Visual C++ 2010 documentation for Torque 3D source incomplete.

#1

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Also there is no FPS example when grabbing the source from git.

That is intentional. The FPS Tutorial Project is in a separate repository from that of the source code and project templates.

#2

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there should be a step in between that explains how "All of the DirectX file paths should now be set." I'm still unsure of how to proceed.

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Now that we have all of our required SDK's and software installed, we can now start setting up our development environment.


The following check list of software should already be installed before proceeding with this article:

Torque T3D source code
Visual Studio C++ 2010 Express
DirectX June 2010 SDK
PhysX SDK (if required by your project)
Updated video drivers

Usually, the environment paths are already in place if you followed this step as indicated.

#3 Ah I see, by right clicking the FULL Template and going to properties I can see that DXSDK_DIR is included, now I need to compare that when trying to compile the dae2dts tool.

#4 Psh, documentation.... You're one of those guys who reads the instructions, aren't you Mike...?

Interestingly enough, teaching you to use your compiler is probably not the responsibility of anyone here. If you need to know how to manually include libraries and set up include paths you should look at the documentation for your compiler and IDE. This will allow you to use tools that are not covered in the Torque documentation if you so choose.

#5 What is a compiler? ;)

Some of us use Python because we don't know how to work a compiler..

#6 @ Demolishun, One of the best parts about programming in Linux is that since there's so many examples most solutions are just a Google search away. The process is also pretty well automated and you don't need to worry about fancy shmancy IDEs.

@Richard, You're right, however most projects do lay out the process as transparently as possible in order to make sure everyone is operating under the same environment, some projects even package the compiling environment itself for download so there's no setup required on the part of the end user. Unfortunately there are projects out there have such an obscure configuration and no documentation that the only people who can build the project are the maintainers themselves.

MyPaint is suffering from something even worse than this at the moment, there's no clear way to compile it on Windows and now that a major show-stopping bug has appeared on that version, with the only guy that knows how to compile it on Windows unable to fix the bug by himself, development on the Windows version has ceased, hopefully temporarily, as the Linux version continues on ahead.

#7 Yeah, I was just having fun with the topic.

I really like the standardization most *nix packages have: configure, make, make install. Makes things really easy a lot of the time.

#8 =D

#9 Google on "visual studio 2012 setting up directx sdk" - lol. Even in the Windows world Google is still your friend.

I suppose I expect people to know these things because I've been using Visual Studio since version 6 and DirectX since 3.0 - it was always the hard way....

And don't even start on Linux! I've been dropped in at the deep end and have been scrambling to learn to use those dev tools for the last three weeks. "Easy..." you guys are funny. "Powerful" definitely, but ease comes with familiarity, and with Linux that comes slowly.

#10 Thanks for the link, it will help me out. If only you knew just how right you are when you say "... with Linux that comes slowly."

Although I really enjoy the standardization of the building process(It really does become easy once you get the hang of it), it's no secret that when it comes to Linux, well, let's just say you better have the whole day available to you. Preferably two.

It actually can get unreasonably frustrating, I'm a pretty calm guy and yet I have never interacted with someone or something as completely infuriating as Linux. When it works it's a thing of beauty, and when it doesn't -_-

I swear I've actually gone through the process of weighing the pros and cons of having a computer in my life. I decided I better stick to Windows for now, before I make any rash decisions.

#11 I cut my teeth on command line and assembly language, and linux still frustrates me. The project I'm working on now follows the old-school "one makefile per folder" paradigm - "where the hell is it calling that?!?" is often heard from my cubicle. I've actually created a few scripts for finding stuff in the project folders:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Searching for $ 2 in $ 1"
for i in `find workspace/ -maxdepth 30 -mindepth 1 | grep "$ 1"`
do
  RESULT=$(grep -i $ 2 $ i)
  if [ "$ RESULT" != "" ]
  then
	echo "$ i: $ RESULT"
  fi
done
exit 1

(had to add spaces after the $ signs or the damned variables disappear)

It has really come in handy already, since the old make system isn't telling me anything about the error except that there is one and it's a "2"....

I've played with linux on and off over the last 12 or so years, but the most complex thing I ever did with it was set up sendmail and run an email server from home (along with my web site on a Win2K Server). That got irritating enough after the third setup that I wrote a script for that process, too.

<end_rant>

Anyway, T3D is actually very simple to set up. Pretty nice. Been playing with it since '04 (in it's various flavors) and while it's gotten better it really has stayed close enough to it's roots that the things I learned 10 years ago mostly still apply.

#12 Have you ever played Tribes 2? My avatar is a character from that game. I like how comfortable I am coming into Torque 3D, I feel right at home. Being able to press the tilde(~) key and having the console come up and typing in simple commands from Tribes 2 like

setfov(120);

and having it working exactly the same as the game which came out so many years ago is exhilarating. The best parts of the engine was its network code and great modding capabilities.

Here's a video I made a while ago of some of the craziness people came up with, all in a year 2000 Torque engine:

#13 Yup, played Tribes 2 - and I still love how no one ever paid attention to the flying vehicles. My friends and I took serious advantage of them (and were frequently accused of cheating).