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Navigating big scenes
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.
Navigating big scenes // New Users
Post by PrimMac // May 1, 2006, 9:02am
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PrimMac
Total Posts: 78
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Hello everyone,
I am trying to add houses and other objects to a terrain I made using another program. Because the terrain is so big, it takes me a long time to navigate from one side of the terrain to another using the traditional navigation tools. I tried changing the scene units to meters, kilometers, miles, etc. but it made no difference. Is there an easier way to move in big scenes that doesn't involve hours of moving the mouse in one direction? Thanks.
P.S. I don't want to use a scaled down object, because it is supposed to be a game level, and I don't want to have to stretch it when it is loaded by the game engine. |
Post by Alien // May 1, 2006, 9:29am
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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1 way to do it would be to put some simple primitives [eg a cube] at relevant places, name them according to various parts of the scene, select them in the Object Info wotsit, then use the ZoomToFit (http://ckgamefactory.hp.infoseek.co.jp/tsxe.html) plugin to zoom to that location. I haven't actually done this [not had any large scenes to navigate around], but it ought to work. |
Post by frank // May 1, 2006, 9:37am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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PrimMac: Another thing to consider would be a "local" camera to have around certain buildings or objects. Instead of draaaaaagging the eye/view all that way, you could select the camera closest to where you want to go, and view from it. You can also set the camera to Look-At the object so that you can easily rotate around it. |
Post by Johny // May 1, 2006, 9:42am
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Johny
Total Posts: 672
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How about create a temporary plane that bigger like that terrain. put terrain on other layer and the hide the layer (or hide the terrain obj). then you can use that plane as terrain. use navigation tool to move from one posistion of plane to other posistion. if you already on position you can unhide your terrain again.
HTH |
Post by parva // May 1, 2006, 9:51am
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parva
Total Posts: 822
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Display Options - Detail - All in Boxes
If you move, rotate or scale now the mesh convert to a wireframe cube and you can make your movements much faster. |
Post by jamesmc // May 1, 2006, 11:13am
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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he needs that camera plug in thingie WickedWitch mentioned awhile back. The one where you can switch views to different camera from a central control. It's free I think? |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // May 1, 2006, 11:39am
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
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It's OK James, I'll look it up for you! :)
You mean FindCamera. It is indeed free and can be found here:
http://ckgamefactory.hp.infoseek.co.jp/tsxe.html |
Post by jamesmc // May 1, 2006, 1:13pm
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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Thanks WWotW!
I thought about his scene dilemma and this is what I would do. I would get the actual parameters of my terrain. Then I would bring it into tS by itself. I would measure out where I want to place things, note the coordinates where those are. I would double check the display value under file to match the size of the terrain. 2024X2024 or w/e.
I would then make an top view image plane of the terrain and reduce the file size as much as I could using low res, outline if possible. I would bring the outlined terrain into the new scene and use the image plane to place my props and objects where I had previously recorded my coordinates.
This might help with placement. I would save my objects as a group after they were placed. Then reload the full terrain and load in the grouped objects. I have not tried this, but something to think about I suppose. |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // May 1, 2006, 2:26pm
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
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Just a thought, and I might be off track here a bit, but if you want them to take up less screen space, why not just decrease the size of the objects (divide by ten, or whatever, in the object info panel) and then when you've finished what you want to do just multiply the size back for export? |
Post by spacekdet // May 1, 2006, 8:39pm
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Parva's suggestion is an excellent one, as is Frank's about using multiple cameras. Keep in mind that you can switch the main window to a top view, open a small view, select a camera, change the small view to 'View From Object' (this works with any object, BTW, not just cameras), and then Object Move/drag the camera to where you want it in the main window. The small view will automatically update as you move the camera. when you get it where you want, switch the main window to use the camera view for full sized editing goodness. Combined with the 'Boxes' option Parva mentioned, and you'll be zipping across large scenes at light speed. |
Post by PrimMac // May 3, 2006, 3:36am
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PrimMac
Total Posts: 78
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Hello everyone,
Thanks for all the great suggestions. Ultimately, I was able to move where I wanted using ZoomToFit. I downloaded FindCamera but haven't tried it out yet. I will consider the other suggestions also for future projects. Again many thanks!!
Sincerely,
PrimMac |
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