Torque X 4.0 CEV - RC phase is now on!

#1 It just doesn't get better than Torque X CEV 4.0 news, We have a fully functioning project in the CEV 4.0 and it runs like a champ! Looking forward to porting it over to WP7.

Thanks for the update Pino!

#2 I cant wait to try it. I have had others ask me about this since Torque has dropped support. So you may get a few more emails.

So now we need a better example that shows how you use the FSM to create enemies and such.

#3 Great News Pino; as an associate think you could convince GG to continue sales off TX after Feb 28th ? Seems a shame that no newcomers would ever be able to join the CEV. Checking the SVN as I type. All the best and, dude you should have a donations section open on DFT, I'm more than happy to contribute to a CEV fund.

#4 Is there any chance the projects made with Torque CEV 3.1 to be converted to CEV 4.0?
So now tx is discontinued what are our licences restrictions with the CEV?

#5 @Davi: no problems, just open the 3.1.5 project in VS 2010 (after installing the new CEV and adjust the references. If your own code contains any of the broken XNA calls you'll have to correct that (on the Wiki pages of the CEV there are links to the problems you might encounter). From a licensing POV to us nothing changes, and the CEV will still be available only to Torque X licencees.

#6 Have been following the progress of this - if a bit quietly - but nice work and great news!

#7 How does one join the party?

#8 @Henry - After naively muddling my own code I'm attempting to disassemble the PSK FSM parts into an easy to use standard FSM; don't hold your breath but working on it =)

#9 @Phil: as your badge shows your licence and your profile shows your email... you just did: sending you an email right now ;)

@Henry & @Hoddie: the FSM is part of TX without need to bother the PSK ;) I'll see to prepare a FSM based starter kit if you feel it's needeed :)

#10 @pino - feel free tho you've done more than enough! =) Plus I think I need to get the head down,study more and build one myself. Need serious approach to my coding, just been banging rocks together so far =)UGH UGH !

#11 Ahh great news!
Thanks Pino!

#12 Count me in too!

Thanks Pino, you are a life/company saver.

#13 @Henry, I am alway's using the FSM. I use it for networking, and pausing, and even my credits screen, its a very versatile and powerful utility that once understood, can quickly be applied to any situation like ducktape. Just kidding, its not at the ducktape point for me yet. What kind of tutorial were you thinking about?

Like a spaceshooter?

#14 So if I buy TX today can I be part of CEV going forward. and I assume that CEV will be maintaining the engine going forward?

#15 Is there somewhere someone can explain the set up on all this?
VS10 express + CEV 4
I get an error double clicking t2dcomponent.vsix
and it won't create the template (i get an error)
and it won't accept any projects in the CEV 4 solution

#16 It is sad that TX is being dropped from GG, as it seems to hit the sweet spot for what we were looking for. While T2D also fits in that realm, we recently made a significant investment in our C# developement team that we want to leverage and TX2D seems to fit nicely as it would be easier for our developers to modify the engine to meet the needs of the project.

Please forgive me if my questions sound silly, but I have only recently started evaluating the TX2D engine for a commercial game. So far, our review has been with the free XNA 3.1.5 binary release that uses XNA 3. Our effort is a real endeavor with a decent budget and includes some really great artists and developers who have all shipped profitable shelf box titles. I would hate to drop TX out of the running if we no longer have access to purchase a source license and have contact with a decent TX community following.

Questions:

- How does one even purchase Torque X now? I cannot seem to locate a purchase option on the GG site.

- What happens to the licensing options, assuming a purchase can be made? I am less concerned about "official support" and more concerned with seeing a good following of developers collaborating in a community.

- What does CEV mean? Community edition?

- How does a team get access to TX 4.0 CEV?

If you feel that TX2D is not viable at this point, please let me know so we can consider other options.

Thx!

#17 @Dan: this isn't really the place for support, you should use the Trac site for that. Anyway that seems the behaviour of VS2010 C# Express for Windows Phone 7. Please install the standard product and all will be ok.

#18 @James: yep, that's it ;)

@billbo: to buy Torque X just go here ;) We as a community have done a huge work maintaining TX and the fact that it won't be sold any longer by March will only make our efforts stronger because there is no other commercial XNA engine on the market, so it's in our own interest to keep this gig going ;) CEV stands for Community Enhanced Version. To get access to the CEV just drop me an email after you've got your source licence, but if you are a team you'll need more than one seat: I'll grant one access per owned licence.

TX2D is actually the sole viable engine to deploy a professional grade game on XBLIG in a professional grade timeframe.

#19 @Giuseppe

Thank you for the quick response! I do understand as you do that there is no other viable XNA engine on the market. I have searched high and low to find an alternative and so far I don't like what I see. We want to focus on creating games, not engines, and it would kill our budget and timeline if we had to do that (or, heaven forbid, change the team).

I will purchase a license right away so we can continue our review, and I get with the team to find out how many seats we would need to get if we go this route. I do have a bit of selling to do with the rest of the team, but I am confident I can make it happen if I have good answers for everyone.

The one downside I see for using the Torque X method of creation is that it appears to be strictly a developers tool and we have an offshore artist team that is only producing content. I am probably not going to get the artists to install Visual Studio and work within those confines. Even if I could, it could be a logistical nightmare and our programmers could burn a lot of time in tech support (and hate me in the process). I am interested in other peoples ideas/experience on how they would handle a workflow scenario like that.

We had hoped to outsource some of the level/scene creation to the same team, but I'm not sure if we can make it productive. Some ideas I have right now are to designate a team lead with our offshore group who is more tech savvy and train him/her to handle integration. Until we have a working version of the game that they can plug content into, it looks like there will be a bit of overhead in content integration. The editor is a great tool, but it does have a pretty tight coupling to Visual Studio.

Regardless, it appears we may have a death march coming with our short timeline and the publisher is pushing a sell through of 200,000+ purchases. All of the past games they have invested in were much larger in scope and duration, so this is a very new business model we have pitched. They love the idea, but now we need to make it work.

Thanks again for your prompt reply, and any further feedback is greatly appreciated.

#20 @billbo: glad you think that way ;) if you want to chat about methodologies to run a TX project and running a geographically spread team feel free to drop me an email :)