Whats the best way to learn and use TSE - instead of me playing
by David Andrews · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 08/19/2006 (10:16 am) · 4 replies
Right so I've had TGE since October 2004, bought it on a whim and played about with scripts and really enjoyed making changes to the engine via scripts! Was lots of fun but not very productive.
I have this week just bought TSE (on a whim again as MS4 sounds cool), which from the ofset looks like an even better engine.
I've read an awful lot of tutorials etc and I've even got 3D Game Programming All in one, Advanced 3D Game Programming All in one and The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque. I still seem alot of the time to just be playing about with the code in the scripts and I'm guessing it would be even worse playing in the source code... (Just to note i havent finished any of those books I mentioned yet).
Now my question is, putting my laziness aside for a second lol, what is the best way to really give it a go with using the TSE engine?
Should I make my way through the books I have... and in which order is best to help me with TSE?
Should I step back away from the TSE engine all together and learn one or more programming languages so I can come back to the engine and actually understand whats going on and be able to implement my own code etc. (I would rather understand everything as I keep running into issues which are probably fairly easy to fix but without knowledge of whats really going on I just keep having to come on the forums to find a fix hehehe)
I have a very good idea of what game I want to do, I have plans of what it should contain and how it should play etc. I will be doing everything myself so have to learn coding, graphics etc.
So I know this is a vague question as it depends on what knowledge I have already, which is very little in any fields like programming and graphics. I work as a school Network Administrator so I know how to use computers and I'm fairly logically minded when it comes to understanding computers.
I've just decided that I want to stop just messing with the engine and would rather understand it and so wanted poeples opinions on what is the best route to take.
Thanks in advance for any help people can provide :D
I have this week just bought TSE (on a whim again as MS4 sounds cool), which from the ofset looks like an even better engine.
I've read an awful lot of tutorials etc and I've even got 3D Game Programming All in one, Advanced 3D Game Programming All in one and The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque. I still seem alot of the time to just be playing about with the code in the scripts and I'm guessing it would be even worse playing in the source code... (Just to note i havent finished any of those books I mentioned yet).
Now my question is, putting my laziness aside for a second lol, what is the best way to really give it a go with using the TSE engine?
Should I make my way through the books I have... and in which order is best to help me with TSE?
Should I step back away from the TSE engine all together and learn one or more programming languages so I can come back to the engine and actually understand whats going on and be able to implement my own code etc. (I would rather understand everything as I keep running into issues which are probably fairly easy to fix but without knowledge of whats really going on I just keep having to come on the forums to find a fix hehehe)
I have a very good idea of what game I want to do, I have plans of what it should contain and how it should play etc. I will be doing everything myself so have to learn coding, graphics etc.
So I know this is a vague question as it depends on what knowledge I have already, which is very little in any fields like programming and graphics. I work as a school Network Administrator so I know how to use computers and I'm fairly logically minded when it comes to understanding computers.
I've just decided that I want to stop just messing with the engine and would rather understand it and so wanted poeples opinions on what is the best route to take.
Thanks in advance for any help people can provide :D
#2
Next I would take one of those very fine books you mentioned and just flip through each of them until you find one that is put forth in a manner you understand immediatly,....Now I dont mean that you should look through and just be able to understand everthing there,.... but do you like the writing style of the author? I find this helps me learn if its easy to read and I dont have to get a dictonary or to read between the lines..lol..ok but really
and the biggest rule i follow and the most important(I tell this to my children)
"If you a frustrated you will learn nothing"...at that point put it down and iether move onto somthing you know or somthing compleatly different...and try to take everything as slowly as you are comfortable with...its not a race to see who knows more...your learning..let yourself learn...
I would also try to pick an aspect say "modeling" and go with it for a while... try the examples in the books
and if you have problems start SEARCHING the forums for a solution..it just may be there are others with the problem...or ask us here at the forum..this community is great and most are eager to help
lastly...i think you a smart man for playing around with the scripts and code...and yes you should go into the source code....do anything you want to it...break it.... tear it...well..just mess with it and see what it does(always keep a backup of coarse;))you will learn from this everyone else does
Final Word->DONT GIVE UP!!
08/19/2006 (1:19 pm)
Hey man your on the correct track just buying the books and the engine Good Job so far!!For this you should be saluted(along with all others who buy this engine).Next I would take one of those very fine books you mentioned and just flip through each of them until you find one that is put forth in a manner you understand immediatly,....Now I dont mean that you should look through and just be able to understand everthing there,.... but do you like the writing style of the author? I find this helps me learn if its easy to read and I dont have to get a dictonary or to read between the lines..lol..ok but really
and the biggest rule i follow and the most important(I tell this to my children)
"If you a frustrated you will learn nothing"...at that point put it down and iether move onto somthing you know or somthing compleatly different...and try to take everything as slowly as you are comfortable with...its not a race to see who knows more...your learning..let yourself learn...
I would also try to pick an aspect say "modeling" and go with it for a while... try the examples in the books
and if you have problems start SEARCHING the forums for a solution..it just may be there are others with the problem...or ask us here at the forum..this community is great and most are eager to help
lastly...i think you a smart man for playing around with the scripts and code...and yes you should go into the source code....do anything you want to it...break it.... tear it...well..just mess with it and see what it does(always keep a backup of coarse;))you will learn from this everyone else does
Final Word->DONT GIVE UP!!
#3
Pick a simple game you want to make. Don't worry about art issues... worry about code issues. Take it one step at a time. First decide if starter.fps or starter.racing is the best starting point for you. Make a copy of that mod folder to start your new mod. Now start making changes to it getting you closer, one change at a time, to your final game.
Along the way you'll have questions.... how do i do this? what's the best way to do that?
This is where you check your books and drop in here to the forums, doing a search first, then asking the questions. You'll then take that info back to your project where you'll clear that step and move on to the next.
Repeat those steps a few times and you'll have your game done. And before you know it... you'll *know* TGE/TSE/TGB.
:)
08/19/2006 (1:22 pm)
The best way to learn TGE/TSE/TGE or anything really is to just do something with it.Pick a simple game you want to make. Don't worry about art issues... worry about code issues. Take it one step at a time. First decide if starter.fps or starter.racing is the best starting point for you. Make a copy of that mod folder to start your new mod. Now start making changes to it getting you closer, one change at a time, to your final game.
Along the way you'll have questions.... how do i do this? what's the best way to do that?
This is where you check your books and drop in here to the forums, doing a search first, then asking the questions. You'll then take that info back to your project where you'll clear that step and move on to the next.
Repeat those steps a few times and you'll have your game done. And before you know it... you'll *know* TGE/TSE/TGB.
:)
#4
I just didnt want to 'waste' time if there was a better way that in the end gave a better overall knowledge of the game and how to use it.
Alot of IT work is always just playing with it until it does what you want it to - but I've always found in the end having the underlying knowledge to actually understand how things work the better way to get stuff done well.
I also thought if I only came from the angle of adjusting an already built base like starter.fps I might be limited in my scope of what I could do from the little knowledge I had, rather than maybe learning programming first so I could hopefully look at the engine more finely and know why it did things and could change them if I felt I needed to.
I'll have a go at breaking down the structure of how I'd like my game and seeing if I can implement some of the requirements for the game.... I'm certain I will be back with LOTS of questions soon hehe
Any other recommendations as to how best to progress would also be greatly appreciated...
08/19/2006 (2:10 pm)
Thanks everyone for the very quick reponses, they all just give me the positiveness to go ahead using the books as reference initially. I just didnt want to 'waste' time if there was a better way that in the end gave a better overall knowledge of the game and how to use it.
Alot of IT work is always just playing with it until it does what you want it to - but I've always found in the end having the underlying knowledge to actually understand how things work the better way to get stuff done well.
I also thought if I only came from the angle of adjusting an already built base like starter.fps I might be limited in my scope of what I could do from the little knowledge I had, rather than maybe learning programming first so I could hopefully look at the engine more finely and know why it did things and could change them if I felt I needed to.
I'll have a go at breaking down the structure of how I'd like my game and seeing if I can implement some of the requirements for the game.... I'm certain I will be back with LOTS of questions soon hehe
Any other recommendations as to how best to progress would also be greatly appreciated...
Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
Next start playing around with the game samples, like the starter.fps game. Find one that best matches your idea for a game. Start with some small tweaks to get to know the code and slowly evolve it to match your game's vision.
Finally, TSE itself is all about shader rendering and adding polish to a game. Once you have the game mechanics worked out, you can apply the TSE shader techniques (materials, atlas terrain, custom shaders, etc.) to add the visual polish to your game.
Everyone has a different take on this, but I think it might be best for you to become comfortable and competent with the scripting first. After mastering that, consider buying a C++ book and start learning that language. Then, you can start picking areas of the game engine and start going through the code to understand what it does.
Hope this helps in some way - Good Luck!