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Something to look forward to...
Something to look forward to...
| Name: | Thomas Buscaglia |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Apr 10, 2007 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Thomas Buscaglia |
Blog post
Hey, guys. I realized I haven't written a .plan in a little bit, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to let you guys in on a little bit of what I've been working on. And this time: more pictures and less complaining about being sleepy! First up, the top-secret project I've been working on...
A lot of you guys in the community know about it already, or at least know it's been in the works, but it's just about out the door so it seems safe enough to officially let you guys in on it. Without further adieu...
That's right, a full-blown platformer starter kit for Torque X. Too good to be true? Yes! But it's still true, and it's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Some of the highlights of the kit are: full state-based platformer physics, pickup and inventory systems, actor control layer and AI foundation, a simple checkpoint system, parallax scroller manager, a simplified sound management system that's integrated with the actor animation manager, a nearly-full-game demo built on the framework (art and sound assets included), and of course full source.
For those of you are already in the throes of Torque X development, rest assured that all the functionality in the kit is put together using that sweet TX component system we've all come to know and love. Starting a new platformer project will be as easy as selecting it from a list.
Other than the starter kit, I've also been working on polishing off some sweet feature additions to the 2D side of Torque X for the post-1.0 release. Most exciting are the additions of cell and key materials to Torque X, the addition of TGB-like animation controls for the camera, and the expansion of some of the animated sprite controls.
Above you can see a static sprite, tile layer, animated sprite, and several particle effects all using the same celled material.
And here you can see the results after a few calls to the camera to animate its position, zoom and rotation.
Unfortunately the changes to animated sprites all have to do with how they animate, so pictures wouldn't really show off the changes very well. Basically, you'll be able to interrupt an animation with another temporary animation and let it resume from where it was (or at any point) once the new animation is over. You can also queue up an unlimited number of animations on a single sprite. It's also possible to generate a cue to represent the current animation state of a sprite at any time which you can later use to reload that animation as it was being played.
That's about all I can really talk about for now. If you want a closer look at the platformer kit, there's a somewhat boring video on youtube of some out-of-box level building with the kit slightly sped up to be slightly less boring.
A lot of you guys in the community know about it already, or at least know it's been in the works, but it's just about out the door so it seems safe enough to officially let you guys in on it. Without further adieu...
That's right, a full-blown platformer starter kit for Torque X. Too good to be true? Yes! But it's still true, and it's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Some of the highlights of the kit are: full state-based platformer physics, pickup and inventory systems, actor control layer and AI foundation, a simple checkpoint system, parallax scroller manager, a simplified sound management system that's integrated with the actor animation manager, a nearly-full-game demo built on the framework (art and sound assets included), and of course full source.
For those of you are already in the throes of Torque X development, rest assured that all the functionality in the kit is put together using that sweet TX component system we've all come to know and love. Starting a new platformer project will be as easy as selecting it from a list.
Other than the starter kit, I've also been working on polishing off some sweet feature additions to the 2D side of Torque X for the post-1.0 release. Most exciting are the additions of cell and key materials to Torque X, the addition of TGB-like animation controls for the camera, and the expansion of some of the animated sprite controls.
Above you can see a static sprite, tile layer, animated sprite, and several particle effects all using the same celled material.
And here you can see the results after a few calls to the camera to animate its position, zoom and rotation.
Unfortunately the changes to animated sprites all have to do with how they animate, so pictures wouldn't really show off the changes very well. Basically, you'll be able to interrupt an animation with another temporary animation and let it resume from where it was (or at any point) once the new animation is over. You can also queue up an unlimited number of animations on a single sprite. It's also possible to generate a cue to represent the current animation state of a sprite at any time which you can later use to reload that animation as it was being played.
That's about all I can really talk about for now. If you want a closer look at the platformer kit, there's a somewhat boring video on youtube of some out-of-box level building with the kit slightly sped up to be slightly less boring.
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 11/29/07 - Torque X 3D Beta is here! 06/14/07 - Introducing TXB! 06/09/07 - WTF is a clipmap? 04/10/07 - Something to look forward to... 02/07/07 - About this deadline... 08/13/06 - GG: Thanks for everything 06/21/06 - Interning at GG |
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Submit your own resources!| David Higgins (Apr 10, 2007 at 05:32 GMT) |
Oh and ... great job!
| Firas (Apr 10, 2007 at 05:34 GMT) |
and can we have the design notes or design document for this game?
thanks in advance
| Rubes (Apr 10, 2007 at 05:56 GMT) |
| Todd Pickens (Apr 10, 2007 at 06:15 GMT) |
| Tom Bentz (Apr 10, 2007 at 06:31 GMT) |
| Thomas Buscaglia (Apr 10, 2007 at 06:42 GMT) |
Once the underlying 2D components are ported, it'll be a snap to port the starter kit itself (not to mention the fact that it should solve a whole slew of irritating problems with TGB in general - including a whole lot of the quirks with the physics and collision system some of you guys have been noticing).
I'm not sure if this is something we've talked about openly yet, but Pat Wilson has spent some time getting the C++ tech component-friendly, so it would just be a matter of finding time to make it happen. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done at the moment. We've got a pretty intense schedule lined up, so it could be anywhere from a month to a year before we'll have time to start working on it. If there is enough demand for it in the community it might speed up the time frame. Otherwise, it would most likely be a little further down the road.
If it starts looking like it won't happen we might just hand out the older TGB starter kit in it's unfinished state to everyone and open it up as a community project until we have time to port the finished one back to TGB. That's entirely speculative, though.
Edited on Apr 10, 2007 08:59 GMT
| Tom Spilman (Apr 10, 2007 at 07:29 GMT) |
| Andre Lind (Apr 10, 2007 at 12:26 GMT) |
That's a nice idea ;)
Up it on TDN and let people solve the bugs together!
I know I would appreciate it anyways :)
| Dylan Romero (Apr 10, 2007 at 17:50 GMT) |
| Mark McCoy (Apr 10, 2007 at 17:58 GMT) |
| Dan MacDonald (Apr 10, 2007 at 22:47 GMT) |
| Jonathon Stevens (Apr 11, 2007 at 15:16 GMT) |
Quote:
Basically, you'll be able to interrupt an animation with another temporary animation and let it resume from where it was (or at any point) once the new animation is over. You can also queue up an unlimited number of animations on a single sprite.
Ah! That's exactly what I need! *slips some cash to get 1.0 to the GGTP or closed beta group early*
| Thomas Buscaglia (Apr 11, 2007 at 23:43 GMT) |
| Jonathon Stevens (Apr 11, 2007 at 23:52 GMT) |
Quote:
probably a lot of the 3D stuff.
I'd name my first born after you.. oh, wait, i already have a first born. I'd name my second born after you.. damnit, got 2 already. Fine, you can pretend I named my first born after you.
| Tom Buscaglia (Apr 12, 2007 at 21:37 GMT) |
Tom B
Edited on Apr 12, 2007 21:38 GMT
| Sean T. Boyette (Apr 30, 2007 at 20:10 GMT) |
C#, XNA, and TGBX together are awesome!
Edited on Apr 30, 2007 20:11 GMT
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