Game Development Community

Integrating external code with TGB

by baylor wetzel · in Torque Game Builder · 07/07/2006 (8:51 am) · 3 replies

I have some code i need to write which i don't think i could write in script (specifically, AI code). i'd like to have a TGB front end but write these special parts in another language like C++, Java, Soar or ACT-R

Obviously one way to integrate my code is to modify the engine but my particular circumstances might not allow me to do that. So i'm wondering if anyone can think of any other options

Most work in my area is done with Unreal Tournament. The way they integrate with UT (and Q2, Counter-Strike and Tribes before them) is by having their program pretend to be a network user. They start the game as a multiplayer game and then their program (running as an external process) logs in as a normal player. This might be an option for TGB, but only for turn-based games right now

Any other ideas? A plugin architecture i don't know about? Dynamically linked libraries that don't require me to modify the engine source? A fancy script exec/attach to process function? Sockets support? Telepathy?

#1
07/07/2006 (12:18 pm)
Just out of curiosity, what circumstance would keep you from being able to modify the source? Are you asking for a way around paying for the source code, or is there something else going on?
#2
07/07/2006 (1:03 pm)
I mentioned this in a different post but i do academic work and i'm required to share my work with other researchers. So if i modified the engine, i'd have to share those changes with them, which is what i don't want to do. For $100 or $250 or whatever, cost isn't really the issue

Maybe if i distributed my C++ changes as deltas (just my changes rather than the engine code + changes) that would satisfy my public disclosure requirement, although it would kind of a pain to keep track of that (maybe using a diff tool?)
#3
07/07/2006 (2:22 pm)
@Baylor,

I also do academic work with Torque. The catch is that I separate my academic research from the actual TGB/TGE implementation. For instance : I developed a Neural Network and a Fuzzy Logic system. They are both complete tools by themselves. They can be plugged to any other system. They are the actual product of my research. BUT, in behalf of testing I made a private implementation of those libraries to the engine, acessing them thru TorqueScript.

So I have an open, public library and a private, closed interface of them with torque.