A few questions about using QuARK
by Mitovo · in Torque Game Engine · 03/27/2004 (8:51 am) · 5 replies
Hello:
Okay, a few questions about QuARK:
1. Since an environment has to be "sealed" in order to properly compile it in QuARK... how are interiors, such as the open building in the Torque demo properly compiled with light-maps and the such?
2. What is the QuARK Grid Unit - to - Torque Environment ratio? How many grid units make up a foot, etc? I'd like to make sure I'm not making things too large or too small and would like to construct a prefab that would estimate the size of a player to help keep things in scale.
3. How are textures used in a level in QuARK stored? Are they saved as part of the DIF itself, or do they have to be stored in an appropriate folder somewhere?
Edit:
Another couple questions just came to light as I was trying to export a simple one-room map to see if I could convert it and get it into Torque. I'm finding it difficult to track down specific tutorials on how to accomplish things as the information seems to be spread out all over the place, on this site and on outside sites.. also, that I'm not even entirely sure what I should be looking for makes it a bit difficult.
I've looked through/done searches through the documentation but I couldn't seem to find anything that really explains the how or why of setting up Portals. I have a portal-defined brush "sealing off" an open portion of my room, just to see if I can get it to work. I know I've seen something about having to set certain parameters for Portals to allow outside light, etc.. Unfortunately, none of the information I'm finding is providing the "how" to do that. Can someone point me to a tutorial that explains this?
Also, exporting is confusing me, and this relates directly to lighting. How do I get to preview the lighting I've set up (even if only temporary) in QuARK before exporting it, so I know I like it? I've tried to find some kind of a "rebuild lighting" function in the program, but none seems to exist.. I've only found a series of different export functions. Again, is there somewhere that explains this?
That's about it for now, but those are some questions that are immediately coming to light as I'm learning QuARK for use in Torque interiors..
Thanks!
Mike
Okay, a few questions about QuARK:
1. Since an environment has to be "sealed" in order to properly compile it in QuARK... how are interiors, such as the open building in the Torque demo properly compiled with light-maps and the such?
2. What is the QuARK Grid Unit - to - Torque Environment ratio? How many grid units make up a foot, etc? I'd like to make sure I'm not making things too large or too small and would like to construct a prefab that would estimate the size of a player to help keep things in scale.
3. How are textures used in a level in QuARK stored? Are they saved as part of the DIF itself, or do they have to be stored in an appropriate folder somewhere?
Edit:
Another couple questions just came to light as I was trying to export a simple one-room map to see if I could convert it and get it into Torque. I'm finding it difficult to track down specific tutorials on how to accomplish things as the information seems to be spread out all over the place, on this site and on outside sites.. also, that I'm not even entirely sure what I should be looking for makes it a bit difficult.
I've looked through/done searches through the documentation but I couldn't seem to find anything that really explains the how or why of setting up Portals. I have a portal-defined brush "sealing off" an open portion of my room, just to see if I can get it to work. I know I've seen something about having to set certain parameters for Portals to allow outside light, etc.. Unfortunately, none of the information I'm finding is providing the "how" to do that. Can someone point me to a tutorial that explains this?
Also, exporting is confusing me, and this relates directly to lighting. How do I get to preview the lighting I've set up (even if only temporary) in QuARK before exporting it, so I know I like it? I've tried to find some kind of a "rebuild lighting" function in the program, but none seems to exist.. I've only found a series of different export functions. Again, is there somewhere that explains this?
That's about it for now, but those are some questions that are immediately coming to light as I'm learning QuARK for use in Torque interiors..
Thanks!
Mike
About the author
#2
Thanks for the response!
Ahh.. hmm... okay.
Any help on where I can find information on the directory structure that Torque uses, or Map2Dif uses and how to set them up?
I've already spent the better part of this morning trying to figure this out, searching the forums, the resources, the site's documentation, etc, and I'm no better informed than I was when I started. That seems to be the case with everything to do with this engine - searching for hours to locate a 5 minute answer. People must become professionals at searching and speed-reading using this engine.. But that's another story...
Thanks for the feedback :-)
Mike
03/27/2004 (11:02 am)
Kevin,Thanks for the response!
Ahh.. hmm... okay.
Any help on where I can find information on the directory structure that Torque uses, or Map2Dif uses and how to set them up?
I've already spent the better part of this morning trying to figure this out, searching the forums, the resources, the site's documentation, etc, and I'm no better informed than I was when I started. That seems to be the case with everything to do with this engine - searching for hours to locate a 5 minute answer. People must become professionals at searching and speed-reading using this engine.. But that's another story...
Thanks for the feedback :-)
Mike
#3
www.garagegames.com/docs/torque.sdk/tools/map2dif.html
It has a small section labeled "Torque Directories" that discusses where the dif files and their textures are stored in relation to each other. You'd find the interiors (difs) in directories like \torque\example\demo\interiors, \torque\example\fps\interiors, etc.
Do you already have Quark configured correctly to export difs?
Once you do then in Quark you can adjust where map2dif stores the built dif file. While running Quark from the menu item "Options" choose "Configuration..." Then under the Games section - select "Torque". On the right side of the screen you can modify the command line arguments for map2dif. I've ended up changing the export directory for my current project.
For example my settings for 8th program is:
Not sure if this is helpful or not.
03/27/2004 (12:56 pm)
Have you seen this page:www.garagegames.com/docs/torque.sdk/tools/map2dif.html
It has a small section labeled "Torque Directories" that discusses where the dif files and their textures are stored in relation to each other. You'd find the interiors (difs) in directories like \torque\example\demo\interiors, \torque\example\fps\interiors, etc.
Do you already have Quark configured correctly to export difs?
Once you do then in Quark you can adjust where map2dif stores the built dif file. While running Quark from the menu item "Options" choose "Configuration..." Then under the Games section - select "Torque". On the right side of the screen you can modify the command line arguments for map2dif. I've ended up changing the export directory for my current project.
For example my settings for 8th program is:
program-executable: d:\Quark\addons\torque\tmpquark\map2dif_DEBUG.exe fixed command line arguements: -v -h -n -o /minigolf\example\minigolf\data\courses\grabBag -t ./textures %mapfile%
Not sure if this is helpful or not.
#4
I definitely need to get an understanding of all that, the switches and what-not... I think that might be the problem with why the map isn't converting to .dif properly.. :shrug:
I'll give it a shot and see how it works out..
Thanks :-)
03/27/2004 (3:33 pm)
Hi, Kevin..I definitely need to get an understanding of all that, the switches and what-not... I think that might be the problem with why the map isn't converting to .dif properly.. :shrug:
I'll give it a shot and see how it works out..
Thanks :-)
#5
I'm looking at the switches you can use for those commands and, to be honest, I couldn't tell you what any of that means. The defaults are all already set up in the QuARK editor and, as far as I know, only the first one is really necessary? At least, I'm not able to have it automatically create the .dif for me yet... I have to try another map and see what I can figure out, because the first one I did isn't working...
Let's see if I do better this time.
Thanks...
03/27/2004 (7:36 pm)
Kevin,I'm looking at the switches you can use for those commands and, to be honest, I couldn't tell you what any of that means. The defaults are all already set up in the QuARK editor and, as far as I know, only the first one is really necessary? At least, I'm not able to have it automatically create the .dif for me yet... I have to try another map and see what I can figure out, because the first one I did isn't working...
Let's see if I do better this time.
Thanks...
Associate Kevin Ryan
Top Meadow Inc.
3: Textures are not stored within the dif files. I have all my textures stored one directory level up from all my dif files.