RTS Environment Pack #1 Documentation

I wanted to do a swamp environment and began work on it only to discover that Age of Empires III beat me to the idea. So, I took a different approach. I started looking at the swamps of South East Asia as a setting. I knew I still wanted a Mayan/Aztec style temple, and wasn't going to compromise on that, but liked the dramatically different look of the Aasian swamps I had been studying.

If you pitch the camera to allow you to see the horizon in this map, you will notice tall rounded hills in the distance. They are inspired by similar formations that can be found in China, and are an excellent means of sculpting the three dimensional space and creating and interesting backdrop. Unless you implement a from of camera movement dampening (soften the up and down movement of the camera), I do not recommend that these sort of formations be created within the playable map space of and RTS game, because it will cause some crazy camera movement when the camera transitions from the low terrain to the peaks and back again.

The Temple structures come in three different levels of collision complexity. This is to provide options for the game developer so that they can select the most efficient version to satisfy their design needs.

With Lava Land, I departed a bit form the realistic theme that runs through the other settings in the RTS Environment pack. I tied to keep the artistic style in the same vein, but went for a bit of an extraordinary setting that would be pretty unlikely to exist in the world we know.

I wasn't 100% sure of what I was going to try to achieve when I started this environment (which breaks my first rule of design and development), but I had a rough idea.

I knew I wanted it to be stark but beautiful, and I knew I wanted to make extensive use of the particle system. I think I got close on the first goal, but not knowing jack about Torque particle system when I started, I know that I could do a lot more with it, now that I've learned my way around it a bit.

I encourage you to experiment with the fx I have provided. I have included as many detailed comments within the "lavasmoke.cs" script as possible, to help you understand how the data blocks function ...DISCLAIMER! My comments in the script are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. I got my information from multiple sources, but mostly from trial and error.

The trees worked out better than I expected, and the overall effect is pretty solid.

The American South West Desert, or at least elements of it.

The deserts of the south west are extremely diverse. I could make a large content pack dedicated soley to the scope of environments that can be found there.

I have tried to give examples in this demo map of a wide range of environmental elements that can be created with the assets provided, the more I experimented, the more variations I came up with, to include many that I simple didn't have time to add to the demo level.

You can make beautiful maps just using the various sand and rough ground texture combined with the small vegetation and fxShapeReplicator (and the fxFoliageReplicator for those working in an FPS build of Torque Game Engine).

In this level I provide several examples of fxShapeReplicator use. I never did get to create the blowing tumble weeds and circling vultures.

The rock objects come in two different levels of collision complexity. This is to provide options for the game developer so that they can select the most efficient version to satisfy their design needs.

I wanted to create a winter environment that was a little different than what is typically seen in video games ...pine trees and snow. I was strongly inspired by one of my all time favorite paintings "Arcane Summons" by the late great Keith Parkinson. As well as countless hours spent running around in similarly leafless winter forest as a kid. If you want some inspiration for an outdoor environment, spend some time exploring nature. Its time well spent.

I couldn't resist a little Norse influence in this winter wonder land, so I created the Rune Stones as well. Most of the stones come in snow covered and non snow covered variety so that you can make use of them in the other environments.

The rock objects come in two different levels of collision complexity. This is to provide options for the game developer so that they can select the most efficient version to satisfy their design needs.

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