Foliage and Music and Lighting... Oh my!
by Mitovo · in Torque Game Engine · 10/25/2013 (10:54 pm) · 3 replies
Hello,
So, been working with TGE some more, learning to work with the different systems.
To begin, here's a quick "snap-shot" of my experiments with my little forest scene so far, just to give a visual/context to my situation/questions (click for full version).
I found some nice freebies (trees, plants, etc) online that I'm using just to sorta mock-things up and get a feel for how things work in TGE without having to first create my own assets.
In trying things out, I've come to a few questions...
1. I decided I'd like to have some kind of fantasy theme playing while I'm in the game, just to help the 'mood' a bit. I haven't been able to find where you set the music to play, nor have any searches I've done yielded any info. Where would I find out how to do that?
2. I quickly learned that using the Shape Replicator for ground-coverage/foliage is not a good idea. It gave me a pretty noticeable hit on my FPS once I got the total # above 2000. Switching to the Foliage Replicator works much, much better. Plenty of coverage, and no slow-down at all. However, it got me thinking. If one is planning on having that kind of coverage across their entire zone, what's the best way to do this? Do you overlap several replicators? Create one large one? I haven't found any kind of definitive information on how to handle such a thing. I saw something about not wanting to go over 30,000 objects in a single foliagereplicator (I think that was in the TDN article), but is there a point where TGE will choke if there are too many individual replicators?
3. The Lighting Editor in 1.5.2. I've tried working with that, and can't really figure out what I'm doing. Using it doesn't seem to yield any different results than using the standard, built-in lighting. I've tried different lighting profiles and there's no visible difference. Couldn't find any instructions on using that system, either. Is there documentation, or some kind of instructions or overview for it that someone might be aware of? I haven't been able to find anything.
That's it for now. If anyone can shed some light on any or all of those questions, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
So, been working with TGE some more, learning to work with the different systems.
To begin, here's a quick "snap-shot" of my experiments with my little forest scene so far, just to give a visual/context to my situation/questions (click for full version).
I found some nice freebies (trees, plants, etc) online that I'm using just to sorta mock-things up and get a feel for how things work in TGE without having to first create my own assets.
In trying things out, I've come to a few questions...
1. I decided I'd like to have some kind of fantasy theme playing while I'm in the game, just to help the 'mood' a bit. I haven't been able to find where you set the music to play, nor have any searches I've done yielded any info. Where would I find out how to do that?
2. I quickly learned that using the Shape Replicator for ground-coverage/foliage is not a good idea. It gave me a pretty noticeable hit on my FPS once I got the total # above 2000. Switching to the Foliage Replicator works much, much better. Plenty of coverage, and no slow-down at all. However, it got me thinking. If one is planning on having that kind of coverage across their entire zone, what's the best way to do this? Do you overlap several replicators? Create one large one? I haven't found any kind of definitive information on how to handle such a thing. I saw something about not wanting to go over 30,000 objects in a single foliagereplicator (I think that was in the TDN article), but is there a point where TGE will choke if there are too many individual replicators?
3. The Lighting Editor in 1.5.2. I've tried working with that, and can't really figure out what I'm doing. Using it doesn't seem to yield any different results than using the standard, built-in lighting. I've tried different lighting profiles and there's no visible difference. Couldn't find any instructions on using that system, either. Is there documentation, or some kind of instructions or overview for it that someone might be aware of? I haven't been able to find anything.
That's it for now. If anyone can shed some light on any or all of those questions, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
About the author
#2
Sounds pretty involved lol... Okay, I'll see what I can work out here.
10/27/2013 (5:06 am)
Thanks Richard!Sounds pretty involved lol... Okay, I'll see what I can work out here.
#3
10/27/2013 (11:10 am)
It shouldn't be that complicated, but something somewhere is behaving oddly. I had to reload the mission and reload the audio file for it to take effect, but that should not be the case. 
Torque Owner Richard Ranft
Roostertail Games