Note to Fellow Noobs: .h files and Tribes 2 geeks are your frie
by Bryce "Cogburn" Weiner · in Torque Game Engine · 05/30/2003 (6:20 pm) · 0 replies
I'm a developer and designer but not a C guy.
I've had the Torque engine for one week and have just completed my first HUD control from scratch and have successfully compiled it into the engine.
Like most people who get Torque, I dove right in and wanted to make the most uber-cool-super-realistic-simulator that has ever been conceived. Then I began to explore the documentation, resources and web links that are found all over this site. Yet I was still gleaning only the slightest bit of information about exactly HOW to do ANYTHING.
Here's a few bits of knowledge that seem to be repeatedly asked in the forums.
FIRST: The one thing that really helps that is never really stressed is that EVERYTHING that you EVER need to know about ANY object or function can be found in the .h files.
I know this is a no-brainer to C people... My father is a C instructor at a local university and he laughed in my face at my obvious excitement over my "discovery". To the rest of the civilized world, as well as myself, this is akin to a minor epiphany.
This applies to scripting functions as well. .h files hold all the keys to everything. "What function attaches the weapon X to which of the player's mount points?" Dollars to donuts you can find it in either player.h or weapon.h. Furthermore, anything you will use in any other control that operates on said object will be in the "public:" section of the code.
SECOND: Tribes 2 people are crazy about thier game. Not only is the community STILL active, but when it comes to Torque script and how the engine "fits" together, they have YEARS of experience and tutorials online. Not to mention models, objects, skins, skeletons, and just about everything else you could ever need to practice with. In just this past week, I have made contact with serveral members of the Tribes community and started dialogue on design tricks with the engine, them from the script perspective, me from the perspective of the code. To say it was insightfull for both sides is an understatement.
Hope this helps some of my fellow noobs out there. Had someone told me this when I got the engine I'd be that much further along in learning how it works. The curve is exponential once you start to get it's Zen, so don't despair.
I'm making notes about my experiences diving into the Torque engine. Look for "Torque Development for Dummies" coming soon to a thread near you. :)
I've had the Torque engine for one week and have just completed my first HUD control from scratch and have successfully compiled it into the engine.
Like most people who get Torque, I dove right in and wanted to make the most uber-cool-super-realistic-simulator that has ever been conceived. Then I began to explore the documentation, resources and web links that are found all over this site. Yet I was still gleaning only the slightest bit of information about exactly HOW to do ANYTHING.
Here's a few bits of knowledge that seem to be repeatedly asked in the forums.
FIRST: The one thing that really helps that is never really stressed is that EVERYTHING that you EVER need to know about ANY object or function can be found in the .h files.
I know this is a no-brainer to C people... My father is a C instructor at a local university and he laughed in my face at my obvious excitement over my "discovery". To the rest of the civilized world, as well as myself, this is akin to a minor epiphany.
This applies to scripting functions as well. .h files hold all the keys to everything. "What function attaches the weapon X to which of the player's mount points?" Dollars to donuts you can find it in either player.h or weapon.h. Furthermore, anything you will use in any other control that operates on said object will be in the "public:" section of the code.
SECOND: Tribes 2 people are crazy about thier game. Not only is the community STILL active, but when it comes to Torque script and how the engine "fits" together, they have YEARS of experience and tutorials online. Not to mention models, objects, skins, skeletons, and just about everything else you could ever need to practice with. In just this past week, I have made contact with serveral members of the Tribes community and started dialogue on design tricks with the engine, them from the script perspective, me from the perspective of the code. To say it was insightfull for both sides is an understatement.
Hope this helps some of my fellow noobs out there. Had someone told me this when I got the engine I'd be that much further along in learning how it works. The curve is exponential once you start to get it's Zen, so don't despair.
I'm making notes about my experiences diving into the Torque engine. Look for "Torque Development for Dummies" coming soon to a thread near you. :)
