RetroTG : using TG in games

Started by caKus, June 08, 2019, 10:46:50 AM

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caKus

Hi,

I am a hobbyist, developping a sailboat simulator. For this, I need to modelize a very large piece of coastal landscape and plan to use TG4 for this. After many tries and thinking, I came to the idea of retroprocessing TG images :  I am writing a sofware that rebuild a 3D model from one or several images and data rendered by TG. This model can be then be pumped in my game engine. The first experimentations are rather interesting (but far from perfect) in term of results and performances. Here is a short video that illustrates the idea. Keep in mind that this is not an animation but a real time performance.

WAS

This is rather interesting. Going to be watching this thread.

Oshyan

So what you are doing is essentially performing a sort of photogrammetry on Terragen renders? Or have I misunderstood. Definitely interesting regardless.

- Oshyan

caKus

Photogrammetry combines two images in order to build a 3D model. Here, it is much simpler and faster : using a single spherical image and a depth map, we have enough information to build an 3D model that is covered by a mesh of triangles. Additional images (generally 2 or 3) allow to improve the quality of texturing when the camera moves.

Patrick.

Oshyan

Ah, I see. Yes, that makes sense for simple and quick geometry.

- Oshyan

WAS

You are creating your own engine for your simulator?

caKus

Yes, it may sound crazy to develop your own game engine, but it is a very enlightening project for a programmer, even if it is an unambitious game engine. It is developped in c# and directX 11, with sharpDx.