment though and theres seems to be a firm commitment to phasing out all that is good in the world ( like mappers ) ;(
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake