Is Torque Game Builder Right For Me...
by Andrew Taylor · in Torque Game Builder · 07/25/2006 (10:49 am) · 5 replies
Good Day,
My name is Andrew Taylor and I am an 18 year software development veteran in the business applications arena. I run a small shareware company that has several utility applications, however I would like to venture into the game market, to spice things up a bit. Business software and utilities can get a bit tiresome after 18 years.
Having primarily spent my career programming in Visual Basic, VB.Net, and ASP, I have been looking for an easy to use engine that will help me out primarily on the graphics side of things, however I have not wanted to venture into the realm of 3D yet.
This makes the TGB SDK a great option for me, however I have some questions about it's functionality before I spend the money on it. I attempted to find these answers in the online tutorials, however I found out that I apparently have to purchase the software before I can access those. So perhaps you can answer a few questions for me on how the software can handle a few scenarios.
Scenario 1:
I have a missle in my game design which is a cluster missle, it flies straight when launched, then after a ways it "burst" to release several seperate small missles which each actively home in on a moving target/targets. Now I am assuming that with the system I can have a single sprite die with a particle effect that makes the bursting animation, then using code create several new sprites at that screen location which each then fly off after a target. Is this correct? Is there any online examples of doing this? What about target tracking?
Scenario 2:
I have a stationary turret that is attached to the ship, this turret will automatically track a target and fire at it, thus causing the graphic for the turret to rotate. Is this possible with the system?
Scenario 3:
Something not covered in the provided tutorials. Is it possible to use this system to create the menu system, allow the user to select options such as music on, etc. None of the tutorials show anything other than a single "level" that you start on.
Scenario 4:
Again something not covered at all in the tutorial is "finishing" a level and advancing to the next level. In my game you will launch from a base, after completing your mission you will need to return to the base, where you can then purchase upgrades, and select the next mission which is a different level. Is this doable without modifying the C++ code?
I appreciate your time in helping me determine if this is the engine for me.
Sincerely,
Andrew Taylor
My name is Andrew Taylor and I am an 18 year software development veteran in the business applications arena. I run a small shareware company that has several utility applications, however I would like to venture into the game market, to spice things up a bit. Business software and utilities can get a bit tiresome after 18 years.
Having primarily spent my career programming in Visual Basic, VB.Net, and ASP, I have been looking for an easy to use engine that will help me out primarily on the graphics side of things, however I have not wanted to venture into the realm of 3D yet.
This makes the TGB SDK a great option for me, however I have some questions about it's functionality before I spend the money on it. I attempted to find these answers in the online tutorials, however I found out that I apparently have to purchase the software before I can access those. So perhaps you can answer a few questions for me on how the software can handle a few scenarios.
Scenario 1:
I have a missle in my game design which is a cluster missle, it flies straight when launched, then after a ways it "burst" to release several seperate small missles which each actively home in on a moving target/targets. Now I am assuming that with the system I can have a single sprite die with a particle effect that makes the bursting animation, then using code create several new sprites at that screen location which each then fly off after a target. Is this correct? Is there any online examples of doing this? What about target tracking?
Scenario 2:
I have a stationary turret that is attached to the ship, this turret will automatically track a target and fire at it, thus causing the graphic for the turret to rotate. Is this possible with the system?
Scenario 3:
Something not covered in the provided tutorials. Is it possible to use this system to create the menu system, allow the user to select options such as music on, etc. None of the tutorials show anything other than a single "level" that you start on.
Scenario 4:
Again something not covered at all in the tutorial is "finishing" a level and advancing to the next level. In my game you will launch from a base, after completing your mission you will need to return to the base, where you can then purchase upgrades, and select the next mission which is a different level. Is this doable without modifying the C++ code?
I appreciate your time in helping me determine if this is the engine for me.
Sincerely,
Andrew Taylor
#2
So for Scenario 1, I am assuming then that what I would do is have homing missles each check the distance to all the targets on the screen, determine which target is closest to it, then rotateto the angle of that target to get it to "home" on the target. Sound correct?
Thanks!
I look forward to practicing with the demo some more.
07/25/2006 (12:43 pm)
Thanks for the info! That's what I was hoping to hear!So for Scenario 1, I am assuming then that what I would do is have homing missles each check the distance to all the targets on the screen, determine which target is closest to it, then rotateto the angle of that target to get it to "home" on the target. Sound correct?
Thanks!
I look forward to practicing with the demo some more.
#3
07/25/2006 (1:05 pm)
YES TORQUE IS RIGHT FOR YOU
#4
07/25/2006 (1:20 pm)
Yup, that would do it. 
#5
For scenerio 1, you would use something similiar to the turrent scenerio to rotate the missle toward the object and then give the missle a 'forward' impulse to simulate the rocket burst ... the shooter demo more or less has everything you need to simulate scenerio 1, the only difference is that your "debris" would become missles and have collision detection as well as "targetting" functionality ...
from my limited time with TGB thus far, everything you've mentioned sounds doable through TorqueScript and should be fairly easy to implement.
08/16/2006 (1:46 pm)
Andrew,For scenerio 1, you would use something similiar to the turrent scenerio to rotate the missle toward the object and then give the missle a 'forward' impulse to simulate the rocket burst ... the shooter demo more or less has everything you need to simulate scenerio 1, the only difference is that your "debris" would become missles and have collision detection as well as "targetting" functionality ...
from my limited time with TGB thus far, everything you've mentioned sounds doable through TorqueScript and should be fairly easy to implement.
Torque Owner Philip Mansfield
Default Studio Name
Scenario 1 is partly covered by the shooter demo. I haven't looked at it for a while, but I'm pretty sure that when the enemy ships die (and the player too IIRC) you get a particle effect for the explosion, and then some debris sprites are created which fly out from the source of the explosion. Your cluster weapon would work in a similar way.
Scenario 2 can be done by grabbing the angle between the turret and the target, and then using a .rotateTo command to get the turret to point at the target. By rescheduling the rotate command you can keep a constant lock.
Scenario 3 could be done with GUI controls. There are a couple of tutorials on them on TDN, but as a non-TGB owner, I don't know if you'll be able to access them before you buy. If the demo includes the .cs files for all of the demo games, take a look at options.cs in common\gameScripts and options.gui in the common\gui folder.
Scenario 4 would be no different. You can either knock up a GUI, or create a new game level that represents the base.
Hope that helps :)