Creating Game Art for 3D Engines (Torque book)
by Brad Strong · in Torque in Education · 02/04/2009 (12:04 pm) · 10 replies
This Torque book was written for the user as well as for the classroom and I've heard from a few instructors already using it, so I thought I'd drop a line here and just make myself available in case any questions arise about it.
Creating Game Art for 3D Engines uses 3ds Max as the modeling and animation solution, Photoshop for the textures, and Torque (TGE 1.5) for the game engine.
Covers how to model, unwrap, texture, rig, animate, export, and script characters, pickups, and weapons.
Published in October 2007
332 pages, 241 full-color figures
Retails for $49, but Amazon price is usu. about $32
Book CD included with 90 minutes of video tutorials
Here is a link to more information about the book:
www.3dcognition.com/book.htm
Creating Game Art for 3D Engines uses 3ds Max as the modeling and animation solution, Photoshop for the textures, and Torque (TGE 1.5) for the game engine.
Covers how to model, unwrap, texture, rig, animate, export, and script characters, pickups, and weapons.
Published in October 2007
332 pages, 241 full-color figures
Retails for $49, but Amazon price is usu. about $32
Book CD included with 90 minutes of video tutorials
Here is a link to more information about the book:
www.3dcognition.com/book.htm
#2
02/04/2009 (5:14 pm)
you should make one for xsi i hate seeing everything with max even though xsi is the easiest to use i would still like a book for fast reference.
#3
@Brandon - whoa! You got me thinking about xsi, I did a little searching around, and I hadn't realized until now that Autodesk bought them last October for a mere 35 million! Now Autodesk has the big three (Max, Maya also) under one roof. I guess the idea of "partnering together, instead of competing" sold them on this. Too much.
02/04/2009 (6:41 pm)
@Jaimi - Thanks, and that is a great suggestion. I actually had the thought of doing a vehicle chapter along the way but the publisher had pretty strict deadline control and I barely got it done in time it as it was. Yeah the video tutorials are really there to help explain some of the more confusing aspects to the process like skinning and using Multires LOD for levels of detail. @Brandon - whoa! You got me thinking about xsi, I did a little searching around, and I hadn't realized until now that Autodesk bought them last October for a mere 35 million! Now Autodesk has the big three (Max, Maya also) under one roof. I guess the idea of "partnering together, instead of competing" sold them on this. Too much.
#4
02/04/2009 (6:49 pm)
yup autodesk is owning all the good 3d programs i just hope they don't mess up xsi like they have with the others they own. xsi is far better to me then all of them but that's because they was not run off of autodesk. i would of never done the deal for 35 million its worth way more then that for xsi i think.
#5
02/09/2009 (11:28 am)
does this book explain how to make collision mesh's, and how to export into torques object format? (.dts i think)
#6
02/09/2009 (1:48 pm)
@Tom - yes, the book describes how to make and associate collision meshes to the models, as well as how export both DTS (shape) and DSQ (animation) files. It also demonstrates exactly how to script the DTS and DSQ files so that Torque will be able to find them at launch time.
#7
02/14/2009 (9:16 am)
will the book be just as helpful to torqueX users? Theres not much documentation on TorqueX, but I've found that alot of TGE tutorials coincide with TorqueX for 3D content.
#8
I will say this though, which might be useful to know; the book is about 60% on how to create your game assets in Max, around 30% on specific scripting solutions (Torque script) and techniques for getting the assets to work right in the Torque engine, and a little less than 10% on the Photoshop side of things (texturing).
02/15/2009 (7:41 am)
@Alexander, I don't know if the book will be of much help with Torque X, as I have no experience with Torque X and at the moment haven't the time to invest into it. Certainly the creation of the assets themselves would not change, but I am not sure about any scripting issues. Perhaps someone else who is familiar with both Torque and Torque X can chime in here.I will say this though, which might be useful to know; the book is about 60% on how to create your game assets in Max, around 30% on specific scripting solutions (Torque script) and techniques for getting the assets to work right in the Torque engine, and a little less than 10% on the Photoshop side of things (texturing).
#9
Sounds great. One last important question for me. Does dts exporting setup/hierarchy work the same across all the engines (TGE, TGEA, and TorqueX)?
02/15/2009 (7:56 am)
@BradSounds great. One last important question for me. Does dts exporting setup/hierarchy work the same across all the engines (TGE, TGEA, and TorqueX)?
#10
I haven't tried TGEA yet but just now read through the docs - and it sounds like they use exactly the same setup / hierarchy as TGE for both DTS (shapes) and DSQ's (animation files). In fact the link they use for DTS modeling etc for TGEA is the same as the standard TGE uses.
But I believe materials are handled separately and differently. They have to be defined - here is a link about it:
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TSE/Materials/Mapping_Materials_to_Textures
I'm pretty sure Torque X (3D) uses the same process as far as DTS but to be honest I get a little confused with the docs - I clicked on the doc for "Getting a Model (DTS) and Animation (DSQ) into the engine and it was empty. "You've followed a link to a page that doesn't exist yet". Then I went to Torque X resources and it too was empty. Not easy to find answers this way. Many pages are just empty with subject headings. It "seems" like they are waiting for the community to write the docs. Perhaps Torque X is going to get a docs facelift once TGEA is in shape and caught up.
If anyone knows about any caveats with TorqueX DTS exporting setup/hierarchy, please chime in.
HTH
02/16/2009 (10:22 am)
@AlexanderI haven't tried TGEA yet but just now read through the docs - and it sounds like they use exactly the same setup / hierarchy as TGE for both DTS (shapes) and DSQ's (animation files). In fact the link they use for DTS modeling etc for TGEA is the same as the standard TGE uses.
But I believe materials are handled separately and differently. They have to be defined - here is a link about it:
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TSE/Materials/Mapping_Materials_to_Textures
I'm pretty sure Torque X (3D) uses the same process as far as DTS but to be honest I get a little confused with the docs - I clicked on the doc for "Getting a Model (DTS) and Animation (DSQ) into the engine and it was empty. "You've followed a link to a page that doesn't exist yet". Then I went to Torque X resources and it too was empty. Not easy to find answers this way. Many pages are just empty with subject headings. It "seems" like they are waiting for the community to write the docs. Perhaps Torque X is going to get a docs facelift once TGEA is in shape and caught up.
If anyone knows about any caveats with TorqueX DTS exporting setup/hierarchy, please chime in.
HTH
Associate Jaimi McEntire
King of Flapjacks
Keep up the good work!