Informal survey: reason you got interested in Torque?
by Josh Williams · in General Discussion · 06/06/2004 (5:18 pm) · 42 replies
I'm curious to see answers to the following:
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What was your main reason for investigating Torque?
A) Desire to create games on your own, using a AAA engine you could afford.
B) Desire to break into the games industry (as a programmer, artist, designer, etc), using Torque to learn and/or build from to create a portfolio of work that'd help you get hired.
C) Just thought it sounded neat / liked the company / liked the community. No real plan or particular desire.
D) Fill in your own reasoning. The list above is tiny, and far from exhaustive, I'm sure.
---------------------------------------------
Note: this is just for my own personal curiosity, it's not some kind of official GG thing. If it were, Jay would probably do it, and it'd be much better. :)
I'm just curious to hear why people here became interested in Torque in the first place. I mean, obviously Torque is a great engine and it's available for a great price with no-strings licensing, etc... so it's easy to see why people would be interested in it in general. But I mean specifically, what brought you here to GG? What is/was your intent with Torque? (Whether you already have it, or are considering getting it.)
For example, I fall solidly into the (B) category above. The reason I first checked out GG a couple years ago, besides the fact that I just liked their philosophy, was that I thought Torque might be an outstanding learning opportunity. I'd long been interested in becoming a tech/R&D game prgrammer, and thought Torque might offer a great base from which to create cool tech that might get me hired somewhere.
I imagine that reasoning along these lines is pretty common. However, I know there are many others who are interested in Torque strictly because they want to make games. For me, I'd love to make games, but never would've thought it possible for myself as an indie-- I'm not a good game designer, and I didn't know anybody that I thought was either. :)
Besides those two, I'm sure people have many other motivations for checking out Torque.
So, answer the survey above, if you feel like it. It would be interesting to see a large collection of responses.
------------------------------------------------
What was your main reason for investigating Torque?
A) Desire to create games on your own, using a AAA engine you could afford.
B) Desire to break into the games industry (as a programmer, artist, designer, etc), using Torque to learn and/or build from to create a portfolio of work that'd help you get hired.
C) Just thought it sounded neat / liked the company / liked the community. No real plan or particular desire.
D) Fill in your own reasoning. The list above is tiny, and far from exhaustive, I'm sure.
---------------------------------------------
Note: this is just for my own personal curiosity, it's not some kind of official GG thing. If it were, Jay would probably do it, and it'd be much better. :)
I'm just curious to hear why people here became interested in Torque in the first place. I mean, obviously Torque is a great engine and it's available for a great price with no-strings licensing, etc... so it's easy to see why people would be interested in it in general. But I mean specifically, what brought you here to GG? What is/was your intent with Torque? (Whether you already have it, or are considering getting it.)
For example, I fall solidly into the (B) category above. The reason I first checked out GG a couple years ago, besides the fact that I just liked their philosophy, was that I thought Torque might be an outstanding learning opportunity. I'd long been interested in becoming a tech/R&D game prgrammer, and thought Torque might offer a great base from which to create cool tech that might get me hired somewhere.
I imagine that reasoning along these lines is pretty common. However, I know there are many others who are interested in Torque strictly because they want to make games. For me, I'd love to make games, but never would've thought it possible for myself as an indie-- I'm not a good game designer, and I didn't know anybody that I thought was either. :)
Besides those two, I'm sure people have many other motivations for checking out Torque.
So, answer the survey above, if you feel like it. It would be interesting to see a large collection of responses.
#2
I had built a number of graphics engines (graphics as in no game play, physics, or net code) and was tired of the perpetual development cycles necessary to keeping pace with changing technology.
I started researching engines for one that would get us to 90% of were we wanted to be and could easily be modified to make it that last few percent. After looking into a number of engines I realized that most were really graphics engine with game play, physics, and net code added as an afterthought, but not Torque.
What sold me on Torque?
#1 - Net code you can't believe how many 'game engines' aren't capable of multiplayer game play. When the TGE demo played multi-player out of the box I was sold.
#2 Think Tanks and Marble Blast the fact that published games were running TGE was icing on the cake.
And I've been hooked ever since.
-John
Edit: or I'll go second :)
06/06/2004 (5:53 pm)
Josh, very good question guess I'll go first:I had built a number of graphics engines (graphics as in no game play, physics, or net code) and was tired of the perpetual development cycles necessary to keeping pace with changing technology.
I started researching engines for one that would get us to 90% of were we wanted to be and could easily be modified to make it that last few percent. After looking into a number of engines I realized that most were really graphics engine with game play, physics, and net code added as an afterthought, but not Torque.
What sold me on Torque?
#1 - Net code you can't believe how many 'game engines' aren't capable of multiplayer game play. When the TGE demo played multi-player out of the box I was sold.
#2 Think Tanks and Marble Blast the fact that published games were running TGE was icing on the cake.
And I've been hooked ever since.
-John
Edit: or I'll go second :)
#4
06/06/2004 (6:19 pm)
Solid A. Great engine at low (startup for a team) cost.
#5
So John, would you say reason A or B above was stronger? Obviously you were interested in tech programming, but it sounds like maybe your primary reason was for game dev? I'm sure that multiple factors affect everyone, but if it's possible to pick the single biggest reason, I'd be interested to hear.
06/06/2004 (6:36 pm)
Cool beans, keep 'em coming. :)So John, would you say reason A or B above was stronger? Obviously you were interested in tech programming, but it sounds like maybe your primary reason was for game dev? I'm sure that multiple factors affect everyone, but if it's possible to pick the single biggest reason, I'd be interested to hear.
#6
Wanted something as an Educational Experience. Needed something cheap yet powerful. Decided to make some games for heck of it. Gain some experience etc and after reading some reviews ended up buying.
06/06/2004 (6:42 pm)
D.Wanted something as an Educational Experience. Needed something cheap yet powerful. Decided to make some games for heck of it. Gain some experience etc and after reading some reviews ended up buying.
#7
I'm a former industry professional. I've been involved in the development of about three game engines professionally, and now I'm completing my first game as an indie with (*gasp*) yet another homebrewed game engine.
It's a pain in the butt maintaining it. Time is at a premium, and after spending twelve hours revamping my network code one week, and then another eight hours tracking down some obscure graphics glitches another week, the idea of using some already well-tested code as a starting point for only $100 starts sounding REALLY attractive.
Yes - using even a well-tested off-the-shelf game engine doesn't put an end to your engine maintenance woes. And there's a cost involved to both spool up on understanding the new engine, as well as modifying it. But from a pure time-is-money standpoint, I figure if I save more than 4 hours of time going with Torque, I've made my money back. Easy to do on the port to Mac alone!
06/06/2004 (7:13 pm)
A.I'm a former industry professional. I've been involved in the development of about three game engines professionally, and now I'm completing my first game as an indie with (*gasp*) yet another homebrewed game engine.
It's a pain in the butt maintaining it. Time is at a premium, and after spending twelve hours revamping my network code one week, and then another eight hours tracking down some obscure graphics glitches another week, the idea of using some already well-tested code as a starting point for only $100 starts sounding REALLY attractive.
Yes - using even a well-tested off-the-shelf game engine doesn't put an end to your engine maintenance woes. And there's a cost involved to both spool up on understanding the new engine, as well as modifying it. But from a pure time-is-money standpoint, I figure if I save more than 4 hours of time going with Torque, I've made my money back. Easy to do on the port to Mac alone!
#8
I started mapping with Tribes 2 and switched to Torque when I found out it was the exact same process. I stayed because I liked the community/company. I stopped mapping and instead started doing PHP for game websites.
06/06/2004 (7:21 pm)
Combo C/DI started mapping with Tribes 2 and switched to Torque when I found out it was the exact same process. I stayed because I liked the community/company. I stopped mapping and instead started doing PHP for game websites.
#9
For almost 20 years now I've tried to put all my game design ideas into a computer (starting on an Amstrad 464 with COLOR!!! monitor at age 12). My professional work has also pulled me into management and not into coding, so time to realize my ideas is always short (not to speak about time to climb the learning curve)
I've ended up stranded everytime as one had to start from scratch coding your own engine or engine like structures. Last attempt was 4-5 years ago where I actually had my own homecooked engine running with a simple pacman game, but stranded on writing an animation from 3ds files -> opengl filter.
So I ended up with tons of industry knowledge from books, and from failed attempts to write a complete game.
Meanwhile I played T2 on the European clan scene (go S=A / zippers!!), and suddenly my favorite engine is released for almost free.
So I hooked up with a team that already had a game idea, bought the engine and started there some years ago.
First now I feel confident with the engine, and real content and actual games are being produced for real.
Buying the engine has enabled me to actually create something real, rather than waste my time on nuts and bolts.
Just 1 month ago I quit my full time job, and started consulting instead so I could concentrate on being an indie game dev. Wish me luck.
I thank you from my heart GG, and hope you guys will be blessed by fame and fortune some day!
06/06/2004 (11:50 pm)
A+B for meFor almost 20 years now I've tried to put all my game design ideas into a computer (starting on an Amstrad 464 with COLOR!!! monitor at age 12). My professional work has also pulled me into management and not into coding, so time to realize my ideas is always short (not to speak about time to climb the learning curve)
I've ended up stranded everytime as one had to start from scratch coding your own engine or engine like structures. Last attempt was 4-5 years ago where I actually had my own homecooked engine running with a simple pacman game, but stranded on writing an animation from 3ds files -> opengl filter.
So I ended up with tons of industry knowledge from books, and from failed attempts to write a complete game.
Meanwhile I played T2 on the European clan scene (go S=A / zippers!!), and suddenly my favorite engine is released for almost free.
So I hooked up with a team that already had a game idea, bought the engine and started there some years ago.
First now I feel confident with the engine, and real content and actual games are being produced for real.
Buying the engine has enabled me to actually create something real, rather than waste my time on nuts and bolts.
Just 1 month ago I quit my full time job, and started consulting instead so I could concentrate on being an indie game dev. Wish me luck.
I thank you from my heart GG, and hope you guys will be blessed by fame and fortune some day!
#11
About 3 years ago, I was coming to the end of writing my own engine called "freedom". This was a typical FPS style engine, using Quake type content and all the usual FPS tech (skeletal animation, BSP rendering etc).
Anyway, I had grand plans to release the engine for a cheap license and make my own games.
Well, suffice to say, about 6-9 months before completion someone pointed me to Torque (then V12), which basically had EXACTLY the same idea as me, but had obviously gotten much much further along :)
So I basically dumped the old idea, my old codebase (which I knew could never compete with Torque's flexibility or scale) and I jumped heartily on the V12 bus! :)
Since then, Ive COMPLETELY lost interest in creating "engines", knowing that what interests me is the creation and creativity, not the engineering and the engine.
Ok, I might write some simple "technology", but thats not because I love writing it, its because I love what I can create with it. Frankly, there are MANY MANY better engine programmers out there, guys like Melv and Matt easily beat me there, but I have LOTS of idea's, I know enough about technology (I am interested in it for what it can give me as a creative user), so I'm pretty happy with my lot :)
I think its useful for any prospective game developer to figure out what pushes thier buttons. Engine/Tech or Gameplay/Creativity?
I know there tends to be a scrambling of the two, with creative types often forced into trying to write thier own tech, or the tech types often forced to try and be creative. But I think there needs to be a useful seperation of the two.
Thats another thread though.
06/07/2004 (2:27 am)
Hmm, mine didnt directly fall into your categories.About 3 years ago, I was coming to the end of writing my own engine called "freedom". This was a typical FPS style engine, using Quake type content and all the usual FPS tech (skeletal animation, BSP rendering etc).
Anyway, I had grand plans to release the engine for a cheap license and make my own games.
Well, suffice to say, about 6-9 months before completion someone pointed me to Torque (then V12), which basically had EXACTLY the same idea as me, but had obviously gotten much much further along :)
So I basically dumped the old idea, my old codebase (which I knew could never compete with Torque's flexibility or scale) and I jumped heartily on the V12 bus! :)
Since then, Ive COMPLETELY lost interest in creating "engines", knowing that what interests me is the creation and creativity, not the engineering and the engine.
Ok, I might write some simple "technology", but thats not because I love writing it, its because I love what I can create with it. Frankly, there are MANY MANY better engine programmers out there, guys like Melv and Matt easily beat me there, but I have LOTS of idea's, I know enough about technology (I am interested in it for what it can give me as a creative user), so I'm pretty happy with my lot :)
I think its useful for any prospective game developer to figure out what pushes thier buttons. Engine/Tech or Gameplay/Creativity?
I know there tends to be a scrambling of the two, with creative types often forced into trying to write thier own tech, or the tech types often forced to try and be creative. But I think there needs to be a useful seperation of the two.
Thats another thread though.
#12
I've come to a different conclusion as Phil though, I don't see any need for tech/gameplay seperation. I've turned down many a good job because its a pure tech job, the idea of doing nothing but tech bores me senseless. I'm most happy writting gun code one minute and renderer's the next. I personally find tech gives me the creative freedom to do what I really want rather than whats possible. If its not possible, simple invent the tech to do it.
Torque (and now TSE) gives me that flexibility without worrying too much about the plumbing.
06/07/2004 (3:00 am)
I've written a fair few engines professional and I'd written my own home engine for a game me and a few friends work on (in our spare time). Was looking at the effort to update it (the tech had been stuck in Dx7 timeframe), did the math and realised if I wanted to do more gameplay it was best to grab Torque. So I did.I've come to a different conclusion as Phil though, I don't see any need for tech/gameplay seperation. I've turned down many a good job because its a pure tech job, the idea of doing nothing but tech bores me senseless. I'm most happy writting gun code one minute and renderer's the next. I personally find tech gives me the creative freedom to do what I really want rather than whats possible. If its not possible, simple invent the tech to do it.
Torque (and now TSE) gives me that flexibility without worrying too much about the plumbing.
#13
I'm was an 'Application Developer', you know in-house software (biggest project I wrote is worth 3mil :) I became ill and am now disabled. I've always wanted to have a go at a game, one of those things I'd never done before.
Off I went searcing the web, many engines are extremely expensive, and those I could possibly afford are like MSFrontpage for games, i.e. useless. Then I found Torque, Code included, Fantastic community, easy to use editors, did I mention CODE INCLUDED!
This means it's something I can afford (soon, gotta save up $100) and that I can change to fit the projects needs. My learning curve will actually be useful in the final game. The price is fantastic too, $100 for pet projects and $1000 for truely commercial ones, you couldn't ask for more.
06/07/2004 (3:13 am)
C) Just thought it sounded neat / liked the company / liked the community. No real plan or particular desire.I'm was an 'Application Developer', you know in-house software (biggest project I wrote is worth 3mil :) I became ill and am now disabled. I've always wanted to have a go at a game, one of those things I'd never done before.
Off I went searcing the web, many engines are extremely expensive, and those I could possibly afford are like MSFrontpage for games, i.e. useless. Then I found Torque, Code included, Fantastic community, easy to use editors, did I mention CODE INCLUDED!
This means it's something I can afford (soon, gotta save up $100) and that I can change to fit the projects needs. My learning curve will actually be useful in the final game. The price is fantastic too, $100 for pet projects and $1000 for truely commercial ones, you couldn't ask for more.
#14
I was inspired to go back to school after doing a little modding for T1 and T2. I became very interested in programming in general. I received my associates last year and probably will continue my education in the future. Torque came out during my first semester I believe and I became very excited and bought it because T1 and T2 took hold of me like no other games had and I could not believe I could buy that tech for only $100. I love games and making a game is fulfilling me. I feel like I found my calling.
I have learned so much about tools I really never touched before like modelling programs and how theses tools with a game engine.
The scale of Torque is still intimidating to me but I learn something new everyday and I have become more and more comfortable with Torque and the tools that work with it.
06/07/2004 (3:15 am)
A & D for me.I was inspired to go back to school after doing a little modding for T1 and T2. I became very interested in programming in general. I received my associates last year and probably will continue my education in the future. Torque came out during my first semester I believe and I became very excited and bought it because T1 and T2 took hold of me like no other games had and I could not believe I could buy that tech for only $100. I love games and making a game is fulfilling me. I feel like I found my calling.
I have learned so much about tools I really never touched before like modelling programs and how theses tools with a game engine.
The scale of Torque is still intimidating to me but I learn something new everyday and I have become more and more comfortable with Torque and the tools that work with it.
#15
I've played RPG's as far back as I can remember, naturally I progressed into computer RPG's like Zork, Pool of Radiance and Bards Tale, eventually finding Online Muds & Muses and loving it. The roleplaying was great, but there was always that thought in the back of my head about how cool a game would be if you could stitch a graphics engine on top of it.
MMORPG's hit the scene and I got buried in a bunch of them starting with Asheron's Call. Since AC I've tried UO, DAoC (twice), AO (twice), Jumpgate, AC2, FFXI, SWG, City of Heroes and others. It just wasn't the same. There was no roleplaying at all and everything became a grinding level treadmill.
About two years ago, I was co-running a website MassiveMultiplayer.org when we heard about your engine. Sounded cool, but I wasn't a programmer so figured it was above my head. Since then I've done some work for Warcry and in the last few months and I've seen TGE headlines a few times.
Finally disgusted with the crap that is out there, myself and a few friends finally had the light come on above our head and thought, "Hey, we can make our own game!". TGE was one of the first thoughts in our head and after looking around the net for any other engines, it was clearly the only real engine out there that is available for indies. Yeah, there's some free graphics engines floating around, but that's all they are. There aren't any allinone products that can compare to TGE.
So I picked up TGE. In the back of my head hoping to one day make an MMORPG that us "role-playing" types would actually enjoy. Though I'm a realist, since I've never touched C++ till I picked up TGE, we're gonna start small and try our hand at a FPS and/or vehicle shooter first.
Truthfully, considering we're all working full time and just doing this in our spare time, I'll be surprised if we can ever get anything running, but to me, it's a great opportunity to learn programming and possibly get into another field.
- C
edit: spelling
06/07/2004 (3:23 am)
Hmm, mine would be a little bit of A, and a little bit of C. But neither of them really fits my reasons very closely.I've played RPG's as far back as I can remember, naturally I progressed into computer RPG's like Zork, Pool of Radiance and Bards Tale, eventually finding Online Muds & Muses and loving it. The roleplaying was great, but there was always that thought in the back of my head about how cool a game would be if you could stitch a graphics engine on top of it.
MMORPG's hit the scene and I got buried in a bunch of them starting with Asheron's Call. Since AC I've tried UO, DAoC (twice), AO (twice), Jumpgate, AC2, FFXI, SWG, City of Heroes and others. It just wasn't the same. There was no roleplaying at all and everything became a grinding level treadmill.
About two years ago, I was co-running a website MassiveMultiplayer.org when we heard about your engine. Sounded cool, but I wasn't a programmer so figured it was above my head. Since then I've done some work for Warcry and in the last few months and I've seen TGE headlines a few times.
Finally disgusted with the crap that is out there, myself and a few friends finally had the light come on above our head and thought, "Hey, we can make our own game!". TGE was one of the first thoughts in our head and after looking around the net for any other engines, it was clearly the only real engine out there that is available for indies. Yeah, there's some free graphics engines floating around, but that's all they are. There aren't any allinone products that can compare to TGE.
So I picked up TGE. In the back of my head hoping to one day make an MMORPG that us "role-playing" types would actually enjoy. Though I'm a realist, since I've never touched C++ till I picked up TGE, we're gonna start small and try our hand at a FPS and/or vehicle shooter first.
Truthfully, considering we're all working full time and just doing this in our spare time, I'll be surprised if we can ever get anything running, but to me, it's a great opportunity to learn programming and possibly get into another field.
- C
edit: spelling
#16
06/07/2004 (4:55 am)
I would say A) what impressed me most that it was used on a commercial game and was at a almost give away price 
#17
We were in the middle of figuring out what engine to use when we caught the announcement for GarageGames and V12. Justin and I were already going to attend the CGDC and the GarageGames staff was going to be there. When we met them, we asked one simple question first: Do we get the full source code for that $100?
The answer of course was "Yes" (which was totally a-f*ing-stounding to us at the time), and the rest is history.
06/07/2004 (5:21 am)
D) 21-6 was floundering before Torque. We had tried making a couple of different games, but one wasn't that interesting, and one was too much work working part-time. We had finally decided to focus on a smaller project that we could finish, and at the time the best option was modding an existing engine (Quake 3 was high on the list). We were in the middle of figuring out what engine to use when we caught the announcement for GarageGames and V12. Justin and I were already going to attend the CGDC and the GarageGames staff was going to be there. When we met them, we asked one simple question first: Do we get the full source code for that $100?
The answer of course was "Yes" (which was totally a-f*ing-stounding to us at the time), and the rest is history.
#18
I've been experimenting with programming on and off since the days of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum, initially by modifying existing programs (usually games) and later by attempting to create my own.
During the periods when I've had free time to devote to producing a game engine to build upon, I had problems finding the necessary reference material (this was before the Internet became available). I experimented with text adventures for a while, and methods of squeezing large amounts of data into a small space (including storing text in graphics memory areas).
It soon became apparent that working alone to try to reinvent the wheel from scratch would take too long, as by the time I'd finished the technology would have moved on to the point where everyone else was using anti-grav devices (figuratively speaking).
Partly out of frustration, I began to turn my attentions to other areas, and once the Internet became available I started creating web pages. This led me to learn a little Perl and PHP, and I eventually wended my way back to considering creating a game.
After discussing it with a few friends - both online and real life - I decided to look into the possibility of creating a CRPG as part of a small team.
After investigating the options available, I decided that using OpenGL and C/C++ would be the way to go, particularly if I was to have any hope of creating something cross-platform. I also soon realised that building upon an existing engine would likely be necessary if I wanted to finish the project in my lifetime.
I eventually found my way here.
06/07/2004 (6:00 am)
My main reason for initially investigating Torque was a variation of A, although the other choices also played their part.I've been experimenting with programming on and off since the days of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum, initially by modifying existing programs (usually games) and later by attempting to create my own.
During the periods when I've had free time to devote to producing a game engine to build upon, I had problems finding the necessary reference material (this was before the Internet became available). I experimented with text adventures for a while, and methods of squeezing large amounts of data into a small space (including storing text in graphics memory areas).
It soon became apparent that working alone to try to reinvent the wheel from scratch would take too long, as by the time I'd finished the technology would have moved on to the point where everyone else was using anti-grav devices (figuratively speaking).
Partly out of frustration, I began to turn my attentions to other areas, and once the Internet became available I started creating web pages. This led me to learn a little Perl and PHP, and I eventually wended my way back to considering creating a game.
After discussing it with a few friends - both online and real life - I decided to look into the possibility of creating a CRPG as part of a small team.
After investigating the options available, I decided that using OpenGL and C/C++ would be the way to go, particularly if I was to have any hope of creating something cross-platform. I also soon realised that building upon an existing engine would likely be necessary if I wanted to finish the project in my lifetime.
I eventually found my way here.
#19
In fact a lot of the posts above appear to mirror my reasons too, so I'll just say how I eventually settled on TGE/TSE
I've been pottering about with the idea of a persistant universe since being blown away with seeing Elite on the BBC B when I was 12. Gradually refining my ideas, and researching the technology. Certainly "the internet" and decent graphics were not available in a affordable way until a few years ago.
Over the past few years I've been playing around with the technologies needed for such a game in my spare time. Over the past three years I've played about writing tech demos for my own amusement.
More recently I decided to write my own engine from scratch first in .NET/C# as I had ported some of my technology from java. I found the performance lacking, due to the number of openGL calls throwing polys at the screen. So I looked at Ogre3d which saved me rewriting my engine in C++. All very well and good, until of course I wanted to have physics, sound etc to it. Don't get me wrong, Ogre is great software, and much kudos to the development team there, but as I'm doing this all in my own time, it's hard to put in the hours to essentially write the whole engine oneself.
Around the same time GG released their netcode, and I rediscovered the GG site, and I was compelled to buy TGE. I've not been able to spend as much time as I would like on development of the game, but still it's saved me so much time it's certainly been worth the money. Also the cross platform features are very important to me.
I'm especially looking forward to eventually porting my efforts to TSE as it matures, and while I was slightly disappoined about the lack of functionality of the initial release, I was more than happy helping by buying TSE as soon as it was available, because I know it'll end up being much more feature rich than TGE but being mostly compatable, hence I won't have to learn a whole new scripting language!
06/07/2004 (6:41 am)
All of the above :DIn fact a lot of the posts above appear to mirror my reasons too, so I'll just say how I eventually settled on TGE/TSE
I've been pottering about with the idea of a persistant universe since being blown away with seeing Elite on the BBC B when I was 12. Gradually refining my ideas, and researching the technology. Certainly "the internet" and decent graphics were not available in a affordable way until a few years ago.
Over the past few years I've been playing around with the technologies needed for such a game in my spare time. Over the past three years I've played about writing tech demos for my own amusement.
More recently I decided to write my own engine from scratch first in .NET/C# as I had ported some of my technology from java. I found the performance lacking, due to the number of openGL calls throwing polys at the screen. So I looked at Ogre3d which saved me rewriting my engine in C++. All very well and good, until of course I wanted to have physics, sound etc to it. Don't get me wrong, Ogre is great software, and much kudos to the development team there, but as I'm doing this all in my own time, it's hard to put in the hours to essentially write the whole engine oneself.
Around the same time GG released their netcode, and I rediscovered the GG site, and I was compelled to buy TGE. I've not been able to spend as much time as I would like on development of the game, but still it's saved me so much time it's certainly been worth the money. Also the cross platform features are very important to me.
I'm especially looking forward to eventually porting my efforts to TSE as it matures, and while I was slightly disappoined about the lack of functionality of the initial release, I was more than happy helping by buying TSE as soon as it was available, because I know it'll end up being much more feature rich than TGE but being mostly compatable, hence I won't have to learn a whole new scripting language!
#20
A) I wanted to have great looking terrains for my game, and Torque has (IMHO) the best terrain out of all the other engines that I've played played/worked with.
B) I'm not looking so much as to break into the industry, I want my own little company, get a small team together, and do what I like doing best making/playing games. I'd like to be able to make enough money from it so I can quit my day job and work at it full time. But that will be a couple of years down the road.
06/07/2004 (6:47 am)
For me, it was the combination of A and B.A) I wanted to have great looking terrains for my game, and Torque has (IMHO) the best terrain out of all the other engines that I've played played/worked with.
B) I'm not looking so much as to break into the industry, I want my own little company, get a small team together, and do what I like doing best making/playing games. I'd like to be able to make enough money from it so I can quit my day job and work at it full time. But that will be a couple of years down the road.
Torque Owner Steven Jackson