I'm just that close to buying the Houdini Apprentice HD version for Torque and there are just a few things I'd like to know before getting myself into another nightmare.
I must say that I’m totally blown away by what Houdini can do (for the price).
1) Is anything that can be done in Houdini importable into Torque via DTS? 2) If not, what and why or any other alternatives? 3) Do we need extra add-on$ to be able to create those great effects we can see in the video tutorial section? 4) I would use Houdini to create full 3D games with TorqueX 3D. Is it a good vehicle for this? 5) What about Physics and interaction with other objects;
Like flowing water down a stream. What if the bed of the stream was made from some other terrain software and integrated into Torque. Will the water flow adapt to this other environment or does the bed have to be done exclusively into Houdini?
Well, that should cover a few things. Thanks for your help.
PS: The question mark on my keyboard is starting to fade…
1) Is anything that can be done in Houdini importable into Torque via DTS?
No, Houdini's ‘features’ are limited to what the DTS and DSQ formats support; read up on the Torque Art formats to find out what functionality is available with the two art formats.
3) Do we need extra add-on$ to be able to create those great effects we can see in the video tutorial section?
You will need a C++ coder who knows the Torque Game Engine versions, as this is the final environment for the art assets. Houdini doesn't create the ‘effects’ inside Torque, the ‘engine’ does all the realtime processing work.
5) What about Physics and interaction with other objects?
I am not certain how much of the ‘Houdini Physics’ will export…I imagine if you set up the other Rigid Body Object as a proper export and export it's animation…..I guess you could get a ‘baked’ version of a physics event inside Torque, but it would probably be much more realistic to put a physics library inside Torque, running at the same time…and use Torque for the rendering….
Hope this helps a bit, I would research up on the Art formats first!
The DTS format still holds it's own for amount of features vs. size of file pushed across a network and well, they're Torque native. Some have trouble setting up the files for export, it's a learning process…small.
Good modeling!
Ah, C++ is used for T3D and TGE, etal….I haven't dabble with those newer flavours of Torque(TorqueX, TGB, etc…), but the bottom line is you'll need a programmer to get the most out of Torque's rendering and effects. You sound ready to go! The art formats do have limits on what they're comprised of and they way they're constructed, in reference to Houdini effects ‘exporting/rendering’ to DTS/DSQ.
