Is Torque for me?
by Luigi Rosso · in Torque Game Engine · 01/23/2002 (8:29 am) · 4 replies
I've been pondering this for months now. I was a modder for Tribes 1 and I released one mod for Tribes 2 (Warped) and have two in development (one serious). I also did some modding on other games for LAN parties on Quake2 and UT.
I'd like to make one of these two mods particularly good and most of all free to download. I can work the T2 engine in and out from script but I know it's a whole different world in Torque. I do know C++, I started in high school and took two years worth of it. I fully understand classes, pointers, and I have coded in various other languages (Pascal, Perl, PHP). I've also had a crack at OpenGL programming (made a 3d version of the Snake game) but felt very hindered and plainly ignorant on the subject. Sadly I couldn't afford (though I got accepted) going to a good Computer Science university and so I'm studying Communcations (ugh) in a horrible university (ugh). I have three jobs to pay for my university and on top of it all I try to learn 3D Animation and Programming on my own time. I now have enough cash to spare to buy Torque but I don't want to make a mistake.
There are various reasons why I want to get Torque, coding wise. There are obvious limitations in the T2 script and I would like to add some features. I would like to know if it's possible for someone with my experience to do the following things (and get it running in the first place):
Disable collisions on specific items through the engine yet allow collisions to be detected (so for example mounting a sword on a player, I tried this in T2 but the collision boxes were making things act up because the player would collide with the collision of the sword and he'd walk funny).
Create true "sticky" items (every played Halo? when you check a grenade and it gets stuck on a player, not by just mounting an item to a preset point but to the point where the projectile hit the object). I made something similar in Quake2 but I was updating it every second (worked but it'd more efficient if it would directly update with player movement instead of updating to player movement), I'd like to be able to attach it to an object directly in it's model hierarchy possibly...
Automate file downloads (I've done this with Visual Basic on my own software in the past so I know the general algorithm though implementing it in C++ will be another story).
I know it's a very tough question and I'm likely to get no reply but I'm serious about making games and would like to learn more yet I also do need to get this done in a reasonable time frame (so I don't have a year or two to work on this project) as there are lots of people waiting for it.
Essentially, are the things I listed totally out there and wild/impossible to do with the TGE or are they plausible to do in the short run?
Thanks for the long and exhausting read,
Luigi
I'd like to make one of these two mods particularly good and most of all free to download. I can work the T2 engine in and out from script but I know it's a whole different world in Torque. I do know C++, I started in high school and took two years worth of it. I fully understand classes, pointers, and I have coded in various other languages (Pascal, Perl, PHP). I've also had a crack at OpenGL programming (made a 3d version of the Snake game) but felt very hindered and plainly ignorant on the subject. Sadly I couldn't afford (though I got accepted) going to a good Computer Science university and so I'm studying Communcations (ugh) in a horrible university (ugh). I have three jobs to pay for my university and on top of it all I try to learn 3D Animation and Programming on my own time. I now have enough cash to spare to buy Torque but I don't want to make a mistake.
There are various reasons why I want to get Torque, coding wise. There are obvious limitations in the T2 script and I would like to add some features. I would like to know if it's possible for someone with my experience to do the following things (and get it running in the first place):
Disable collisions on specific items through the engine yet allow collisions to be detected (so for example mounting a sword on a player, I tried this in T2 but the collision boxes were making things act up because the player would collide with the collision of the sword and he'd walk funny).
Create true "sticky" items (every played Halo? when you check a grenade and it gets stuck on a player, not by just mounting an item to a preset point but to the point where the projectile hit the object). I made something similar in Quake2 but I was updating it every second (worked but it'd more efficient if it would directly update with player movement instead of updating to player movement), I'd like to be able to attach it to an object directly in it's model hierarchy possibly...
Automate file downloads (I've done this with Visual Basic on my own software in the past so I know the general algorithm though implementing it in C++ will be another story).
I know it's a very tough question and I'm likely to get no reply but I'm serious about making games and would like to learn more yet I also do need to get this done in a reasonable time frame (so I don't have a year or two to work on this project) as there are lots of people waiting for it.
Essentially, are the things I listed totally out there and wild/impossible to do with the TGE or are they plausible to do in the short run?
Thanks for the long and exhausting read,
Luigi
About the author
#2
Anthony
01/23/2002 (3:28 pm)
I believe so, that is my assumtion anyway, I wanna make a game that the masses will enjoy even though my pocket won't. Maybe you would be more interested in joining a team to see how well you like the engine. Personally I belive the torque is by far the most robust engine for the money, and I intend on exploiting the opportunity for the experience. I am a artist and as such learning the programming has been, and still is, a great challenge, but the diversity of animations that is supported for the torque engine is what keeps me a firm beliver in the code. Code can be altered (for 100 bucks) getting rights to a new exporter that can do what this exporter can do is worth THOUSANDSAnthony
#3
And yes, you can give away your game, you would have to download it from garagegames.com I believe , but you could even link it from your site. But after all the work you will have to put to modify the engine, I seriously doubt you couldnt accept some extra cash for that (well, at least I wouldn't, but thats just me =)}.
You have only meet the tip of the iceberg , ready to meet the whole thing? =)
p.s. here are just a few of the things the community
is working on right now in torque
*Time of day functions, fast relighting.
*Wheeled vehicles physics.
*Meelee weapons fighting.
*New kinds of vehicles including animals and watercraft.
*Bigger and more realistic terrains.
*BSP trees for faster rendering.
etc, etc, etc.
01/23/2002 (3:50 pm)
Hmm.. well it looks like you already have covered lots of what you need to get you around in torque, c++, script coding and even modding tribes2 (not everybody here has that kind of knowledge) if you can add stl, templates and opengl to that list:( this link might hep you on that ) I can give you one big Reason to get torque for.. to see how a professional engine works and how to modify it to whatever you like. =) (you cant do that with tribes2) it wont be easy, but if you can handle it (looks like it) it would be worth it.And yes, you can give away your game, you would have to download it from garagegames.com I believe , but you could even link it from your site. But after all the work you will have to put to modify the engine, I seriously doubt you couldnt accept some extra cash for that (well, at least I wouldn't, but thats just me =)}.
You have only meet the tip of the iceberg , ready to meet the whole thing? =)
p.s. here are just a few of the things the community
is working on right now in torque
*Time of day functions, fast relighting.
*Wheeled vehicles physics.
*Meelee weapons fighting.
*New kinds of vehicles including animals and watercraft.
*Bigger and more realistic terrains.
*BSP trees for faster rendering.
etc, etc, etc.
#4
Thanks for your replies they were very helpful and I'm now a proud owner of the TGE :) Or a proud licensee at least :)
Thanks again,
Luigi
01/24/2002 (7:15 am)
Could I ask for more? No!Thanks for your replies they were very helpful and I'm now a proud owner of the TGE :) Or a proud licensee at least :)
Thanks again,
Luigi
Torque 3D Owner Luigi Rosso
Can we release a game for free? Meaning we don't want to release the game commercially.
Otherwise I think I'll stick to modding T2. I'd want torque to implement things that without it I can't do with just the T2 engine. This would be an enormous learning experience for me.