Torque 2D?

#1 Read Melv's or Josh's Plan

#2

Quote:By extending the current Torque Game Engine platform, indie developers will have a powerful tool to compete in the exciting and growing arena of 2D gaming.

I wonder if this was intended as sarcasm (since Blue's News is more of a mainstream, hardcore site).

I mean, yeah, it really is growing - casual gaming is the fastest growing segment of the industry. And these days, nothing says casual as much as a 2D game. So maybe it was a serious comment - because it really is true (even if it does cause eyeball-rolling amongst hardcore gamers).

#3 .plan 1
.plan 2

#4 I'm pretty sure Jay wrote that statement, so it isn't sarcasm.

#5 Okay, so it was just quoting a press release. Cool beans.

I've been a 3D junkie since I first played Battlezone and Starfire in the arcades, but I've been slowly coming around myself. Of the five games I'm playing most right now, three are 2D (and one of the other two is Orbz, which has an incredibly easy and intuitive interface which I think more 3D games SHOULD have).

#6 I am all kinds of impressed with the Torque2D video stuff I have seen...

We'll definitely be using Torque2D to spruce up the Minions of Mirth GUI at some point...

#7 I would imagine most would consider Diablo (I & II) fans very hardcore gamers... 2D can be quite effective :)

#8 Yeah I doubt that was sarcasm. There are many strong 2D games out, most RPGs or TBS titles. I don't believe Blues think you need a heavy 3D presence to be mainsteam.

Veering violently off topic, whats going to happen to HomelanFed? :( It brings back memories of Stomped.com.

Ian

#9 Ian, watch the site here for more info on Torque 2D. :)

And sweet, look at the marketing team go!

But yeah 2D games really are on resurging. Just looking at the IGF finalists, that should be clear. And we're even seeing 2D console games, or games like Viewtiful Joe which are 2D-inspired. Personally, I really like the idea of having technology to help do any kind of game I want-- if I have a good 2D game idea, I don't want to have to spend months writing a system to build it on. If I have a game idea that'd be best in 3D, then I have help getting that done too. :)

#10 @Josh,

What format do you use for animated sprites? BMP with a color key for transparency? Or TGA with alpha channel? Or other...?

Also, can you integrate this into a 3D game? For example, an RPG with a 3D environment and animated sprites for characters...

#11 @Will: PNG is the primary format for sprites.

Yes, from what I understand it would be possible (easy) to integrate fxSceneObject2D into a 3D game.

#12 @Will: T2D uses all the file-formats that TGE supports and you can also add you own. In T2D, you're abstracted from the bitmaps anyway, well, as much as one can be. If it loads, it can be used in T2D for static or animated frames in any of the objects. You get it into an imageMap or animation datablock and you can use this image on a tile, scroller, sprite ... blah blah blah. T2D has three methods for loading and sectioning imagery into frames. You can either use FULL mode (all of the bitmap), use KEY mode (use a colour-key) or CELL mode (section the bitmap into regular sized cells similar to tile-map graphics etc). There's much more detail in Joshs' first .plan (Setting basic properties and loading images datablocks, and image maps).

Let's be clear about the combination of T2D and T3D. T2D (currently) renders its scenes to a T2D GUI Control which is based upon a standard T3D GUI control. The T3D GUI environment is outside of the 3D environment. You can use T2D to overlay T3D games but the 2D doesn't interact within the 3D environment. T2D would have to be a 3D engine to do that! No point in doing a 2D engine and then wanting it to work in a 3D environment. ;)

With that said, T2D has some powerful abilities that allow it to enhance/suppliment existing or newly developed 3D games. You can use it for mad-crazy-cool 2D overlays, effects, swish-interfaces (Josh Ritter?), whatever. You could also do it the other way around where you've primarily got a 2D game but you use 3D as the backdrop or other support. I'm sure we can all think of at least one game that does that!

To be more accurate though, it technically is possible to get T2D to render its scenegraph in T3D though but now we're going into the realm of tech-speak! I have played with this myself and it does work but this is not a supported object and won't ship with T2D. It does show though, that T2D is extremely flexible and works well alongside a 3D engine. The fact that T2D uses some of the components of T3D, doesn't necessarily make this so, it's all by design. Originally, T2D was all about getting it running alongside a standard T3D game.

- Melv.

#13 Thanks Melv.

You answered my next question.

#14 No problem Jay, hopefully I didn't disappoint you with my answer. ;)

- Melv.

#15 I'm really interested in T2D, and hope to see it released soon. Have you gotten a realease date planned out yet?

Unfortunately I'm not going to the GDC, so I'll have to keep forum and .plan hunting for info till it's available.

#16 Thanks for answer...

When I said 2D sprites in 3D environment, I was thinking of the Breath of Fire series...

These aren't the greatest examples, but they show what I mean:

www.absolute-playstation.com/gp1a/breath_of_fire_4_ps_lr_6.jpg

www.absolute-playstation.com/breath_of_fire_4_ps/breath_of_fire_4_ps_ml_2.htm

www.absolute-playstation.com/breath_of_fire_4_ps/breath_of_fire_4_ps_ml_3.htm

#17 That reminds we of Twinsen's Oddessy, now that would be a fun game to improve upon with T2d!!!!

#18 Xenogears did the 2D in 3D thing, too.

#19 Yeah, great examples... I'm sure there are others.

Anyway, it'd be great if the 2D stuff could work in a 3D environment.

#20 Yes, they can work in a 3D environment.

Take their point in world space, project it onto the screen, scale the sprite for distance. That's how it's done.