TGB, TGE, For a newbie, Whats the difference?

#1 Short answer:
TGB - 2D
TGE - 3D
TSE - 3D with pizzaz
TorqueX - 2D/3D hybrid with some pizzaz and .NET support

#2 Also for a complete newbie to game programing TGB is easier to get started with IMO.

#3 Yes, TGB is much easy to get up and running with quickly. It has some excellent documentation and tutorials designed with the beginner in mind. Plus its tools and workflow are excellent.

#4 My take:

TGE: Torque Game Engine. Here's a wickedly-powerful commercial-grade 3D game engine. It's a complicated beast built over many man-years by a company that doesn't exist anymore. But it's being continually upgraded and occasionally documented by a team of programmers and volunteers who are trying to tame the wild beast for users. It's offered at a bargain-basement price to offset the fact that there's still a lot of do-it-yourself type work that has to be done to make it power your dream game.

TGB: Torque Game Builder. Well, it still won't make your game for you without a lot of elbow-grease, but here's a game engine and toolset done "right" as a third-party tool, with far better documentation, cleaner interfaces, and better tools to help new game developers get something up-and-running quickly and (relatively) easily. Going 2D helps simplify matters even further. It occupies a great middle-tier that gives you the flexibility of an SDK, with the user-friendliness of a "game maker" toolkit.

TSE: Torque Shader Engine. It's TGE massively overhauled to be a friendlier API, with better documentation, updated technology, and even greater flexibility. Sort of what TGE would have been if it had been designed from the ground up as an engine for third-party users rather than an in-house engine. In 2006. The problem with TSE is that it's still not yet *finished*.

Torque-X: I'm still not clear on this myself, except that it's a .NET engine that will allow you to develop games on both the PC and the XBox 360 with THEORETICALLY little-to-no porting between the two. (I say in theory because there are ALWAYS differences between console & computer, from input devices to worrying about the "Title-Safe" area on the TV screen, etc). This is ideal for those who want to join Microsoft's upcoming "Creator's Club" for doing hobbyist game development on the XBox 360.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong :)

Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
Tales of the Rampant Coyote

#5 Jay gave the long answer.

#6 Actualy TGB is 2 and a half D, because of its capability for 3D shapes.

--Talon

#7 @Talon

I doubt 2.5 D is the correct term. While it can render 3d objects they're still on a 2D plane making it a 2D engine. Also I find it hard to imagine a half dimension. (Just my random comment of the day)

For a newbie I strongly suggest using TGB.