The Limitations Using Torque
by Nmaxime · in Torque Game Engine · 09/02/2007 (11:47 am) · 6 replies
I have a development team forming and we are going to be starting on a project. I wanted to know if there are any limitations using torque before delving too far into building the design.
The Core Technologies of our project:
1) RTS style God View
2) Selectable Characters and Objects
3) Ability to change camera and player control modes from a free-form view to a view that targets, follows, and one character. Movement of that character is controlled by holding the mouse button and dragging it around.
4) A Grid system that allows highlighting of areas that the objects are able to move within the game.
These are the main features that we are looking to implement. Also if anyone feels that they have expertise in the area of heavily modding the source engine your your input will be VERY APPRECIATED and your name will be placed within our Dev. Team credits when the game is published first quarter of next year.
The Core Technologies of our project:
1) RTS style God View
2) Selectable Characters and Objects
3) Ability to change camera and player control modes from a free-form view to a view that targets, follows, and one character. Movement of that character is controlled by holding the mouse button and dragging it around.
4) A Grid system that allows highlighting of areas that the objects are able to move within the game.
These are the main features that we are looking to implement. Also if anyone feels that they have expertise in the area of heavily modding the source engine your your input will be VERY APPRECIATED and your name will be placed within our Dev. Team credits when the game is published first quarter of next year.
#2
09/02/2007 (6:04 pm)
From my understanding of the RTS kit is that it only gives the God view and selectable characters. The other features are they implemented? Or has someone already created code that does these things. I would not like to reinvent the wheel if there are other options available. 
#3
1) implemented
2) implemented
3) implemented by 3rd party (on GarageGames) resource (at least the camera, im not quite sure about the way of controlling the PJ)
4) I dont understand exactly what you mean, I has never heard of that before
Btw, "...only gives the God view and selectable characters..." what do you mean with "only"? thats not trivial work...
Anyway, Im not recomending you not one of this resources if you are looking for something that works out-of-the-box for your specific needs. AND there is this topic around the RTS kit not being direcly supported by GG.
09/02/2007 (8:02 pm)
Well I dont know exactly what you mean.... you would be reinventing the wheel if you try to do from cero any functioanlity already on the kit...1) implemented
2) implemented
3) implemented by 3rd party (on GarageGames) resource (at least the camera, im not quite sure about the way of controlling the PJ)
4) I dont understand exactly what you mean, I has never heard of that before
Btw, "...only gives the God view and selectable characters..." what do you mean with "only"? thats not trivial work...
Anyway, Im not recomending you not one of this resources if you are looking for something that works out-of-the-box for your specific needs. AND there is this topic around the RTS kit not being direcly supported by GG.
#4
I think I did something similar to that a while back. Sort of a "select where to build an object" The mouse cursor would go over the ground on a square grid. When the user clicked it would build a wall piece in the middle of the selected area (assuming nothing was already there to prevent it from being built).
Being I did it, I would say its more than doable :-)
09/03/2007 (7:05 am)
4 - Grid system that allows highlighting of areas that the objects are able to move within the game.I think I did something similar to that a while back. Sort of a "select where to build an object" The mouse cursor would go over the ground on a square grid. When the user clicked it would build a wall piece in the middle of the selected area (assuming nothing was already there to prevent it from being built).
Being I did it, I would say its more than doable :-)
#5
That aside and more important to you now with Tge there are a couple of places to look to get you a headstart:
1. First off as people have mentioned is the RTS kit this implements the god view camera, char selection with grids and zoomable minimap that you'd expect from an RTS type game, the down side is that this is no longer supported by garagegames which means you can still buy the product which is based on the tge 1.3 codebase but you're reliant on the community updating the code to bring it up to the latest tge build 1.5.2. There is a patch/forum thread with step by step instructions to do this but keep in mind that over time the RTS community is likely to dwindle so it may end up coming down to your team to alter it for later TGE releases.
2. Check out the advanced camera resource it has a god view, orbit mode, tracking modes and a good resource to start from with any alterations to the camera.
3. I would seriously consider AFX as an addon as I am guessing from another of your other threads it's a chess based game if so then AFX would give you the power to create some fantastic effects for the attack animations, but also gives you much better control over selection of objects and the camera, also the zodiacs draw and highlight on the terrain which would help you out with your No.4. Lastly I should mention Jeff and his team provide fantastic support for the product and responses to peoples questions on the AFX forums.
I own and have tried all three options and my personal preference is AFX every time, so far I've not met anyone that's been disappointed with the purchase of the product. I'm not working on a project at the moment so if there's anything I can help you out with or to discuss your game/team further then please email me (the address is on my profile), I thought about writing a chess game before and had some ideas for gameplay that might be worth discussing.
09/04/2007 (7:31 am)
Yes it is all possible with Torque, in theory you have the source code to the engine itself so anything is possible if you have the right programmers. That aside and more important to you now with Tge there are a couple of places to look to get you a headstart:
1. First off as people have mentioned is the RTS kit this implements the god view camera, char selection with grids and zoomable minimap that you'd expect from an RTS type game, the down side is that this is no longer supported by garagegames which means you can still buy the product which is based on the tge 1.3 codebase but you're reliant on the community updating the code to bring it up to the latest tge build 1.5.2. There is a patch/forum thread with step by step instructions to do this but keep in mind that over time the RTS community is likely to dwindle so it may end up coming down to your team to alter it for later TGE releases.
2. Check out the advanced camera resource it has a god view, orbit mode, tracking modes and a good resource to start from with any alterations to the camera.
3. I would seriously consider AFX as an addon as I am guessing from another of your other threads it's a chess based game if so then AFX would give you the power to create some fantastic effects for the attack animations, but also gives you much better control over selection of objects and the camera, also the zodiacs draw and highlight on the terrain which would help you out with your No.4. Lastly I should mention Jeff and his team provide fantastic support for the product and responses to peoples questions on the AFX forums.
I own and have tried all three options and my personal preference is AFX every time, so far I've not met anyone that's been disappointed with the purchase of the product. I'm not working on a project at the moment so if there's anything I can help you out with or to discuss your game/team further then please email me (the address is on my profile), I thought about writing a chess game before and had some ideas for gameplay that might be worth discussing.
Torque 3D Owner Novack
CyberianSoftware
Then, what you can or cant do its almost totally defined for your teams capacity, or by the time you have to do what you want. Torque in that aspect seems to be virtually unlimited.