TrueSpace and Torque

#21 @Chris- Basically main difference between gS/tS is:
-You can render out movies.
-Higher render settings.
-More lights.
-A kick-ass Physics Engine with full dynamics (which can be captured into animation clips!).
-More tools/Plug-Ins (can't remember what one's to list them here,sry)...

gS and tS are built from the same core (6.6) but Plug-Ins written for tS don't always work in gS Although, the few that I've tried did work fine in gS. There are a few points that tS has over gS but as far as creating DTS shapes and animations, your not missing much if you go with gamespace. I did see an ad that stated trueSpace was going for $199! ... Hope that helps

#22 A Player Model Tutorial for Dark Industries DTS Exporterv2 and GameSpace.

#23 Sorry to hijack this thread, but i'm having some trouble with the exporter i'm making for Gs...
The textures dont align!

I know it must be something with the offsetu and offsetv , but everything I've tried has failed... anyone here knows the .map format and is willing to help out ?

Thanks

#24 Wow. ts seems to have some good character tools. those bones tools are very inexpensive add ons and look pretty good.

#25 I'm struggling so hard with DarkIndustries v2 of the .DTS exporter.
I almost want to go back to Max or MilkShape.
I know it's all me, but I just can't get the scene setup right.
The .DSQs don't animate the bones and the bones aren't lined up with the mesh when I export.
The animations work fine as long as they are in the .DTS.

Ari Rule

#26 Thanks to Rex, I have figured out my problems with the DarkIndustries v2 DTS Exporter.
Everything seems to work fine.
Now I am faced with a new problem.
In order to preserve/lock the scale of a model before export to dts, I must first export it to .X format and re-import it.
This undoes all my rigging and I'm really bad at rigging... :/
But I'm learning.

I found this on the caligari site here.

Quote:The gameSpace Torque Pack contains the latest version gameSpace, Dark Industries' Torque DTS Exporter for models, DigitalFlux Entertainment's Torque mapExporter for levels, and two training courses from the popular Caligari collection for trueSpace! Be sure to click to read details about each product included. If you paid for each separately, it would cost $477, but you can order this bundle for only $399, saving nearly $80 on the regular combined price!

It's lies, all lies.
Dark Industries' Torque DTS Exporter for models is free.
DigitalFlux Entertainment's Torque mapExporter for levels is $20US.

Ari Rule

*Bah, didn't see that GameSpace came with the package. My apologies to Caligari. Still though...

#27 Woot!
I'm getting this rigging thing down!
Just slapped a Poser 1 mesh onto the SuperBones skelleton, loaded a few of the 350 animations and exported.
Internal DTS animations are showing up in ShowTool Pro nicely!
So far, everything is working from TrueSpace to TGE except I'm having trouble with .DSQs.
Been a gnarly journey getting this far.
For TrueSpace character modeling I'd have to say follow the work of Rex (a member here) and Mr. Bones (www.truebones.com) and use Dark Industries v2 DTS Exporter.
Rex has some pages on his site explaining the layout/workflow for setting up the scene in TS for export.
Mr. Bones has a flash tutorial for download that taught me how to rig and switch animations in minutes.
I'm grinning from ear to ear for the first time since I started the character models.
In a couple of months if this thread doesn't branch off into a tutorial or pack, someone please yell at me.

Ari Rule
"Measure twice, cut once... Look, it fits!"

#28

Quote:DigitalFlux Entertainment's Torque mapExporter for levels is $20US.

Just to clarify, since I've been on the verge of dead-to-the-world lately, but mapExporter's days are coming to an end, sadly. Being overrun by competition (hey, it happens), and tS7 support issues lead me to this decision. Of course, I'll still support it for users who bought it for tS up to version 6.6, but the links selling it on Caligari's site should be coming down soon, as well as from the Primitive Itch site.

#29 Ouch, yeah Caligari seems to be making an all or nothing bet on TS 7.

Ari Rule

#30 I've seen the demo when they were here in NYC, and I can't tell you that it's a bad piece of software... I like it a lot and have been using it since '95...

That said, they're doing something that they've always done historically which isn't so cool: Throw brand-new, whiz-bang features into it without really working to stabilize older features (which were whiz-bang as well when they were added) that would make it a much better product. There's some complaints I have about bones that would be mitigated greatly if they were simply stable, but they aren't, so it makes trying to animate things even worse. People have worked around the animation problems with plugins that allow for Poser animation and models to be imported, but tS allows you to model really well, and it's a shame that they never updated their bones system aside from a few bug fixes in the last three versions to let people make that work shine. There is motion capture animations available out there, but motion capture cannot address many game developers' animation needs.

The bigger problem for me is that the new SDK won't compile, meaning that my code is open to everyone, and after months, they still haven't gotten to me on whether they decided to allow a standard .dll plugin for the new SDK. You can view the code how it was written in an editor in tS7, and that allows you to copy and paste the code. That is a dealbreaker.

That sounds really negative, I realize, but I can say that for modelling, tS is very fast, and I believe they're going to allow for HLSL shading in 7 (don't quote me, my memory is fuzzy on that), which would rock. So if you're designing static objects and environmental art, tS is a great package. If you're doing cinematics without heavy character animation, tS is still a great package. Myself- I can model a dozen objects for my game in a day with it (I've actually done that, haha), and the UV|Cow plugin makes the UV stuff real easy to do. After that, though, I hand it off to animators who use Max and other tools, so in my opinion tS is only able to handle the modelling and UV parts of the pipeline, but not the animation part. The plugin thing... Well, it was fun while it lasted, and helped me pay my rent a few times, so that's a good thing :)

#31 It seems I missed the TrueSpace Export forums in the Artist section.
Silly me.

Ari

#32 Anyone got any good WORKING workflows for tS or gS ??

I use tS6.6 and gS 1.6.

#33 Something like this, perhaps?!?

WORKING is the key word here....I've seen nothing else that describes the Process; albeit my gS2DTS workflow[that works...]is a player class shape. The steps to creating the Hierarchy and Detail LOD's are still very valid. No one has come forward with any comments or corrections and in my business, the saying goes, "...no news, is good news!".

Good luck.
Rex

#34 Rex, do you have any "skeleton" for gS & tS witch is compatible both with TGE and Puppeter ??
Or some other goodies for tS & gS .. feel free to email me.

Best,

Thomas

#35 Well, I believe...when I sent my Resource Material to Alex S., I did include the rig I constructed and set-up constraints for, with the ElF shape. The DOF's may be a bit 'wide' out of 'normal', but at that point, I didn't have it within me to constrain/align the Hingejoints anymore...and, I didn't demonstrate the gS 'flow' to get a rig finished and 'stable', but there should be a skeleton that will bind to the elf mesh and work. All my rigs utilize the naming convention of GG's default rig/shape[well, Character Studio's conventions really...].

My guide explains about the difference between the Hingejoint and Bone objects witin gS's schema; but if you're looking for a rig that will load the default SDK .dsq sequences, it will not be forthcoming or likely to arrive any time soon. As the difference between the two system[Max or Ms3d's & GameSpace's] are too vast for this artist to bridge with an online guide. Caligari painted themselves into a very dusty, lonely corner when they outlined their schema for Skinning/Bones, as nearly everything is backwards from any other program I've ever utilized....

Rex

#36 Rex, I owe you a big thank you.
THANK YOU :)

Ari

#37 ...and you are very welcome, Ari. I'm always trying to make it easier for any artist utilizing the more economical modeling packages. I hope my Resources have helped and seems from your robust reply; they have. It's a tough decision to just simply give something away for no charge...I only ask that you 'just keep chuggin'' and help others when you can, :).

Rex

#38 Rex, You seems to be the one to ask this.

Is it possible to create a skeleton in tS/gS compatible with the Torque default animation ??

I dont know what i am doing wrong bu my skeletons/models from tS will not animate correct with the default player animations.

#39 @Rex: Will do, I have most of your work archived in case it gets lost or needs to be mirrored.

@Alienforce: Do you have the bone names the same as the TGE player's (Character Studio Bi-ped naming convention)? I use a custom skeleton (BVH) so I haven't done it, but that is the first step I would take.

Ari

#40

Quote:but if you're looking for a rig that will load the default SDK .dsq sequences, it will not be forthcoming or likely to arrive any time soon. As the difference between the two system[Max or Ms3d's & GameSpace's] are too vast for this artist to bridge with an online guide. Caligari painted themselves into a very dusty, lonely corner when they outlined their schema for Skinning/Bones, as nearly everything is backwards from any other program I've ever utilized....

sorry, Alienforce, I don't think you'll ever see a gS rig load the SDK defaults....now, I've gotten gS rigs to accept Milkshape3d .DSQ sequences! The milkfarm is such a groovy place to hang on a sunny day; or any for that matter. Always lots of interesting projects clanging about...