Newcomer with some initial feedback
by Adam McCarthy · in General Discussion · 12/31/2009 (5:56 pm) · 4 replies
I don't want to beat a series of dead horses, but as someone very interested in getting acquainted with the Torque product line there are a few things that drive me nuts:
- The layout of the forums, including using searches to find things, is a nightmare.
I am very used to searching before I ask, but man oh man this community layout does not make this
an easy task.
Would you all consider moving the forums to something like vBulletin? It isn't the sexiest option out
there, but it certainly is well known and much easier to navigate and use.
From my experience, integration with the current site is pretty simple and I think you could make
life a lot easier. If nothing else I'd love to know the rationale behind the current system.
- Clear documentation.
Yikes, all I can say on this is that I bought the products I have thus far due to 2 things:
* Holiday discount
* Faith in the community and product ---IN SPITE OF--- all indicators.
I can see Mr. Perry is making a serious effort, but again I wonder if the medium is part of the problem.
Seeing a setup in Confluence would be nice, alternatively what means are there for users to add to
the documentation?
EDIT - The Torque documentation page is based on MediaWiki so I'm basically an idiot on this one
- Lots of confusion about the product lines.
So...I want to make games to fulfill a long-lingering dream (surprise). I have fairly realistic expectations
in that I expect to make a few platform games to get acquainted with things, ultimately culminating in
a large story RPG and maybe a few creative tweaks. I imagine this is a common thing, but man I can't figure
out the path to move forward clearly.
* If I want to make an iPhone game, but am just learning, does buying Torque 2D easily translate to the
iPhone 2D package?
* Did I actually buy Torque 2D? If not, am I going to automatically get upgraded when what I think is
under development now gets released?
EDIT - came across enough info to suggest that going in to 2010, T2D is not actually released yet
but is expected to come out sometime this year. Upgrade options are not 100% clear yet. So, presently when you buy Torque 2D you are purchasing the Torque Game Builder, which will be replaced by T2D upon release.
* I bought Torque 3D because it was on sale, should I learn TS enough to cram a 2D game into T3D?
EDIT - I know the deal on this now. Basically T3D has some hacking with billboards and such to handle 2D,
but overall T2D (or more correctly TGB) is the best option for 2D
Like I said, in this case I really made a leap of faith in purchasing T2D (w/source) and T3D (binary only).
I hope I made the right decision, but only time will tell. Some product line clarity would be really helpful.
That's all for now. Please don't take this the wrong way, I feel over time I will have made good initial
moves, but I wonder how many people are held back by comparison. I hope my first post doesn't invoke the
rage of the Torque community - I am pretty sure I'll be relying on a few of you over time. :)
- The layout of the forums, including using searches to find things, is a nightmare.
I am very used to searching before I ask, but man oh man this community layout does not make this
an easy task.
Would you all consider moving the forums to something like vBulletin? It isn't the sexiest option out
there, but it certainly is well known and much easier to navigate and use.
From my experience, integration with the current site is pretty simple and I think you could make
life a lot easier. If nothing else I'd love to know the rationale behind the current system.
- Clear documentation.
Yikes, all I can say on this is that I bought the products I have thus far due to 2 things:
* Holiday discount
* Faith in the community and product ---IN SPITE OF--- all indicators.
I can see Mr. Perry is making a serious effort, but again I wonder if the medium is part of the problem.
Seeing a setup in Confluence would be nice, alternatively what means are there for users to add to
the documentation?
EDIT - The Torque documentation page is based on MediaWiki so I'm basically an idiot on this one
- Lots of confusion about the product lines.
So...I want to make games to fulfill a long-lingering dream (surprise). I have fairly realistic expectations
in that I expect to make a few platform games to get acquainted with things, ultimately culminating in
a large story RPG and maybe a few creative tweaks. I imagine this is a common thing, but man I can't figure
out the path to move forward clearly.
* If I want to make an iPhone game, but am just learning, does buying Torque 2D easily translate to the
iPhone 2D package?
* Did I actually buy Torque 2D? If not, am I going to automatically get upgraded when what I think is
under development now gets released?
EDIT - came across enough info to suggest that going in to 2010, T2D is not actually released yet
but is expected to come out sometime this year. Upgrade options are not 100% clear yet. So, presently when you buy Torque 2D you are purchasing the Torque Game Builder, which will be replaced by T2D upon release.
* I bought Torque 3D because it was on sale, should I learn TS enough to cram a 2D game into T3D?
EDIT - I know the deal on this now. Basically T3D has some hacking with billboards and such to handle 2D,
but overall T2D (or more correctly TGB) is the best option for 2D
Like I said, in this case I really made a leap of faith in purchasing T2D (w/source) and T3D (binary only).
I hope I made the right decision, but only time will tell. Some product line clarity would be really helpful.
That's all for now. Please don't take this the wrong way, I feel over time I will have made good initial
moves, but I wonder how many people are held back by comparison. I hope my first post doesn't invoke the
rage of the Torque community - I am pretty sure I'll be relying on a few of you over time. :)
#2
Thanks a lot for your answers. I will probably post a few questions up once I work through a few more tutorials...my frustration with the current layout is mainly because I hate asking a question that a simple search, etc could answer. In this case searching doesn't seem to be as effective and I have been hesitant to start bugging the community.
01/02/2010 (8:32 am)
Kenneth,Thanks a lot for your answers. I will probably post a few questions up once I work through a few more tutorials...my frustration with the current layout is mainly because I hate asking a question that a simple search, etc could answer. In this case searching doesn't seem to be as effective and I have been hesitant to start bugging the community.
#3
By the way, welcome.
01/02/2010 (10:48 am)
Searching on any forum sucks. If you do the advanced search, you can choose a particular forum to search in. This forum software is like any other software. It takes a little time to get used to it and learn it's quirks. Around here, don't be shy about asking the questions that have been asked "a million times". People will eather reanswer it, or give you links to the relevant threads. By the way, welcome.
#4
01/03/2010 (4:28 pm)
Welcome to the community. Please never hesitate to ask a question, asking questions is how you learn the answers. Even though you may ask a question that's been asked before we have an excellent and patient community that will answer it regardless. 
Torque Owner Cassy Brink
Minalien.com
Converting to a new forum system would ultimately serve little purpose, and would likely entail more problems than it would solve.
Documentation on Torque Game Builder is, admittedly, poor. We know this, GarageGames knows this, and it's generally accepted. Unfortunately, official work isn't being done to improve these because the Torque 2D engine, currently in development, is going to replace Torque Game Builder, and work is being done to ensure that T2D's documentation does not run into the problems that hit Torque Game Builder's documentation.
The community and GarageGames both are great sources of help, speaking from personal experience. While the official documentation on Torque Game Builder is severely lacking, what is present in the documentation and on TDN is more than enough to help get any users started off in the right direction, and the community helps a lot in areas not sufficiently covered.
Assuming this is separate from the questions below, I suggest asking any questions you have on these forums. Users here have been quite friendly, and from what I have experienced, answer professionally, intelligently, and politely.
Yes. In fact, save for changes to the engine source, you can almost directly convert a project from being built with TGB to iTGB, with only minor changes.
I'm not sure whether or not you're entirely clear on the situation, so I'll offer an explanation. No, you bought Torque Game Builder. When Torque 2D is released, you will have to purchase an upgrade to the new engine, but the price you paid for Torque Game Builder, based on precedent set with Torque 3D and Torque Game Engine, should be taken out of the price you have to pay for Torque 2D.
Yes, I would recommend sticking with Torque Game Builder. Currently, it is far more efficient than is working with billboards.