Questions about TGB
by Alex Okafor · in General Discussion · 07/16/2006 (11:39 pm) · 3 replies
I've tried the demo (did the shooter tutorial also in like an hour) and so far I'm pretty impressed at the ease of development for simple 2D games. Coming from BlitzPlus/BlitzMax where you have to essentially start from scratch whenever you want to make a game I really like the idea TGB is pushing. I'm interested in using Torque Game Builder to make 2D games, but not necessarily 'simplistic' in nature (ie not just a simple side-scroll shooter or fish eating game). I imagine its possible to make any type of 2D game with it given enough time/effort. Now my questions:
1. After there any actual limitations to the engine that I might not be aware of from making a simple game demo (like max sprites on screen, or sound channels, etc).
2. From what I've read TGB uses TorqueNetLite. Lite? Turn-based? Seems its narrowing the type of games I can make multiplayer when a real-time network library still gives me the option to do turn-based with game logic alone. this was the biggest showstopper for me, and was wondering is it a huge task to edit the source to get it to a real-time network library or would I be required to get TNL (I already own TGE) and implement it myself?
3. How important is it to have access to the source? Anyone with experience making a game with this have to go to the source to make the engine work the way they wanted it to?
4. From the little exposure I did have, it seemed that alot of your assets are in the level editor. does TGB allow easy implementation of multiple levels with the same game-code? The tutorials just seemed to kind of gloss over this.
5. Any comments on the thoroughness of the documentation?
6. TGE/TSE seem to have alot of community support when it comes to their respective SDK. I could not find alot of information on TGB throughout these forums compared to TGE (maybe its a private forum?). Is TGB supported as well as Torque 3D engines?
7. Any discounts for owning other Torque products?
Any information about the above would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.
1. After there any actual limitations to the engine that I might not be aware of from making a simple game demo (like max sprites on screen, or sound channels, etc).
2. From what I've read TGB uses TorqueNetLite. Lite? Turn-based? Seems its narrowing the type of games I can make multiplayer when a real-time network library still gives me the option to do turn-based with game logic alone. this was the biggest showstopper for me, and was wondering is it a huge task to edit the source to get it to a real-time network library or would I be required to get TNL (I already own TGE) and implement it myself?
3. How important is it to have access to the source? Anyone with experience making a game with this have to go to the source to make the engine work the way they wanted it to?
4. From the little exposure I did have, it seemed that alot of your assets are in the level editor. does TGB allow easy implementation of multiple levels with the same game-code? The tutorials just seemed to kind of gloss over this.
5. Any comments on the thoroughness of the documentation?
6. TGE/TSE seem to have alot of community support when it comes to their respective SDK. I could not find alot of information on TGB throughout these forums compared to TGE (maybe its a private forum?). Is TGB supported as well as Torque 3D engines?
7. Any discounts for owning other Torque products?
Any information about the above would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.
#2
07/17/2006 (12:33 am)
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm curious about your response to #4. So from what I gather the Level Editor 'automates' alot of the script writing for your items, etc. But does it come to a point where when you know relatively alot about TGB you can just sit down a write classes out just as easily? or is the Editor doing alot of 'behind the scenes' stuff?
#3
I guess it comes down to where your comfort zones are, and ease of testing. If you've knocked up your level in the editor (even with a load of hand crafted script behind it), you can hit the test level button and give it a go.
The Level Editor doesn't do anything sneaky, and it doesn't do anything that you can't do by hand. In fact, if you open the .t2d files in Notepad (or favourite editor) you can see exactly what's going on.
07/17/2006 (1:38 am)
The editor is great for placing items in the level and setting some of their properties. But you need to get your hands dirty with scripting to get much further than that.I guess it comes down to where your comfort zones are, and ease of testing. If you've knocked up your level in the editor (even with a load of hand crafted script behind it), you can hit the test level button and give it a go.
The Level Editor doesn't do anything sneaky, and it doesn't do anything that you can't do by hand. In fact, if you open the .t2d files in Notepad (or favourite editor) you can see exactly what's going on.
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You could write a few loops in the demo that keeps creating sprites and moves them in random directions, bouncing off the screen edges to get a feel for what you can do.
Not sure about the number of sound channels. As it's based on TGE maybe there are some threads rellating to sound channels that you can search for that cover this.
2 and 3. There is a resource that deals with merging TGE and TGB to get network functionality. As a non-TGE owner I can't comment on this, but it does obviously require you to buy the Pro version of TGB.
Source access isnt necesarily required to make a game, but it all depends on if the engine already does what you want to do. If it doesn't, you'll need the source to add in the features yourself.
4. As a long time user of TGB I've gotten used to doing loads of stuff through script rather than via the Level Editor. I don't see whay you can't create multiple level files though and just load each one as the player progresses from level to level.
5 and 6. I haven't actually downloaded the demo, but I'm lead to believe that it comes with the same documentation as the full version. It is quite comprehensive and the PDF files do cover a load of stuff. There's also a wealth of knowledge in the private forums. Melv and the GG crew are regular posters in the TGB forums and everyone else is normally pretty quick to post info.
7. Not anymore. During the EA phase, there was discount for TGE owners, but since the final release, the pricing structure has changed to what it is now.