Mud-H

I have packed a pre-compiled demo of TorqueLab for those who are just curious to try it but prefer to wait for an official release to add it into their projects.

• TorqueLabDemo->TorqueLab running on Torque3D Full Template

Simply extract them anywhere and launch with TorqueLabDemo.exe. To use TorqueLab simply press F11 from in-game (Launch editor directly FullTemplate options not tested).

You will notice it take a while to load the first time, it's because by default TorqueLab scripts are loaded only the first time F11 is pressed, there's a other ways to load it and they will be listed in the incoming documentation. So don't panic if it's seem to freeze when launching the editor, it just loading the "un-optimized" scripts.

What take long is that some .gui files have generated data that were saved when I saved the .gui and most of them are irrevelant to the current loaded levels causing T3D to make useless checks. (Rough explanation) I have now added a presave check system that check for a presave method for the GUI torque is about to save and I add cleanup script in there but very few Gui have it implemented. Some (2) of the .gui included have more than 30 000 lines, I will make sure those are fixed in next release...

I have just updated the repository to allow anyone to give a try to current TorqueLab version. Please keep in mind that it's still an early release and it's not fully optimized or bug free. My goal is to make the v0.5 version the first "serious" release with optimized scripts and clean UI. Also, there's no documentation for now but I started to work on something and I will make it available as soon as I fell it's a good enough. So for now, it's "use as it and at your risk.You shouldn't worry to much but I recommend making a backup of your levels (even if I never corrupted my level files with it).

The installation is very simple and does not required any changes in your script so if you want to try it and keep the default editors ready in case you need them, just rename the tools folder to something else and you would only need to delete the TorqueLab tlab and tools folder, then renaming the default editor folder to tools and your project will be back with the default editor.

Where to get the files?

GitHub TorqueLab page: https://github.com/NordikLab/TorqueLab

There's 3 branches: master, develop and live-dev. For now they are all the same but the master will always be the safer to use.

• master -> Latest stable branch

• develop -> Latest features untested

• live-dev -> Current status of my working version (Not recommended since sometime I could make a commit of a bugged version so I can debug it

How I install it?

Visit: https://github.com/NordikLab/TorqueLab/wiki/Installation

To resume it:

Script side:

Get the files, delete the default editor tools/ folder, add the TorqueLab tlab/ and tools/ folder.

Source code changes:

You need to apply some minor code changes and recompile your project

• Use the patch provided in root (TorqueLab_T3D_3_8_v1.diff(Same as .patch, could be renamed to .patch if it make you feel better)

• Manually using the file changes view page

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone try it, I'd like to know how it goes, maybe I have missed something. If you feel there's some information missing for the installation process, let me know and I will update it.

Again, it's not an "official" release, I have just make my current version available. There's some incomplete features and some issues that need to be fixed left in there, use at your own risk and backup your files to be safe... I will keep improving it and try to make a bug free master branch tomorrow.

we need a gui shader authoring solution

And what that do exactly? :) I haven't do anything about shaders yet but it's in my plan to examine what could be done. I find it hard as now to figure what shaders can be used and how to use them... There's the PostFX manager with few PostFX shaders options, I'm planning to update it and add some good PostFX shaders ressources like the outliner/silouhette shader I used for Boost!.

So can you explained better about what a gui shader authoring solution would do? Is it a GUI to deal with Shader authoring?if so, I still need some explanation to what Shader Authoring is... :oops:

Today, I have improved my initial "SideBar" File browser and universal Scene Objects Tree. As is it now, It's not really a new features, the File Browser work mostly like the SceneEditor "Meshes" creator tab and the Scene Objects Tree is a replacement of the Scene Editor Tree. Why making replacements? I wanted to have access to those features from other plugins without having to duplicate them individually. This make the default SceneEditor useless since the Scene tree also have it own inspector, I'm not fully decided about where I'm going with that, I'm thinking about making the new side inspector an universal inspector for all plugins. There's no need for each plugins to have their own inspector since they are never used at same time.

The only concern I have with that system for now, is that after all those years, it's weird to have the inspector and scene tree on the left. Later, I will define differents layout to choose from and I'd like to develop a good drag and dropping system for the different UI parts (Similar to 3ds Max, Substance designer and many other tools.

So I made a new video showing the progress made on the sidebar and it also show some general UI uniformization progress with a new more simple Dark theme.

ab_OoSAUdVg

As always, your feedbacks/suggestions are welcome! Also, I will try to get a new alpha release available for those willing to give it a try next Thursday.

Help requested:

I have try to make the meshes drag and drop to add the mesh into the scene at cursor position but I haven't been able to get good enough result. I tried using the EditTSControl::unproject(Point3F Screenposition) but I don't understand what's the depth (z) parameter for the screen position. I got no time really to search more about it but maybe someone can help me and tell me how to get a good world position from the cursor position. :)

Why isn't this the default editor already?

As Duion said, it's not ready for public release. There's no documentations and I prefer to avoid spending time fixing the differents issues user found. I will try to set a new alpha release next week for those curious about it but the support would be limited...

Also, my goal isn't really to make it become the default T3D editor but to offer a good replacement. I will have nothing against making it default if I'm asked but I'm worried that my scripting style is not the same as default editor scripting. Anyway, once everything is cleaned I will be less worried so only god know for now...

Sketch tool; Be able to move vertexs independably, be able to control size and rotation numerically, be able to make it (or not) collide or be renderable, be able to move pivot point.

Well I had a quick look about how the current ConvexEditor(SketchTool) work and I don't think it's close of allowing something like that. I'm really not skilled enough in C++ and object manipulation to consider making a full featured sketch tool but if someone get something working, I will be pleased to include it.

Just make notes while you change or implement something, you don't need to write a full documentation, maybe someone else will help out with it, but people need to know where to start.

I totally agree and I will try to start keeping track of the changes. I will setup a new Wiki and start adding some informations about TorqueLab.

Just watched the vid, and wanted to say:<3

Wow, yeah, I'm sorry to say I hadn't really followed this thread before even though I saw it come up, but great work on this! Very impressed. Looking forward to using it.

Thanks for your comments, it's really appreciated and help me getting the motivation to make it available to others ASAP

Something I did a while back to get in-game dimensions was to add a basic 1meter(unit) cube and scale it to the size I want. Then you simply set the same scaling to the cube in your 3D modelling tool. Nothing magic but it worked.

Also with the Transform Tools, you can get the dimensions of shapes so you can use a box as a ruler...

Not sure if it help, I guess you are looking for a more precise method.

Yeah, I fully understand but I have a time issue... As now, I have nothing documented, I started something a while back but never found the time to extend the document. My current priority is to make the editor stable and adapted to my projects needs. TorqueLab is now quite stable and it's why I decided to start moving forward to v0.5. (That doesn't mean much like that but It's a major step from my point of view). I will try to start documenting the new/changed features soon and also tell a bit about my future plans.

For now, I need to finish the scripts cleanup and make a uniform UI layout, after that I should be able to focus on a possible Public release with a basic guides to help the transition from the standard editors for those willing to take the risk :twisted:

It take a lot longer than anticipated, at start I tought it would have been done in 1 month or so... I'm really bad in estimating development time but TorqueLab is a lot more complex than what I had in mind at start.

And your feedback and suggestion are always welcomed. I started watching videos about CryEngine editors and it's giving me a lot of ideas for the future.

Fixed! :oops:

I gave a closer look to the exported COllada and I think I have find what's wrong. Some space seem missing between some coordinate. Here the Position Coordinate for a base cube made with ConvexEditor:

 <float_array id="ConvexBox-Position-array" count="24">1.1940 -1.4000 1.1492-1.1940 -1.4000 1.1492-1.1940 1.4000 1.14921.1940 1.4000 1.1492-1.1940 -1.4000 -1.14921.1940 -1.4000 -1.14921.1940 1.4000 -1.1492-1.1940 1.4000 -1.1492
                   </float_array>

As you can see, some coordinate are "glued" making number with 2 dots. (-1.14921.1940). I test various 3D tool and one of them gave me a hint:

// complain if the index count doesn't fit
   if( expectedPointCount > 0 && indices.size() != expectedPointCount * numOffsets) {
       if (pPrimType == Prim_Lines) {
           // HACK: We just fix this number since SketchUp 15.3.331 writes the wrong 'count' for 'lines'
           ReportWarning( "Expected different index count in <p> element, %d instead of %d.", indices.size(), expectedPointCount * numOffsets);
           pNumPrimitives = (indices.size() / numOffsets) / 2;
       } else
           ThrowException( "Expected different index count in <p> element.");

   } else if( expectedPointCount == 0 && (indices.size() % numOffsets) != 0)
	ThrowException( "Expected different index count in <p> element.");

This is where the tool failed: Expected different index count in

element.

If you take my previous example, the count is 24 but with the bad coordinate, it doesn't fit. When you count with fixed coordinate, the result is 24. I will now attempt to fix it and see how it goes :?

EDIT: I gave up after 2 hours of trial and errors... I got my ConvexBox to load in Open3DViewer but with 3 triangles instead of 12... Something seem wrong the way T3D export the Collada, it's not just about the missing spaces in coordinate. I will need to read more about COllada format to keep investigating (Hoping someone with better skills can get through it)

Yeah I tried a while back to figure what is wrong in the Collada file by comparing with a working one and couldn't figure what was wrong. It's broken for a long time now, would be nice if someone find the problem so we could expect a fix in an incoming release.

It could make the SketchTool quite usefull if we could export the Convex Shapes to have size reference for some modelling, without that feature, the SketchTool is quite useless :(

Recently, I figured how to use the ColMesh prefix in 3ds max to export complex collision meshes without having to use the ShapeEditor convex hull collision. I guess it's the same for other 3D tools. I'm not sure if it's a good way or not but I guess if you use a quite low polygon shape, it should be fine. Here's a screenshot of the hierarchy needed to have Collision Meshes working as soon as you add your DAE shape to your game.

http://mud-h.com/miscweb/t3dforum/Misc/3dsmax_ColMeshHierarchy.jpg

(You don't have to add the exact shape name after the ColMesh prefix, I do that because I have a batch export scripts which export the shape and the ColMesh if found. I should share it soon, just need to make it more friendly so anyone can use it)

Wow! Already 2 months since last update. Time fly fast...

Don't worry, TorqueLab isn't dead and it have progressed during those 2 months. A lot of new features have been added but they are not polished and it need a major clean up to achieved a releasable status. For that reason, I decided to start focusing on a next v0.5 release and stop adding new stuff (I don't think I can just stop but I will try to slow down...).

First step is to clean up the UI and make it look uniform with a more basic dark theme. Today, I started working on a new theme inspired mostly by CryEngine Editors but also some others like Shiva, LevelEditor and more... Now that I'm in control of most of the editor scripts, I can start experiment with different layout. Today, I added a Left column in which I have put a Scene Objects tree and inspector (like the standard Scene Editor). My goal is to replace the Scene Editor with it and make it work with all plugins using filters to list appropriate objects. Also, my goal is to add a tab page which would serve as an asset browser allowing to drag n drop models in the scene and textures on Material Editor maps for the first phase. If it work, I guess I will find more uses...

I made a quick preview video of current status. It show few of the new features that have been added during the last 2 months, for the others, I need to fix the UI so they look better.

What's in the video?

• Start of new Dark theme

• Start of new layout with collapsable left column

• Preset system for the Visibility layers

• NavMesh Editor intergration

• Automatic material texture map update if maps are found using predefined suffixes

• New Scene Builder plugin to make it easier to add new TSStatic objects and prefabs

• Force to grid features (Automatic on drag end or manually with a button for selected objects)

CmB-HwSzUZs

Ok enough for now, I will try to polish it so I can set a up-to-date release for those willing to try it. For now, there's no new release so to test what you see in the video, you need to wait a bit...

If you have any suggestions for TorqueLab, you are welcomed to share them with me and I will see what I can do.

hey Duion, thanks for the reply. How do you fix them by hand? Is there info anywhere?

+1 :geek:

Few weeks ago, I made a research about it and I think the new GTK Radiant 1.5 can export to .obj (It have some limitation like Patches won't export...). After, you'd need to convert those .obj to .DAE with any 3D tool and it shoudl load in T3D. (I haven't tried yet...) .

Some links that can help:

GTKRadiant page: http://icculus.org/gtkradiant/

GTKRadiant GitHub: https://github.com/TTimo/GtkRadiant

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?325871-okay-did-you-know-gtkradiant-to-unity

From that unity link:

HowTo:
- use gtkRadiant 1.5 (has brushexport 2 )
- select all the "brushwork" you want to export (i read "patches" dont work)
(in gtkRadiant, you can draw a box around everything you want to select and click "select inside")
- gtkRadiant -> "plugins, brushexport 2, export as obj, "collapse"
- .obj -> import to blender 
- automerge all the vertices, flip all normals
(all solid geometry, each face will be turned into a plane, and the planes seem to be inverted for me)
- export to .obj

I miss good old W:ET mapping which introduced me to game development :P

Another way to make grass is to use a green background around the grass and use an alpha channel, export as DDS and then u get a green edge when importing into a game engine rather than a black edge

Yeah, that's the first thing I tought when I went to bed... I had try to export with a alpha channel mask but I think I let the background transparent which make it useless. I guess that's how you make it work with TGA, maybe I should have a try to see if substance designer can export T3D ready transparent TGA.

Sometime just stopping a little and thinking can save a lot of time. By adding a green background to a transparent PNG and then adding a alpha channel mask in Substance designer works like a charm. (Exported DDS, PNG and TGA look the same) It also fix a issue I had with the exported DDS which had a weird blue color overlay...

Use this tool http://www.reinerstilesets.de/programme/halo-remover/

Thanks, I will have a try to see what it does. It's supposed to fix my issue with PNGs?

Halo Remover worked great to fix the pngs transparency, better than my photoshop "fix". But it still need extra operation that I would like to avoid, it's break the power of substance designer... (Off-Topic: Anyone tried to implement substance support to T3D yet?)

Another way to make grass is to use a green background around the grass and use an alpha channel, export as DDS and then u get a green edge when importing into a game engine rather than a black edge

Yeah, that's the first thing I tought when I went to bed... I had try to export with a alpha channel mask but I think I let the background transparent which make it useless. I guess that's how you make it work with TGA, maybe I should have a try to see if substance designer can export T3D ready transparent TGA.

Thanks for the translation but it doesn't make me understand much more. The rendering stuff and language is in my "Things to learn someday" list... I don't even know what Deferred rendering mean... (And don't bother to explain, I will get to it one day).

Keep up your good work, it's really appreciated when you don't understand rendering process :roll: (Normal with heightmap data would be a nice addition to T3D :) )

Use this tool http://www.reinerstilesets.de/programme/halo-remover/

Thanks, I will have a try to see what it does. It's supposed to fix my issue with PNGs?

I actually had a thread that went over what I was doing for my foliage, here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18

It occurs to me I forgot to get around to uploading the source blender files I had though, for examples. I'll do that today.

But I've found this method produces pretty good results, with a bit of mussing, because you render the grass blades yourself, instead of sourcing from a picture, the edges are perfectly crisp in the alpha channel.

Thanks for reminding me about this ressource. I will have a try as soon as I find time to... :|

I'm having an issue with my terrain texture blending, I don't know exactly when it have appeared but I have test on a fresh code base and it appear right after I add the PBR branch to my code. I think it might be from the latest changes in PBR branch or T3D Development branch. (But T3D development without the PBR code added blend the terrain textures fine...)

Here's a screenshot of what's happening:

http://mud-h.com/miscweb/t3dforum/Misc/terrainblendingissue.jpg

You have any idea what's causing it and if it's related to the PBR code? Maybe I forgot a needed script change...

Edit: I only need to add the PBR branch, right? What are the PBR_LightProbeLights , PBR_LPV and pbr_lpv_wteness_bbq branches?

Edit2: Ok, It seem to not be related to the PBR code directly, I have compiled the PBR branch alone and blending is working fine. I need to figure where I messed up...

Edit3: I wrote to fast, the issue is there when I load an example terrain from http://www.torqueterrains.com/ .So should be related to something in the material or mission file.

Edit4: I think I have track down where the blending issue come from: https://github.com/Azaezel/Torque3D/commit/66470605a70d245356c7c04d8e7ab68f7e0a20e7

The commit just before that have terrain blending working fine, but from this commit and after, it's not. I have been playing a lot with terrain materials on the Stock PBR template and it's hard to understand what's wrong... Seem like it's related to the order of the materials in some way...

Edit5: I have found what is causing the issue in that commit, I have rollback the following change and it works fine now :) I really don't know what it does, I guess you'll have a better understanding of the reason I had terrain blending problem... Do it happen for everyone or just few?

-   Var *color = NULL;
-   if (fd.features[MFT_isDeferred])
-       color = (Var*) LangElement::find( getOutputTargetVarName(ShaderFeature::RenderTarget1) );
-   else
-       color = (Var*) LangElement::find( getOutputTargetVarName(ShaderFeature::DefaultTarget) );
+   Var *color = (Var*) LangElement::find( getOutputTargetVarName(ShaderFeature::DefaultTarget) );

I'm experimenting with some new grass and I'm having problem to figure the best way to create grass materials. I always had problem with my grass, sometime it was quite good but other time it had a alpha surrounding issue (Black edge in general). Today, I search a bit about it and found more about that issue, it seem to be related to the Matte transparent color of the PNG exported from Photoshop. I figured how to change the Matte color in Photoshop by exporting the PNG using "Save for web". Here's an image showing the comparaison between stock PNG export and Save For Web PNGs. I also have the same issue with Substance Designer which always export the PNG with the black Matte color.

http://mud-h.com/miscweb/t3dforum/Misc/GrassPNGIssue.png

So that "Save for Web" export thing seem to do the job for now but I'd like to be able to export directly from substance designer. I also tried TGA but got the same Black Matte issue...

I'm wondering how other T3D developers proceed to get good grass. Anyone here have a better way to get good grass?

I still don't understand what happened but I have been able to figure how to avoid the crash. Seem like something was wrong in my levels and I think it's related to my yesterday PBR experiments. I still can't figure what in the level make the game crash, seem like there's different objects causing the problems. For one, I replaced the LevelInfo object with the one from the EmptyRoom and it fixed it for this level. My LevelInfo had no LevelEnvMap map maybe it's a reason of the crash but for other levels it didn't fixed it. I also suspect the Sun and ScatterSky object of other level was causing problems... Anyway, it's fine now and I'm starting to work on fresh levels. I just wanted to post an update about how I "fixed" it in case someone experience the same crash.

I have messed up with something related to the weapon in my game project and I can't figure what's wrong... Maybe someone here can help me understanding what's happening.

Everything was working fine, then the game start crashing when the mission start. After some testing I figured it was related to the weapon mounting, everything is fine until I mount a weapon on my player.

I get a AssertFatal in shaderOP.cpp (end of GenOp::GenOp):

	// store langElement
     LangElement *elem = va_arg(args, LangElement* );
     AssertFatal( elem, "NULL argument." );
     mElemList.push_back( elem );
  }

  va_end( args );
}

Then it keep "breaking" in the GenOp::Print :

void GenOp::print( Stream &stream )
{
  for( U32 i=0; i<mElemList.size(); i++ )
  {
     mElemList[i]->print( stream ); //<- Break here
  }
}

I know the 2nd issue is related the assertFatal but I don't understand what's happening. I tried to find something wrong in the weapons materials but everything seem fine (Those are still unmodified T3D weapons). Anyone have a hint about what is causing this crash? Maybe it's relate to the PBR code, I will try a compile with PBR removed...

Someone understand what that code is doing and can explain it roughly?

OK good to know as I'm a noob about rendering vocabulary...

So those sliders are for giving a metal-ish looks to textures without having to create PBR materials? You can get the same effects by playing with the composition maps but with better precision with the RGB channels? (I'm having trouble to explain what I mean here :oops: ) Do those sliders are linked to a texture or they are simply acting like a plain GreyScale bitmap?

Do you have any other example of T3D PBR materials to share other than those included in template (art/shapes/textures)?

I'm back into playing with PBR and I'm not sure how I should deal with the texture maps. Is it normal that the Smoothness and Metalness slider only change something when either the metal map or smoothness map is empty? So if you use a composite PBR map, those sliders are useless?

I tought it was a bad scripting in my TorqueLab editor but it does the same in the FullTemplate with latest PBR code.