Synapse Gaming: Exciting New Product Announcement
by John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder) · in Torque Game Engine · 08/07/2006 (12:09 pm) · 49 replies
Hello Torque Lighting Kit Community!
GarageGames and Synapse Gaming are excited to announce the Torque Lighting Kit will be integrated into the Torque Shader Engine. Starting with milestone 4, TSE will include all of TLK's advanced lighting and rendering, and offer all of the same key features and tools TLK owners are accustomed to, with the added advantage of HDR, TSE's fully integrated shaders, and complete access to, and support for, the DirectX API.
This is the first official announcement or mention of the collaboration, and we wanted TLK licensees to be the first to know!
What does this mean for TLK?
Great things! TLK bug fixes and optimizations made during the development of TSE will be ported back into TLK for TGE.
And we already have another TLK release planned that rolls in fixes, optimizations, TGE 1.4.2, TGE Mac universal binaries, Xcode 2.x, RTS Kit 1.4 auto-patch support, and much, much more!
Will having TLK help me migrate to TSE?
Absolutely! TSE now uses the same lighting and rendering models as TLK, so you can easily port your existing assets to TSE with minimal effort or changes.
Because the lighting tools and methodologies are the same, using TSE will feel very familiar and comfortable.
TSE Milestone 4: Lighting and Shadows
Along with the existing TLK features, TSE's lighting and shadows include: self-shadowing DTS objects, lighting and shadows on Atlas terrain, High Dynamic Range Lighting and Tone Mapping (including a DRL solution), and full shader support for all lighting types - even on automatically generated shaders!
(assets provided by Exis Exchange)
More images and videos:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Video 1
Video 2
Ok, enough teasing - when will MS4 be ready?!?
The most exciting news is that TSE MS4 will be released in mere days! Stay tuned for more details!
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
GarageGames and Synapse Gaming are excited to announce the Torque Lighting Kit will be integrated into the Torque Shader Engine. Starting with milestone 4, TSE will include all of TLK's advanced lighting and rendering, and offer all of the same key features and tools TLK owners are accustomed to, with the added advantage of HDR, TSE's fully integrated shaders, and complete access to, and support for, the DirectX API.
This is the first official announcement or mention of the collaboration, and we wanted TLK licensees to be the first to know!
What does this mean for TLK?
Great things! TLK bug fixes and optimizations made during the development of TSE will be ported back into TLK for TGE.
And we already have another TLK release planned that rolls in fixes, optimizations, TGE 1.4.2, TGE Mac universal binaries, Xcode 2.x, RTS Kit 1.4 auto-patch support, and much, much more!
Will having TLK help me migrate to TSE?
Absolutely! TSE now uses the same lighting and rendering models as TLK, so you can easily port your existing assets to TSE with minimal effort or changes.
Because the lighting tools and methodologies are the same, using TSE will feel very familiar and comfortable.
TSE Milestone 4: Lighting and Shadows
Along with the existing TLK features, TSE's lighting and shadows include: self-shadowing DTS objects, lighting and shadows on Atlas terrain, High Dynamic Range Lighting and Tone Mapping (including a DRL solution), and full shader support for all lighting types - even on automatically generated shaders!
(assets provided by Exis Exchange)
More images and videos:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Video 1
Video 2
Ok, enough teasing - when will MS4 be ready?!?
The most exciting news is that TSE MS4 will be released in mere days! Stay tuned for more details!
-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming
#2
*drools on keyboard*
Damnit, I loose more keyboards that way...
08/07/2006 (12:58 pm)
Quote:The most exciting news is that TSE MS4 will be released in mere days! Stay tuned for more details!
*drools on keyboard*
Damnit, I loose more keyboards that way...
#3
08/07/2006 (1:03 pm)
I cant play the videos. What codec was used to encode them? 
#5
Good news - TSE will ship with free drool rags! :)
The videos use Divx 6 (it's high compression and low loss, I've been very happy with it). When the download page pops up it asks for your email, but you don't have to provide it - it just take a second for the download to start.
08/07/2006 (1:12 pm)
Yes, TLK is TSE's lighting system - eliminating all integration and merging, and at no extra cost.Quote:
*drools on keyboard*
Damnit, I loose more keyboards that way...
Good news - TSE will ship with free drool rags! :)
The videos use Divx 6 (it's high compression and low loss, I've been very happy with it). When the download page pops up it asks for your email, but you don't have to provide it - it just take a second for the download to start.
#6
08/07/2006 (1:13 pm)
Thanks Justin! 
#7
08/07/2006 (1:14 pm)
Wow, that looks amazing!! Can't wait till this gets rolled out!! :)
#9
08/07/2006 (1:23 pm)
New I hope :P 
#10
08/07/2006 (1:32 pm)
Hey John, could you possibly re-post this in the TSE forum as well since this restricts to TLK users?
#11
08/07/2006 (1:39 pm)
Josh asked me to keep the announcement within the TLK community for now (as much as possible), until the actual MS4 release. I'll be happy to copy this over in the private TSE forums, just double check with someone first and let me know what's up. 
#12
08/07/2006 (2:00 pm)
I'm looking forward to pushing it beyond its limits.
#13
John, does the shadowing work on the Legacy terrain also.
08/07/2006 (2:09 pm)
AWSOME John, for anyone who has not used TLk its a excellent solution, so for me this is a hugh win and improvement for the engine. Kudos to Synapse and GG!!!John, does the shadowing work on the Legacy terrain also.
#14
08/07/2006 (2:11 pm)
Speechless.
#15
08/07/2006 (2:11 pm)
GREAT NEWS!! Woooohooooo!
#16
08/07/2006 (2:25 pm)
This is very very cool. Nice work buddy. :) 
#17
08/07/2006 (2:32 pm)
What a suprise! :) Thanks guys! 
#19
/* starting cleaning up HDD's to free some space for new TSE MS4 download */
08/07/2006 (2:57 pm)
Great news! Thanks GG and John!/* starting cleaning up HDD's to free some space for new TSE MS4 download */
#20
-Jase
08/07/2006 (4:13 pm)
I'm practically speechless... MS4 in mere days... TLK as stock lighting... OMFG TSE+TLK rox my sox.-Jase
Torque Owner Tim Heldna
So TLK IS the sole lighting / shadowing solution for TSE? I sure hope so, I was very impressed with what you did with TGE.
TLK will come with TSE as stock? No additional charge / optional upgrade like TGE?
Once again, wow.