|
|
Cliff Hanger colony
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Cliff Hanger colony // Work in Progress
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Sep 20, 2007, 6:03am
|
3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
|
Well, as you already know because we discussed it in e-mail and as folks here have discovered, this project turned out to be a bit too complex to implement in time for the 1st Immersive deadline, but is certainly still showing promise for truePlay use at some point farther down the road.
It will be necessary as discussed previously to divide the overall scene into smaller scenes given the truly vast number of individual objects in the overall scene as a whole. It is, however, a do-able thing now that a script from trueBlue and Asem has emerged to make that possible recently. While that script is intended for offline scene usage, it could readily be modified to trigger an inter-portal (shared space scene) transfer just as it now initiates an offline inter-scene file transfer... in both cases one would trigger it while in First Person Navigation and not leave that mode during transfer, so it is esentially a seamless effect if the scene files are reasonably small... say 10 meg or less offline and 6 meg or less online. Larger scenes can of course be used, they just take a few seconds to load, just as it now is with loading shared space scenes when one clicks on their icons to cache them.
So not only is all not lost, in the final analysis this method allows for the creation of even more vast and elaborate overall environments or "worlds," only they must be linked together as opposed to being contained in a single scene.
Another advantage to having several smaller connected scenes is that the textures utilized can be applied far more liberally, allowing greater freedom of expression in their design unhindered by any related filesize constraints.
So while the Cliff Colony may not be ready for primetime just yet due to the genuine enormity of the project in it's current form, nevertheless it clearly shows promise as a future certainty for truePlay use and someday perhaps online use as well, and remains a project clearly worth pursuing.
Now you have more freedom to expand it even farther, to elaborate on it's design in new immersive ways, and to introduce both functional and interactive scripting to each sub-scene as well... so when this project does approach a "ready for primetime" state... it will be one genuinely wonderful place to explore for us all.
Sorry for not being able to make deadline with this, but in hindsight I believe it will wind up being for the better, for you, the scene, and all of us who will one day deeply enjoy exploring it first hand.
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by theuns // Sep 20, 2007, 11:45pm
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
Sounds great 3d... just a question about the trigger script, my scene consist of an open area of space against a rock right, so if I split the scene so that each platform is in its own scene, then you won't be able to see the other platforms from the one you are on, right? Perhaps I should make renders of the other platforms from the perspective of the one you are on and stick that on a plain that faces the platform you are on so you can see it all, even though it is static.
What would be nice is to have like a mirrior script, so that when you are on platform a and somebody else is on platform b in the shared space, then the image on the plain is like a tv screen of what is happening in platform b, like we have the tv/projector screen in the meeting room. Don't know how feasable that would be in terms of performance, although the realtime camera showing on the screen had seemed pretty fast... |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Sep 21, 2007, 6:29am
|
3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
|
Sounds great 3d... just a question about the trigger script, my scene consist of an open area of space against a rock right, so if I split the scene so that each platform is in its own scene, then you won't be able to see the other platforms from the one you are on, right? Perhaps I should make renders of the other platforms from the perspective of the one you are on and stick that on a plain that faces the platform you are on so you can see it all, even though it is static.
Now you've got it! Exactly!
When it comes to immersive scene development, ours is a world of smoke and mirrors! We can do all kinds of things with illusions, and in the specific case of simulating a majestic 360 degree volumetric panoramic vista in an outdoor cliffside environment, you can accomplish more realism with one well textured spherical skydome and one well textured ground plane than you could with any other method and still keep your indvidual scene file sizes managable!
You can have multiple scenes inside such skydome spheres all interconnected with scene loading triggers, and this way you could have (what seem to be) dimensional transport platforms or doors which when entered actually load a different scene in a different skydome... transporting your visitors from one side of the mountain to the other... each with it's own skydome and ground texture, showing different aspects of the "Virtual World" you are portraying.
What would be nice is to have like a mirrior script, so that when you are on platform a and somebody else is on platform b in the shared space, then the image on the plain is like a tv screen of what is happening in platform b, like we have the tv/projector screen in the meeting room. Don't know how feasable that would be in terms of performance, although the realtime camera showing on the screen had seemed pretty fast...
Yes, the "D3D TRT" (Direct 3D Texture Render Target) device which is used as the "Big Screen" in the Caligari truePlace Meetingroom is actually provided by Caligari as a scene file along with the trueSpace 7.51 Install. So yes, you can use it as a local display screen in a scene, or have multiple versions of it throughout your scenes (not sure of CPU effect yet -if any- though on multiple versions) and use them as surveillance camera screens of different areas of your scene... it will not yet however allow you to port images between scenes in realtime, although perhaps in time that may also be possible.
Bear in mind that the Cliff Colony is on a sheer flat vertical face but could just as easily be spread around the sides of a more cylindrically-shaped cliff face, where at the edge of each platform one could see in the distance the beginning of the next (faked by a render on a plane) and as such it could simultaneously provide a reason to enter transports and a convenient method of keeping each related scene file of a manageable size.
However long it takes to develop such interconnected scenes, the result would certainly be well worth the effort, and this new approach may even provide you with a way to incorporate non-cliff-related scenes very nicely as well, such as riverside, mountaintop, cave scenes or interstellar platforms!:D
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by theuns // Oct 2, 2007, 2:05am
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
Hey 3D, tnx for the info... will start working towards that end and see where it takes us...
In the meantime, just to get into things again, I've just made some texturing changes and some architechtual/furniture changes as well |
Post by theuns // Jan 22, 2008, 9:13pm
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
Haven't abondoned this project, its still WIP and with me getting tS6.6 I plan of loading this baby again and using the nice new features in 6.6 to continue the design...
There is still a LOT of work to be done, these scenes doesn't have NEARLY enough fine detail that I want to put into it yet, lik this pic above, I want to be able to zoom in and see small details close up such as an insect on the pot plant near the edge or a sigarette in the mouth of the worker on the platform etc...
But as I said before, wanna finish all the structures first [still need the big Council Meeting structure and housing inside the Stone Shrooms and lastly the workshops for carpenters, weavers, metal smiths etc.
expect an updated image soon :) |
Post by kena // Jan 23, 2008, 5:41am
|
kena
Total Posts: 2321
|
looking forward to your updates! |
Post by theuns // Feb 4, 2008, 12:03am
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
Just a small update...
Added some details on the lift platform to the domocile level... these guys are processing green nutrient pulp for the colony... got a whole theory about just this process which is similar to what we find in certain ant colonies where the ants use fungi to break down plante meterial and then they eat the fungi or feeding plant lice to eat the sweet liquid they excrete...
The Mecorgian on the right takes the nutri-leafs harvested from the forest and places them in the fungi-worms box. The Mecorgian worker to his left them mixes it up with his hands and the worker to his left places the lid on it.
There will be a pulley crane assembly that lifts it up and hangs it from the rope cables dangling from the domocile roof...
Next I'll do the hoist crane for the nutri-boxes and then I want to do a construction scene where a horde of Mecorgian craftsman are busy building a new platform... |
Post by jayr // Feb 4, 2008, 1:26am
|
jayr
Total Posts: 1074
|
i love the amount of thought going into this. Gives the whole much more meaing. keep up the good work theuns |
Post by theuns // Feb 4, 2008, 2:21am
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
i love the amount of thought going into this. Gives the whole much more meaing. keep up the good work theuns
tnx jayr :)
its the writer in me that comes up with all the backgrond info for the designs ;) |
Post by kena // Feb 4, 2008, 5:40am
|
kena
Total Posts: 2321
|
Colony is coming along nicely. Keep up the good work! |
Post by theuns // Feb 4, 2008, 8:28pm
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
Colony is coming along nicely. Keep up the good work!
tnx Kena :) |
Post by theuns // Feb 4, 2008, 11:38pm
|
theuns
Total Posts: 519
|
...this image shows how the crates with the harvested nutri-leafs are hung along the fibre ropes to verment and be digested by the fungi-worms for a few days until it is properly processed for Mecorgian construction...
... made a new 'light-hanging-crane' to handle the crates and it hangs from the domcile roof overhang [giant petrified rock 'shroom' ]
...don't look to closely at the angles and positions of the crates, i know they are not hanging correctly... just did a quick render to update you guys, still need to reposition it a bit to look more real...
...next image will show how the light hanging cranes gets a crate from the workers below... |
Post by kena // Feb 5, 2008, 9:54pm
|
kena
Total Posts: 2321
|
Keep up the good work here. This is a worthy world you are building! |
|
