Mac TGEA v 1.8.1

#1 I've also recently purchased TGEA for the mac, and would also like to know where the documentation is. I do see a set of HTML pages that give basic intro information, but only a very small subset of API information.

Is there a current reference/API document for TGEA somewhere, please, that lists classes, properties, functions, etc.?

Anyone who can point me to this will be dubbed a lifesaver!

#2

Quote:Is there a current reference/API document for TGEA somewhere, please, that lists classes, properties, functions, etc.?

Click the Support -> Documentation link up top, you'll be presented with the "Documentation Landing Page", from there you'll select the relevant engine. It's mostly "fluff" and an attempt at a few "hand-holding" tutorials, but there is a bit of meat buried in there.

If you click on the Official Documentation link (this is for TGEa), you'll be able to browse and find a dOxygen generated "Engine Reference" guide. It in combination with the section on Console Objects & Console Functions in the "Script Reference" guide has been of the most value to me than anything else found in the documentation pages.

But keep in mind that the information contained in there is very dry, abstract, and possibly even out of date in some places.

EDIT: personally I've found "Find in Files" in my IDE to be the best documentation guide for me -- always discovering new things ;)

#3 The text I posted above is all that exists for engine installation on the mac.

While I have been able figure out some things getting the basic tools from TGEA compiled remains elusive.

For example how does one compile the GUI editor or the Mission editor ? Are these Carbon Applications or Carbon C++ applications or C++ standard applications ?? Which Xcode template to use ?

The engine/source folder contains 33 items ? Where do i start ?

This is very frustrating

#4 The C++ code that makes up GUI editor is located in the Project->Code->engine->gui->editor filter.

The World Editor code is found in: Project->Code->engine->gui->missionEditor.

When you compile your TGEA project, the editors are built into the binary (.exe or .app). If you want to change the appearance or the exposed controls, you can do so from script. The base functionality is in the source code, however.

#5 Alright the dir

TorqueGameEngineAdvancedSDK-Mac-1-8-0

contains

allProjects.txt
documentation
engine
GameExamples
generateAllProjects.command
Projects

engine dir contains

bin
documentation
lib
source
tools
workingList.txt

the source dir contains

app
atlas
clipmap
collision
component
console
core
gfx
ggEndOfLineFix.txt
gui
i18n
interior
lightingSystem
materials
math
persistence
platform
platformMac
platformPOSIX
platformWin32
platformX86UNIX
renderInstance
sceneGraph
sfx
shaderGen
sim
T3D
terrain
ts
unit
util
windowManager


Am i on the right track ? Do the GUI editor and the other tools build to their own apps ? or are they only part of a torque project ? the TorqueGameEngineAdvancedSDK-Mac-1-8-1 download contains a completely different structure with .exe and .dll files ... Is 18.1 a unified windows mac release ?

#6 The editors are part of the Torque Project, and do not have stand alone editors with their own binaries.

Your directory list looks right to me.

#7 So the editors are part of each project ? Or the Torque engine compiles to its own project ?

When i use the generateallprojects.command i can build the template app which runs but where to go from there ?

F11 only "shows all windows" as is the default under OS X. F5 brings up the particle emitter editor but the other functions keys like F11 do either nothing or their expected OS function

#8 The key aspects of the editors are compiled right in with the engine executable. There are also some scripts that control how the editors look and operate, look in the "projectName/game/tools" directory for those scripts.

You should also further explore the scripts in the project to see how they operate if you have questions about where to go with a new template. Think of "common" as being shared scripts for every game or project that you'll work on, you shouldn't have to make too many changes there. The "scriptsAndAssets" directory will be where most of your game related work will be done and where your game-art will go.

I've read that mac users have to press another key in combination with F11 (mission Editor) or F10 (Gui Editor). I don't recall what the key was though.

EDIT: neither can I tell you how to compile Torque on a mac... I don't have one.

#9 OK so the template project contains the editors as does every project ? How do you prevent modifications of the content after the fact ?

So you modify template files using the editors and then re-compile ?

the control key seems to be the correct modifier key for the Mac ..thanks for the heads up.

#10 To get the Worldeditor try [apple]+F11, works for me ;)

#11

Quote:How do you prevent modifications of the content after the fact

Simply remove the keybinds for the editors and/or remove the "tools" directory before distribution.

Quote:So you modify template files using the editors and then re-compile

Not sure what you're asking here. The only time when you need to recompile is after modifying any of the source code. You use the Editors to design your Missions and GUIs respectively. The "gameplay" scripts are editable in any text editor. They are compiled by the engine executable at runtime. The engine can be set to compile the scripts to a .dso format, which is a binary format for the scripts.

... and going back to the question about how to prevent modification: Once your game is ready to go, you will compile the DSOs, remove the .cs files, and the end-use won't be able to modify the scripts.

The "template" is just to get you started.