Should I get Torque?

#1 Forest, Torque is a monster of an engine.

It will do virtually anything you want it to, but that comes at the rice of complexity.

If you have the patience to learn as opposed to expecting to make a killer game right off the bat, and are willing to commit to learning and undestanding the engine, then, yes... buy Torque and never look back.

On the other hand, if you are looking for pre-packaged "answers" (and it sounds like you've tried that route and had enough) then Torque is not for you.

If you do grab Torque (and I'll lay odds that you will ;-) be sure to grab yourself a copy of Ken Finneys book: [url="http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5638"]3D Game Programming All In One[/url]. It'll get you started A.S.A.P.

~Hope this helps

#2 I'd definatly advise Torque to anyone who had a serious passion for making games and has the determination to learn all the required skills that they need.

Look into buying the book '3D Game Programming All In One' By Ken Finney if you REALLY want to give Torque a go, it'll walk you through everything you'd ever need to start making your own games and push you in the right direction. It comes with a demo version of Torque, Milkshape trial, PSP trial and various other tools that work well with Torque and the book explains every aspect of 3D game design/creation.

If your thinking of just buying it then don't, I'm glad I bought the book first and taken the time to learn all about what it can do, rushing in and handing over the $100 could be a very bad move.

Hope that helped somewhat.

EDIT - wow, like a mirror hit me on the head ;D

#3 To throw just a splash of cold water on the discussion: If you tried to mod with the demo and failed, then you'll want to go ahead and try again (once you can download it again) before purchasing the engine itself.

At your level of experience, it doesn't make any sense to purchase something that is even more complicated then what you haven't had success with yet--work with the demo more, make sure that you can produce things with it, before trying to make what is probably a very large purchase for someone like you.

#4 Well, I don't expect to have anything playable in a month. Thanks for pointing me at that book though, im sure it could be a great help.

Stephen:

I pretty sure your saying that you think I shouldn't get torque because you think that I don't even know how to use Coldstone. I think that I acctualy know how to use it well enough that there aren't any things that it can do that I don't know how to tell it to and how to do things with scripts like put RTS elements in a game or make a random map creation script (things it was in no way intended to do.) It wouldn't be easy to do but I know exactly how I would do it.

#5 I guess he was trying to say that you can do a complete game with TorqueScript, without touching the source code. So you can get a firm grip on the engine without making the purchase.

[edit]That said: if you know the TGE is _the_ engine for you, don't hesitate and buy it.

#6 Forest, We are just saying that betting that you don't have a firm grip of C++ yet, it would be a wise idea to play with the demo, and start working on that before you actually spend $100 for a engine liscense, because pretty much the only thing you get extra from the liscense is the engine C++ code, so, use the demo first, everything you do in script on the demo can be copied over to the engine in a matter of minutes.

#7 Actually, it was more of a committment type thing--he mentioned that he had tried to do some stuff with the demo previously, but was unsuccessful. I was suggesting that he evaluate why he was unsuccessful, and most importantly realize that buying the full source code license, and then learning how to code as well as script is even more difficult than the demo scripting itself--and would tend to, all other things being equal, make it even more difficult to be "successful" if you weren't successful with the demo alone.

Just a perspective is all, I think you should do whatever would be interesting to you--as long as you realize that having the source code isn't a magical thing to make you more successful!

#8 How would I do that? Just sort of try to learn the syntax and bumble though and try to find out how all the stuff works and then make my test game in a text editor? How would I make levels or maps or whatever? I guess it IS possible to do it with out any WYSIWYG tools...

I guess maybe this is more complicated of a thing than I want to deal with.

Edit: Wow two new posts while I was typing!

#9 Umm...you need to explore the demo more! The ONLY thing the source code gives you that the demo does not is the ability to open a text editor and modify source code. EDIT: Ok, and access to the private forums here on the garage games web site.

The demo is fully functional, and has all the WYSIWYG tools built in:

F-10 : Gui Editor
F-11: World, terrain, mission editors, terrain terraforming generation capabilities, terrain painting functionality.
F-5: (I think it's in the demo, should be): Particle Editor.

Plus, you have ALL of the starter.fps scripts that handle the gameplay for the "stronghold" mission, from weaponry to damage to spawning to the list goes on and on...

@Garage Games: can anyone think of some way to make sure people understand when they download the demo that it is fully functional? This comes up very often--people see the "demo" as simply a walkthrough, and don't realize the power it has for everything else.

#10 HOLY AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!

The demo has all that stuff?? great!!

Now I REALLY need to get it!!

Thank you guys so much!

So the only thing not sure about now is how I would create characters and stuff, but I'm sure it won't come from buying a license.

EDIT: yay the download is working!

#11

Quote:HOLY AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!

I have to remember that one for future reference... lol...

I hope you find what you're looking for in Torque. I know I did. It's a great engine for a low cost. (Compared to other engines) I'm also 13, so you can see that you don't have to be a professional to use it or anything like that.

Have fun making your game ( ;

#12 Hello Forest,

First, good luck. It takes some time to learn. There is a lot of documentation on the site. Have a read threw it and actually read it. I found I didn't actually spend enough time playing with the stuff I was reading until I was working at GG and had to actually test the chapters to see if everything was correct. I learned a huge amout, by playing with it while i read. The next thing is read Game Programming All In One. Its a great book and will help a lot. But again with that book you have to try the examples and type what it tells you to type. After I finished doing what I just listed, I wrote a chess game in a little over 1 day, and we are talking multiplayer, square highlighting and all the rules finished. You can do crazy things with torque.

Later, Ben

#13 Thanks guys! I plan on buying the book soon, and reading tutorials untill it comes.

I hope I end up making some good games. :)

#14 "Torque Rocks!" - Josh Ritter, Prairie Games