Old DTS Overview

From TDN

This page is a Work In Progress.

The purpose of this page is to lay out all the capabilities of the DTS format, so that as a Torque artist you will know exactly which tools are available to you, and which aren't. This document is application-agnostic; the information in it applies to all modelling packages.

DTS stands for Dynamix 3space Shape. It is the way that Torque handles polygonal objects for your 3D game. The DTS format originated at Dynamix, where 3DS Max was the program of choice, so the 3DS Max exporter in itself defines what information a DTS can contain. All other exporters are variations on the 3DS Max one.

There are 3 main types of DTS shapes: a static mesh, a skinned mesh (usually a character), and a vehicle. There are important differences in how the objects should be set up in your 3D application to work correctly as that specific type of DTS. Please note that the FILE FORMAT is the same in all cases; these are simply cases of how the engine uses the data from the DTS format in a shape. If your Torque project has additional object types, they may impose different conventions. Check with your coder.

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The DTS Hierarchy

The basic hierarchy of a DTS Shape is as shown below.

Nodes are handled differently in each program, but in general can consist of null points, locators, dummies, bones, meshes, or other. The "base" node is the base of the DTS shape. It tells the exporter that everything below it in the heirarchy should be considered as part of the whole Shape. Below it are markers to tell the exporter how many levels of detail (LOD) it should look for and create. Detail markers and Collision markers are identical, except that collision markers have negative numbers. (for example, "detail1" or "collision-1").

The "start" node is the parent of everything that will actually be part of your shape. Under the start node you will have your polygonal meshes, any heirarchical nodes (such as bones) needed for animation, and any additional nodes (such as mount nodes, explained below). The polygonal meshes include the actual visible objects, as well as collision objects, and line of sight objects. The only exception to this rule is a skinned mesh (attached to a skeleton, which is comprised of nodes linked to the start node).

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