Blitz3D vs. Torque
by Gary Roberson · in General Discussion · 01/13/2005 (2:36 pm) · 2 replies
I've just read another thread comparing A6 (the engine that runs underneath the 3D Gamestudio IDE) and several others that compares DarkBASIC with Torque. It was just an amusing thought that I gave up on those two products several months back in favor of Blitz3D. Several months ago, I also looked at the Torque demo, and at that time, I considered it merely a sales pitch, because I didn't know that you could play around with it. Then I looked at Blitz's site, saw some of the demos and was pretty impressed with it. Therefore, I chose that language to develop my first couple of 3D games (the Asian Pounder series (commercial release Summer 2006, perhaps)) ( !!! It took 5 years for Half-Life 2 and hoiw many for Doom 3, so don't expect anything spectacular !!!!) with.
After buying and playing LoveChess (developed with Blitz3D), I thought the program ran a bit slow. I don't know whether to blame the Blitz3D package, or the programming house that developed the program, but if I'm successful with those line of games, I may want to consider another engine for the remainder of my career.
Since this time, someone advised me to take a second look at the Torque demo, advising me of the the keys I needed to use to make it work.
I did, and it was very impressive. The orctown demo sold me on the engine. As soon as I get my finances straight, I'll buy the Torque engine. Hoepfully, by that time, the Shadeer engine will be complete, and I might bypass the TGE for the TSE.
What I've learned so far,
1. I forget what version of DirectX TGE supports, but TSE supports DX_9 while Blitz3D supports only DX_7. While at this time in MY career, that is not too important, later on it might be (just to keep up with the big guys) (!!! Yeah, Yeah the big guys will always be bigger, and richer, and first on the new technology front, but at least, I'll stay afloat !!!)
2. Torque is C++ (or C) while Blitz3D is a hybrid BASIC, which makes Torque .exes inherently faster than Blitz's. Also Sibly has chosen to use some unusual syntax for some of his commands. He has promised to changed this in his BlitzMax product, and when that supports 3D, I'll buy that too!
3. Many of the tools in Torque come with Torque that match Blitz tools, but need to be purchased seperately. For example, the World Editor in Torque is similiar to a product named ALE for the Blitz3D package.
After buying and playing LoveChess (developed with Blitz3D), I thought the program ran a bit slow. I don't know whether to blame the Blitz3D package, or the programming house that developed the program, but if I'm successful with those line of games, I may want to consider another engine for the remainder of my career.
Since this time, someone advised me to take a second look at the Torque demo, advising me of the the keys I needed to use to make it work.
I did, and it was very impressive. The orctown demo sold me on the engine. As soon as I get my finances straight, I'll buy the Torque engine. Hoepfully, by that time, the Shadeer engine will be complete, and I might bypass the TGE for the TSE.
What I've learned so far,
1. I forget what version of DirectX TGE supports, but TSE supports DX_9 while Blitz3D supports only DX_7. While at this time in MY career, that is not too important, later on it might be (just to keep up with the big guys) (!!! Yeah, Yeah the big guys will always be bigger, and richer, and first on the new technology front, but at least, I'll stay afloat !!!)
2. Torque is C++ (or C) while Blitz3D is a hybrid BASIC, which makes Torque .exes inherently faster than Blitz's. Also Sibly has chosen to use some unusual syntax for some of his commands. He has promised to changed this in his BlitzMax product, and when that supports 3D, I'll buy that too!
3. Many of the tools in Torque come with Torque that match Blitz tools, but need to be purchased seperately. For example, the World Editor in Torque is similiar to a product named ALE for the Blitz3D package.
About the author
#2
The advantage of Torque, plain and simple, is power. The starter.fps that comes with Torque, has more features built in than anything I could have written in Blitz, and there are other starter kits for whatever type of game you are planning. You get a lot out of this package, but you pay for it with increased complexity in everything you do. In Blitz you create a new program, which may be only a few lines long, but you still have access to behind-the-scenes Blitz functionality. In Torque, even if you are doing something simple, the simple thing you are doing needs to be integrated into an enormous existing project. Also, the scripting language in Torque is much more difficult to learn than any other engine I've tried.
>IIRC, Blitz doesn't support networking.
Blitz does support networking, as in sending strings between client and server. A free, 3rd party add on called BlitzPlay also adds some additional networking functionality. On the other hand, that is nothing compared to what Torque networking gives you. I've tried all the engines that you mentioned, and none of them come close to Torque when it comes to networking.
>Torque is C++ (or C) while Blitz3D is a hybrid BASIC, which
>makes Torque .exes inherently faster than Blitz's.
BlitzBasic is a compiled language, just like C++. It may have similar syntax to previous BASIC languages, but that has no implications in terms of speed.
01/13/2005 (5:22 pm)
I have used both Torque and BlitzBasic. I own the Torque SDK and Blitz3D. After using both, I still like both of them and wouldn't really rate one over the other. Blitz is easy to learn, easy to use, and very well documented. Even someone who is new to the whole idea of programming should be able to learn Blitz by reading its manual, which is really an easy read. Debugging was never an issue for me with Blitz, and the community support is comparable to Torque's.The advantage of Torque, plain and simple, is power. The starter.fps that comes with Torque, has more features built in than anything I could have written in Blitz, and there are other starter kits for whatever type of game you are planning. You get a lot out of this package, but you pay for it with increased complexity in everything you do. In Blitz you create a new program, which may be only a few lines long, but you still have access to behind-the-scenes Blitz functionality. In Torque, even if you are doing something simple, the simple thing you are doing needs to be integrated into an enormous existing project. Also, the scripting language in Torque is much more difficult to learn than any other engine I've tried.
>IIRC, Blitz doesn't support networking.
Blitz does support networking, as in sending strings between client and server. A free, 3rd party add on called BlitzPlay also adds some additional networking functionality. On the other hand, that is nothing compared to what Torque networking gives you. I've tried all the engines that you mentioned, and none of them come close to Torque when it comes to networking.
>Torque is C++ (or C) while Blitz3D is a hybrid BASIC, which
>makes Torque .exes inherently faster than Blitz's.
BlitzBasic is a compiled language, just like C++. It may have similar syntax to previous BASIC languages, but that has no implications in terms of speed.
Associate Orion Elenzil
Real Life Plus
Torques networking is very mature and robust,
and if you're making a multiplayer game
that alone is enought to go with Torque.