Timeframe: circa 2000 – 2006
Position: Developer
Technologies: C++, trueSpace SDK, Torque3D, gameSpace SDK
Status: No longer active. Initially released as part of plugin collections sold by trueSpace developer Caligari
The Story:
In the 90s, when I was in the Marines, I had wanted to get into 3D art. I became an avid user of Caligari’s trueSpace, and Bryce3D. Wanting to merge the functionality of sculpting terrain directly in trueSpace, I began to brush up on my C++ skills, and created my first plugin: trueScape v1.0.
trueScape v1.0 was a semi-real-time terrain sculpting tool that updated between brush strokes on the displayed height map. It sold pretty well, and I pretty much immediately began looking at making a second version.
v2.0 introduced several times (apx. 6x) the amount of bells and whistles, and shipped as part of a plugin assortment pack sold by Caligari.
After those, trueGrass- an object placement plugin- was created, and sold in a subsequent plugin pack.
strataScape was a companion app to trueScape v1 and 2 that aided in creating textures of strata.
edgeTurn was made shortly after that to give a one-click functionality to turning internal edges in polygons.
edgeExtrude was also made, but not released.
worldScape was a massive upgrade I had planned for trueSpace, but with a dwindling market, I decided to shelve it.
Last but not least, mapExporter was created and released as part of a plugin pack for gameSpace by Caligari, to enable direct export of objects made in gameSpace into the Torque3D game engine.
These were all good learning experiences, and by the time I wrote the last plugin, I had begun to dive into game development itself, though now I would come into it with the ability to write my own tools when needed- which is something I do rather often.
