Game Development Community

Game idea/Torque questions.

by Dylan Jones · in General Discussion · 11/16/2005 (3:13 pm) · 3 replies

Hello, I know this should go under Game Ideas, but I also want to ask some stuff about the engine, and scripting.

I am going to be buying the game engine, and shader engine within the next month (Xmas). I am going to be starting the concept phase for game development, and start with basic models, and character models. I believe its going to be 1st person, or 3rd person shooter. However, its not going to be like anyother, lol, hopefully. Im not going to focus on realistic textures, or trying to keep it on earthy. Its not going to be a space game, more of a psycho thriller with a new style which is under construction. I am going to be making a site, and putting up some news, and concept stuff.


Anywho! I dont have access to the SDK because I have not bought the license, any way to play with the tools before buying it? So I can get full into devlopment when I get the license.

2. I have plenty of books, I mean more then 20 books, and Game Programming 101 :D (The torque book) and I was wondering if i could use resources from them into the game engine? For example I have one devoted completely on AI, and I dont know powerful the AI algorithm in Torque is, but could I add more? like adding the Neural network, or is that already included? Any information on the AI system in torque?

I have many more books, could anyone of them using C++ work in the game engine?
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Torque Owner Joe Bourrie
#1
11/16/2005 (3:29 pm)
Torque doesn't contain an "AI algorithm" or anything like that. Torque is mainly used for taking models, animations and levels, putting them in the game, displaying them, handling collision between them, networking, and scripting out actions (including AI actions). Anything you write in C/C++/TorqueScript/Python/Lua/BASIC/Fortran/SuperMegaHTMLPyRubyTran++ can be integrated with your Torque game as easily as it can be integrated into any other C/C++ game (through either direct code or an interpreter). So no, your books will not go to waste. However, it's one thing to have a book on neural networks, its completely different to be able to use them in your game. But Torque will not impede your progress, if that's what you're worried about. It'll let you focus on creating the game instead of creating the back-end engine and pipeline.

Associate Matt Fairfax
PopCap
#2
11/16/2005 (3:39 pm)
All of the tools are available in the demo. Just hit F10 to laod the Gui Editor or load up the example mission and hit F11 to access the Mission Editor (which includes the Terraform Editor, the Mission Creator, and the Texture Painter). If you hit F1 at anytime in the demo it will bring up a fairly nice help document that can get you started with these editors. The best book for tinkering with this stuff is 3D game Programming All in One and its follow-up Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One (which I believe covers some AI). These will walk you through pretty much everything you can do with Torque without actually purchasing a license. You can also take a look at all of the scripts that were used to make the demo by opening up any of the .cs files with the text editor of your choice.

There aren't any real AI algorithm's built into stock Torque since these can vary *so* widely from game to game. Right now there is only basic pre-deifned path following, single object targetting, and move-to-destination-in-a-straight-line "pathfinding". These are actually enough to do some interesting gameplay (I did a soccer game based on it) but are hardly comprehensive. To get into neural networks and anything really advanced you will need a license so you can add C++ source code.

You can use most any source code with the engine (stl can be hard to work with) but it is going to vary widely in difficulty in getting it integrated. Torque has some 300,000+ lines of source code so the hardest trick is often just determining the best place to stick your new C++ code =) With patience and hard work though, you can do just about anything with Torque.

Dylan Jones
#3
11/16/2005 (4:11 pm)
Thanks :) Yeah I put 3D game programming 101 when I meant the all in one, hehe.

I will see if the local book store has that other book you are talking about, and thanks for the help with the demo. So with all the in the demo, I can follow along with programing all in one?

Oh I cant wait to get working with the torque engine!

Thanks again, and I will be probably posting little help me threads now and again untill I get comfortable, and I should be pretty comfy when I actually get the two license.

Take Care!