So I make a game with torque...
by Jonathan Wagner · in Torque Game Engine · 07/20/2004 (5:32 pm) · 3 replies
I got the SDK. I got the book (3DGPAi1, great reading). Got all pumped up. From what I can see, and from what others have said, I should be able to do most all I want to do for my first game using torque by sticking with torquescript, the mission editor, etc. and staying out of the actual engine. Then I started doing some thinking. Say I don't want people making mods from my game. It seems like at this point, all I'm doing is modding an existing game. Anyone could take the exe out of the directory and use it in their own project, or press f11 or f4 in my game.
How do I 'solidify' it into a game? I notice for example that exe file sizes for various demos are different. However, all the data files (jpgs, pngs, dso's, dts's) are all in plain view for people to edit, delete, and take. Now I know that dts's and dso's are supposed to be irreversible, that doesn't concern me. The fact is that with how many people use torque, you don't need to reverse them to use them (albeit using the scripts would be a little harder).
I'm not going to accuse anyone here of being a thief. I just don't want joe someone mucking around with resources and scripts that I made. I know some games use volume files to hide their data from users. This is really all I'm looking for, keeping things away from the common gamer so they can't mess it up. Are there any methods of doing this for torque? I know starsiege and tribes used this method, so I would think torque would have something to the same effect, but I don't see it used (as far as the demos I have go). Does anyone use a method like this, or can direct me to one built-in to torque that I don't know about yet (as I have not spent any time in torque's code)?
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the winded post.
How do I 'solidify' it into a game? I notice for example that exe file sizes for various demos are different. However, all the data files (jpgs, pngs, dso's, dts's) are all in plain view for people to edit, delete, and take. Now I know that dts's and dso's are supposed to be irreversible, that doesn't concern me. The fact is that with how many people use torque, you don't need to reverse them to use them (albeit using the scripts would be a little harder).
I'm not going to accuse anyone here of being a thief. I just don't want joe someone mucking around with resources and scripts that I made. I know some games use volume files to hide their data from users. This is really all I'm looking for, keeping things away from the common gamer so they can't mess it up. Are there any methods of doing this for torque? I know starsiege and tribes used this method, so I would think torque would have something to the same effect, but I don't see it used (as far as the demos I have go). Does anyone use a method like this, or can direct me to one built-in to torque that I don't know about yet (as I have not spent any time in torque's code)?
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the winded post.
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#2
So yes, it's something you can do but you need to invest some time in the core engine code to do this (not much from what anyone has said). I would put it on your list of things to do before you release the game into it's final stages. Removing the editors would probably be step 3,658 in building a game. It sounds like you're at step 3.
07/20/2004 (5:47 pm)
The ThinkTank guys did a good job of this (and maybe Orbz but I haven't looked at it). Basically when they released the game they released the .dso files and removed the capability from the engine code to call an editor (as well as removing the editor files). There are some checks done in the engine so if you try to graft the editors from say the demo app, it'll just tell you that the executable is corrupt or something. This will keep prying eyes away from loading your stuff up into their own editors. You can decide what scripts and capabilities to release (TT released some of their scripts to support some modding efforts, of course with the caveat any modded game is unsupported by them). So yes, it's something you can do but you need to invest some time in the core engine code to do this (not much from what anyone has said). I would put it on your list of things to do before you release the game into it's final stages. Removing the editors would probably be step 3,658 in building a game. It sounds like you're at step 3.
#3
Yeah, I know it's not a priority right now, but I want to be sure down the road that I'm not just making something that can be edited by anyone.
After thinking more about this, I realize I'm thinking about this too much. The way it works already should be fine.
07/20/2004 (5:50 pm)
"Removing the editors would probably be step 3,658 in building a game. It sounds like you're at step 3."Yeah, I know it's not a priority right now, but I want to be sure down the road that I'm not just making something that can be edited by anyone.
After thinking more about this, I realize I'm thinking about this too much. The way it works already should be fine.
Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark
Dso's won't be a problem. No one will steal one from you and use it in another mod, it's pretty limited. You can't do anything about png, jpgs etc.. and dts is not the easiest to open up either.
There is a zip feature built into the engine. but IMO if a user can use your .dso files in a useable manner, then they won't have the slightest problem going into your zip files.
I don't know the details (someone else will do, though) about making the zips work, but I heard recently (I think it was Phil Carlisle) who had it work simply by zipping down the example dir and placing it in the example folder).