Torque 3D calling database
by James Capps · in Technical Issues · 07/14/2010 (6:11 am) · 4 replies
I haven't jumped into coding yet, but I have attempted to do a little bit of research on Torque 3D. We have been building our assets and just put the database together in MS Access. My question is, can torque 3d even pull data from access? As I mentioned, I havent looked into coding yet, but in a general observation it would seem Torque could have a call function that would work with access.
Due to lack of experience we did not think to make sure we could call data from access into torque. Is there an alternative (inexpensive) for databases if we cannot use access?
I only chose access because I use excel a LOT and I hope to precalculate most of the data calculations in Excel and put the results in access to prevent the engine from number crunching too much. I am definately not a programmer or even a scripter to my knowledge, but I assume calling a variable would be faster than calculating a set of variables.
Thanks for any information and sorry for lack of knowledge, we are working on it.
Due to lack of experience we did not think to make sure we could call data from access into torque. Is there an alternative (inexpensive) for databases if we cannot use access?
I only chose access because I use excel a LOT and I hope to precalculate most of the data calculations in Excel and put the results in access to prevent the engine from number crunching too much. I am definately not a programmer or even a scripter to my knowledge, but I assume calling a variable would be faster than calculating a set of variables.
Thanks for any information and sorry for lack of knowledge, we are working on it.
#2
Also, if you know PHP, you can create queries that pull data from your database source (like MySQL) and then communicate between the PHP and T3D using HTTP Objects (do a search, or grab one of the old TGE/A books, which are still relevant to things like that).
Like Andy said, you need source code access to add the ODBC resource, or any of the others that grant direct access- but for security purposes, you want to do HTTP queries to a separate server anyway.
07/14/2010 (12:11 pm)
I recommend using MySQL, even for testing, as I've found that you can knock MS Access over with a feather. You can get your CSV's into MySQL, so no worries there.Also, if you know PHP, you can create queries that pull data from your database source (like MySQL) and then communicate between the PHP and T3D using HTTP Objects (do a search, or grab one of the old TGE/A books, which are still relevant to things like that).
Like Andy said, you need source code access to add the ODBC resource, or any of the others that grant direct access- but for security purposes, you want to do HTTP queries to a separate server anyway.
#3
07/14/2010 (2:50 pm)
James Capps is my artist and my macanical engineering consultant and he was posting this question because i just did not have the time to check on it. I have the source code and i was wondering of you could direct us to find some documantion on Access to Torque and i have all three of the book that is recommended.
#4
07/14/2010 (3:01 pm)
Do a search for ODBC in the resources section (even though you have to go into the advanced search option when it fails and check the Resources checkbox to run it again successfully), and you'll find several implementations. I use a pretty old one, but it's also fairly easy to drop into T3D and use with few modifications. 
Torque Owner Andy Rollins
ZDay Game
Database access is sllooooowwwww so I'd be cautious of using it at all for anything happening regularly throughout your game.