RTS Starter Kit Questions
by Robert Brower · in Torque Game Engine · 07/11/2007 (2:45 am) · 6 replies
Good day!
The reason for my questions is obviously that I am interested in buying the RTS Starter Kit because of the time that it will save me in having to implement such features.
1. Does the RTS Starter Kit come with the pumpkin head player model shown in the marketing material?
2. If yes, then how many polygons is the pumpkin head player model included?
3. Using the pumpkin head player model, how many units can be instantiated without incurring too much of a hit?
4. What would you consider to be the optimal number of polygons for an RTS player model?
5. If I am creating an RTS game using this pack, would I create a player model with the same scale as the TGE orc player model, or is there a better scale to use?
6. Can anyone give me an idea of what sort of LOD's they used on player models for an RTS game given that the camera will be 3rd person and at a distance where the units will appear at about one fifth of their normal size or smaller?
I am hoping to minimize the ammount of trial and error associated with getting the right scene and realizing the sweet spot for an optimal RTS game look.
Extra info...
My RTS project doesn't use terrain. I think this will give me a lot of head-room in terms of total numbers of polygons rendered. Do you agree that this will improve game performance?
It's been a while since I regularly surfed the GG website. I'm glad to say that I have more free time these days. I hope to ressurect some of my old projects and become more active in the community.
With regards,
Robert
The reason for my questions is obviously that I am interested in buying the RTS Starter Kit because of the time that it will save me in having to implement such features.
1. Does the RTS Starter Kit come with the pumpkin head player model shown in the marketing material?
2. If yes, then how many polygons is the pumpkin head player model included?
3. Using the pumpkin head player model, how many units can be instantiated without incurring too much of a hit?
4. What would you consider to be the optimal number of polygons for an RTS player model?
5. If I am creating an RTS game using this pack, would I create a player model with the same scale as the TGE orc player model, or is there a better scale to use?
6. Can anyone give me an idea of what sort of LOD's they used on player models for an RTS game given that the camera will be 3rd person and at a distance where the units will appear at about one fifth of their normal size or smaller?
I am hoping to minimize the ammount of trial and error associated with getting the right scene and realizing the sweet spot for an optimal RTS game look.
Extra info...
My RTS project doesn't use terrain. I think this will give me a lot of head-room in terms of total numbers of polygons rendered. Do you agree that this will improve game performance?
It's been a while since I regularly surfed the GG website. I'm glad to say that I have more free time these days. I hope to ressurect some of my old projects and become more active in the community.
With regards,
Robert
#2
07/11/2007 (5:21 am)
Well im assuming tht if your removing terrain, your making some kind of space RTS , like homeworld. that would be the only reason why you wouldnt need terrain.
#3
07/11/2007 (5:25 am)
Possibly he's making a City RTS or a futuristic RTS like starcraft, where it's just paneling. 
#4
07/11/2007 (6:25 am)
In the original RTS kit the units are just clamped to the terrain and dont involve physics. They dont walk over interiors but that could be easily changed with a couple of lines of code changes.
#5
Thanks for the info!
Robert
07/13/2007 (12:03 am)
My project uses something like a grid-work of tileable blocks which are TSStatics. The units walk on these shapes. There's no way for them to walk off of the playing board. It's like a chess board I guess but with a different shape.Thanks for the info!
Robert
#6
Keep in mind that the RTS-SK is a starter kit designed to describe and demonstrate common RTS features and programming techniques, so you will need to adapt the implementations for your specific project, but taken from that approach it should be very useful for you.
07/13/2007 (8:32 am)
The RTS-SK mouse/selection code isn't implemented to interact with TSStatics iirc, but given your general programming expertise it shouldn't be difficult for you to add that.Keep in mind that the RTS-SK is a starter kit designed to describe and demonstrate common RTS features and programming techniques, so you will need to adapt the implementations for your specific project, but taken from that approach it should be very useful for you.
Torque Owner Gavin Bunney
2. 775
3. I can run about 150-200 units on my machine; not sure of the limit. Really depends on your distance from units, machine specs etc.
4. < 1k
5. Same scale is fine
6. Most of the time the units will be about to same distance from your camera - unless the camera is rotated to view units way off in the distance. Really depends on your camera style; should be able to get away with 2 /3 LOD for most models...
Hmm not sure about the whole not-including-terrain to gain performance increase. Will you get an increase? Sure; the units wouldn't have to make a collision against the terrain. But depends on how else you plan on stopping the units from just falling forever :)