Support for different languages, external apps.

#1 You could always bridge technologies, though if he has ever used a large C++ codebase and bridged it with a large Java codebase, he'll probably wring your neck for even suggesting it since it's usually not that pretty.

#2 Working with GG's engines for a couple of years, and currently taking a 2,5 year education focused around Java I think both C++ and Java is similar enough to state that all he would have to concern himself with is another syntax, and learning to clan garbage up himself ;)

So it would not be that big an issu for you guys to use Torque and have him dig into it (my 2 cents)

-good luck!

#3 Ok then, second note is, is there a way to use java instead of the torque language? he doesn't seem particularly keen on that language to be honest, also can the advanced engine still be used to create 2d games as effectively as the other engines, or is that the game creator only?

Oh, and is there a tutorial on how to intergrate the C++ codebase and the java codebase?

#4 My honest advice is to replace your programmer. Any programmer unwilling to learn new skills to help their team is complete dead weight, and their skills as a programmer should be called in question.

So if his only reason is that "its too hard" ditch him and find someone else.

#5 1) this programmer is my boss, and he's done enough for me to see that he is in no way a dead weight, running a indie mmorpg for Nearly 5 years with a nice amount of success, his skills are not to be called into question, He just wishes to utilize the skills that he has built up over many a year in the engine and game, i'm not saying we wont ever touch C++ but I am saying that he does not want to learn an entire new programming language before he can start making anything productive programming wise. Off that topic now, can TGEA be used for 2d games aswell, and if so what of it's features cannot be used (Im most concerned about things such as the particle editor and such) or should we look into TGB, Also the main question still stands, is there a way to use Java as the main programming language for our game while still using torque as our engine, instead of using C++, it's ok if some C++ is needed, but can we make Java usable in the engine.

#6 Torque A. could be used for making a 2d game, but why dive into a 3d engine to do that ?

But looking at the priorities;

Lead programmer is sceptic if TGEA is capable of handling the job
Lead programme is lacking C++ skills

We will most likely employ a C++ programmer in the long run
Your boss are interested in doing partial coding

== Have a go at TGEA. Hire that C++ coder right away. And have that boss Java coder,
be on the sidetrack discussing game mechanics and OOP issues on a consultant basis with the Lead C++ coder

What does you want to use the Java virtual machine chewing for, the GUI layer, the service layer or the core ?
The core ought to be pure C++ TGEA engine compiled to machinecode and not bytecode, the GUIS works like a blast (and as stated, the difference in Java and TS/C++ are nothing but syntaxial bumps) and the service layer -well there it might fit in, Torquescript/C++ threads reaching out from the application to executeables made in Java.

To answer your core question in a core way; using Java as main language for a C++ based engine, is not optimized development.

#7 You could possibly use Java for a network layer and game rules as long as they're not executed in the main render loop, but with the intermittent lags due to garbage collection you're going to be in a world of hurt if you try to use any Java in the inner rendering loop.

Writing a JNI layer for Torque would be extremely painful... Torque's architecture is a "big ball of mud" and the design is lacking clear interfaces. Figuring out where to hook the JNI / Java would be impossible for someone unfamiliar with Torque code. Since it's mostly single threaded (game rules, rendering, network serialization, etc are all running in one thread) then you'd have a beast of a time splitting things out.

Are you writing an MMO or virtual world? If you are writing one or the other, check out Multiverse... the backend is written entirely in Java (with Python scripting), but the front-end is C# and I don't think you get any of the source code.

Project Darkstar might also be an option, but it comes with a fairly vague licensing terms (unless it's changed recently).

#8 Interesting, I will forward your reply's to my Boss and see what he say's, in response to tony, we are capable of making our own engine if necessary, it's just that torque has a nice track record as well as a feature list perfect for us and brilliant networking capabilities. But yeah, I will contact my boss and re-post tomorrow with his answer, thanks for the quick response everyone :)