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General => Open Discussion => Topic started by: caKus on June 08, 2019, 10:46:50 AM

Title: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: caKus on June 08, 2019, 10:46:50 AM
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.
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: WAS on June 08, 2019, 01:16:00 PM
This is rather interesting. Going to be watching this thread.
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: Oshyan on June 08, 2019, 07:27:50 PM
So what you are doing is essentially performing a sort of photogrammetry on Terragen renders? Or have I misunderstood. Definitely interesting regardless.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: caKus on June 09, 2019, 05:25:21 AM
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.
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: Oshyan on June 09, 2019, 01:40:56 PM
Ah, I see. Yes, that makes sense for simple and quick geometry.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: WAS on June 09, 2019, 05:51:02 PM
You are creating your own engine for your simulator?
Title: Re: RetroTG : using TG in games
Post by: caKus on June 10, 2019, 05:49:14 AM
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.