Alpha4 1.1 is live
by Josh Williams · in Torque Game Builder · 01/31/2006 (1:06 pm) · 24 replies
Hey guys,
We put up a new verison of the Alpha. :) This is most likely going to be the last "alpha". This release has lots of cool stuff!
Here's a quick rundown of the updates since Alpha3:
-First, since the feedback was generally very, very positive both here in the forums and sort of "out on the street", we've decided to stick with the new directory structure introduced in 3b. This structure seems generally cleaner and easier for folks to use. We also went in and cleaned up the getting started scripts a tad, to make them easier to follow and read.
-The biggest and coolest change in this whole release though is the brand new Level Builder. :) It's pretty sweet, and you can check out a high-level overview in Adam Larson's latest .plan. It definitely needs some more polish, a few fixes, and some general enhancements.. but you can see where we're going with this thing, and it's already way, way, WAY better than working with T2D in the past. No more need to code everything by hand!
-We've also tweaked and improved the Packaging Utility a tad. Check it out, there are now "project files" and a couple other enhancements.
-We updated the T2D basic tutorial so that it uses the Level Builder
-We included the final round of feature enhancements for imageMaps. They can now be dynamically loaded and unloaded from memory, and you can control how all of this works using simple datablock parameters.
-We've updated the documentation to reflect these fancy new changes, and also provide a new overview doc, which points folks to TDN and the T2D docs here on the website. Just remembered, I need to add a link to the forums in that doc too... duh... :)
-We've got the usual spree of bug fixes and general improvements
-And we've got the OS X build working out of the gates on this build! Thanks very much to Paul Scott for burning the midnight oil to make this happen for all you Mac'ers out there!
Pretty cool stuff. :)
Please note... when you report bugs, please mark them as Alpha 4! And if you feel really helpful, in your bug reports, please help us indentify where in the code, script or assets the bug lies... and if you feel extra, extra helpful, go ahead and provide a nice fix! Thanks. The whole idea with these alphas is to give everyone a preview of what's to come, give you early updates, and hopefully have everyone help out making the engine better.
And, also, so you guys know... the next release of T2D should be our recommended build for a while. It'll have everything in Alpha4, plus some more polish, bug fixes, and general improvements. We'll probably label this a "beta", but it'll be in quite good shape, and it'll be our recommended release for a whille afterward.
Thanks very much to Melv, Justin Dujardin, Matt Langley, Adam Larson, Josh Welber from Large Animal Games and Paul Scott for all their work on this! Also, remember to checkout the T2D section on TDN... lots of great new docs up there, built for T2D 1.1. :)
We put up a new verison of the Alpha. :) This is most likely going to be the last "alpha". This release has lots of cool stuff!
Here's a quick rundown of the updates since Alpha3:
-First, since the feedback was generally very, very positive both here in the forums and sort of "out on the street", we've decided to stick with the new directory structure introduced in 3b. This structure seems generally cleaner and easier for folks to use. We also went in and cleaned up the getting started scripts a tad, to make them easier to follow and read.
-The biggest and coolest change in this whole release though is the brand new Level Builder. :) It's pretty sweet, and you can check out a high-level overview in Adam Larson's latest .plan. It definitely needs some more polish, a few fixes, and some general enhancements.. but you can see where we're going with this thing, and it's already way, way, WAY better than working with T2D in the past. No more need to code everything by hand!
-We've also tweaked and improved the Packaging Utility a tad. Check it out, there are now "project files" and a couple other enhancements.
-We updated the T2D basic tutorial so that it uses the Level Builder
-We included the final round of feature enhancements for imageMaps. They can now be dynamically loaded and unloaded from memory, and you can control how all of this works using simple datablock parameters.
-We've updated the documentation to reflect these fancy new changes, and also provide a new overview doc, which points folks to TDN and the T2D docs here on the website. Just remembered, I need to add a link to the forums in that doc too... duh... :)
-We've got the usual spree of bug fixes and general improvements
-And we've got the OS X build working out of the gates on this build! Thanks very much to Paul Scott for burning the midnight oil to make this happen for all you Mac'ers out there!
Pretty cool stuff. :)
Please note... when you report bugs, please mark them as Alpha 4! And if you feel really helpful, in your bug reports, please help us indentify where in the code, script or assets the bug lies... and if you feel extra, extra helpful, go ahead and provide a nice fix! Thanks. The whole idea with these alphas is to give everyone a preview of what's to come, give you early updates, and hopefully have everyone help out making the engine better.
And, also, so you guys know... the next release of T2D should be our recommended build for a while. It'll have everything in Alpha4, plus some more polish, bug fixes, and general improvements. We'll probably label this a "beta", but it'll be in quite good shape, and it'll be our recommended release for a whille afterward.
Thanks very much to Melv, Justin Dujardin, Matt Langley, Adam Larson, Josh Welber from Large Animal Games and Paul Scott for all their work on this! Also, remember to checkout the T2D section on TDN... lots of great new docs up there, built for T2D 1.1. :)
#2
Any indication on when even minimal simple network communications will be presented, demonstrated or officially supported?
01/31/2006 (2:56 pm)
I hate to be one of those 'but when...' folks, but here I go...Any indication on when even minimal simple network communications will be presented, demonstrated or officially supported?
#3
In fact, the TDN article for a turn based strategy (networked) game is under construction as we speak.
01/31/2006 (2:59 pm)
@Cooper: It's been in play for at least a couple of alphas now, using the commandToServer/commandToClient archhitecture.In fact, the TDN article for a turn based strategy (networked) game is under construction as we speak.
#4
I did an entire checker's demo game that will be with the next major release and am presently working the tutorial for it so look for the tutorial :)
Thats as far as turn based networking goes (which again can cover most game needs).
01/31/2006 (2:59 pm)
Right now Turn Based networking (which could accomplish a large ammount of game needs) is in... to see an example lookin the common/server/chatServer.cs and common/client/chatClient.cs .I did an entire checker's demo game that will be with the next major release and am presently working the tutorial for it so look for the tutorial :)
Thats as far as turn based networking goes (which again can cover most game needs).
#5
01/31/2006 (3:01 pm)
Just a reminder to people, that all the alpha's can be confusing but they were request by a large portion of the community, personally I like how its working out, every week or two we package up a release and people get to utilize some of the newest features :)
#6
I'll take a peek and see what I can come up with.
Really really looking forward to the checkers demo and tutorial!
01/31/2006 (3:05 pm)
Okay, I just hadn't even dug into any of the networking aspects as to my knowledge, without a deeper understanding of the TGE networking model, that you would have a lot of work ahead of you to figure it all out.I'll take a peek and see what I can come up with.
Really really looking forward to the checkers demo and tutorial!
#7
Linux side up to snuff? yah know I can't use that windows cruft *snicker*
-Ron
01/31/2006 (4:21 pm)
@Josh,Linux side up to snuff? yah know I can't use that windows cruft *snicker*
-Ron
#8
-jason
01/31/2006 (5:14 pm)
With the new directory structure, can someone let me know the pains they had getting their existing game adapted to the new structure? I am concerned about how this is going to affect my work.-jason
#9
01/31/2006 (5:24 pm)
Yay for the Mac version appearing along with the Windows version! :) Nice work, guys!!
#10
@Jason - I had to go through and redo all the pathing so it was a chore but I used the opportunity to optimize my scripts layout in general at the same time.
01/31/2006 (7:54 pm)
Way to go T2D team! Thanks again! @Jason - I had to go through and redo all the pathing so it was a chore but I used the opportunity to optimize my scripts layout in general at the same time.
#11
01/31/2006 (10:03 pm)
@Jesse, it doesnt sound that bad then? just the directory structure you are looking for scripts, images, etc huh.
#12
One mistake I made is expanding mainGui to include my game testing controls but that wont take long to fix and its something I should'nt have done in the first place. I should have my gameGui seperate from mainscreen just as a general practice even when prototying but just have been to busy to make that change on my main project till now.
Level editor look sweet at first glance and will be very handy. Transform and scale tools make the designer in me feel at home ;)
- Jesse
01/31/2006 (10:49 pm)
@ jason - yeah datablocks were a pain but really its just going through and hitting your datablocks, particle FX, image maps, gui bitmaps ect.. and changing the pathing. There is a change to client.CS to game.CS but its pretty straight forward, Oh one other thing is changing the debug switches but that went quick. The new version throws in an extra twist with the level editor but it makes sense to me after poking around only an hour and I should be able to finish this port fairly quickly.One mistake I made is expanding mainGui to include my game testing controls but that wont take long to fix and its something I should'nt have done in the first place. I should have my gameGui seperate from mainscreen just as a general practice even when prototying but just have been to busy to make that change on my main project till now.
Level editor look sweet at first glance and will be very handy. Transform and scale tools make the designer in me feel at home ;)
- Jesse
#13
I'm glad everyone seems to be as excited about this as I am, and I can assure you, this is only the beginning of the level builder, before you know it, you'll never want to leave it!
Best Regards,
-Justin
01/31/2006 (11:55 pm)
@ Jesse : Thanks a bunch for the kind words, the selection tool was an interesting beast and actually worked very well for sorting out all the tool input information that we'd need for the tool classes. It's still got a long way to go, with Multiple selection scaling and rotation handles, as well as some pick list fixes for getting to those nasty objects that are layered underneath another. Luckily though adam larson is on the case and will be getting it in proper working order soon enough :)I'm glad everyone seems to be as excited about this as I am, and I can assure you, this is only the beginning of the level builder, before you know it, you'll never want to leave it!
Best Regards,
-Justin
#14
If you can get updates pushed back into it, I'd be quite happy. Every time a new version comes out, it's good to see a user here or there put out the required changes for us Linux users, but unless this goes back into T2D itself on the GG side, it's just a constant catch-up for each upgrade. It's the reason why I haven't given any serious thought at all to changing the game I'm working on to 1.1.
On a side note, it doesn't look very good in the download page to see it marked as deprecated for Windows & Mac, but no mention of anything for Linux. Yes, I know this is probably because we don't have it updated yet, but it would be nice to see some mention of it here on the forum or on that screen itself.
In the end, I just want to develop with it like everyone else, without having to go through all these extra steps. :-)
02/01/2006 (6:17 am)
@Ron:If you can get updates pushed back into it, I'd be quite happy. Every time a new version comes out, it's good to see a user here or there put out the required changes for us Linux users, but unless this goes back into T2D itself on the GG side, it's just a constant catch-up for each upgrade. It's the reason why I haven't given any serious thought at all to changing the game I'm working on to 1.1.
On a side note, it doesn't look very good in the download page to see it marked as deprecated for Windows & Mac, but no mention of anything for Linux. Yes, I know this is probably because we don't have it updated yet, but it would be nice to see some mention of it here on the forum or on that screen itself.
In the end, I just want to develop with it like everyone else, without having to go through all these extra steps. :-)
#15
:( :( :(
02/01/2006 (9:33 am)
I get this message when I try to download it:Quote:
Unable to locate URL
Product links expire after 8 hours. If you are using an old link please vist your MyGarage page on GarageGames.com to get a fresh link.
:( :( :(
#17
Thanks a whole lot Melv, Josh and gang for a whole lot of hard work resulting in a whole lot of delicious goodies! T2D Alpha 4 will not disappoint - as a matter of fact - alpha 3b worked nearly perfectly for me on my small, little pc! As for me, there are no excuses anymore for not generating any interesting stuff of my own in the way of games and such!:)
Thanks again everyone; you'll likely see me in the forums more frequently once I get back into making games again (pretty busy with other things right now, but soon...very soon...I'll be back!:)
Gabor
02/01/2006 (12:18 pm)
I'm also having the same problem. This release looks really promising, but I can wait - until later today that is!:) Just kidding!:)Thanks a whole lot Melv, Josh and gang for a whole lot of hard work resulting in a whole lot of delicious goodies! T2D Alpha 4 will not disappoint - as a matter of fact - alpha 3b worked nearly perfectly for me on my small, little pc! As for me, there are no excuses anymore for not generating any interesting stuff of my own in the way of games and such!:)
Thanks again everyone; you'll likely see me in the forums more frequently once I get back into making games again (pretty busy with other things right now, but soon...very soon...I'll be back!:)
Gabor
#18
02/01/2006 (12:45 pm)
It's fixed..we had a minor problem with the web site, but it's taken care of now.
#19
Perhaps its my uncompression utility - maybe re-install that.
02/01/2006 (1:41 pm)
Thanks Steve!:) Is anyone else downloading a corrupted Alpha 4 file? My executables are all scrambled up - menus and images appear garbled. This problem persists even after downloading/unzipping twice!:)Perhaps its my uncompression utility - maybe re-install that.
#20
02/01/2006 (2:14 pm)
Let me know if you continue to have issues, and I'll check with Rick. 
Torque Owner Adam Johnston
*runs to download*
[edit]
Oh noooo!! seems I *have* to use this new directory structure now
I'm feeling the pain...
[edit]