Working with T3D in a team
by Daniel Buckmaster · in General Discussion · 05/15/2009 (8:30 am) · 2 replies
I'm such a weakling. Initially I wanted to stick with TGE... now I'm pretty sure I'm going with TGEA... and now T3D is tempting me! One definite turnoff, however, is the licencing. I just want to be clear before I think any more about what I could do with those... shiny... features...
At the moment, I'm working on a game very loosely with some buddies. I'm the Torque owner and I do all the programming - the others are involved in creating assets for the specific version of the engine I produce. This includes everything from weapons to structures to entire levels and environments. At the moment, this works, because I can zip up my current executable with the modified starter.fps, send it to them, and they can stick their own assets into the game, create levels and even play with the scripts.
How does this work with T3D? It seems the 'basic' licence is geared towards artists - so will it be necessary for artists to own the engine to be able to get their assets into it? If not, then why would they purchase it?
Though I could swallow the $1000 price tag, an additional 250 per artist I am certainly not willing to provide - and never mind what that says about modding the finished product.
At the moment, I'm working on a game very loosely with some buddies. I'm the Torque owner and I do all the programming - the others are involved in creating assets for the specific version of the engine I produce. This includes everything from weapons to structures to entire levels and environments. At the moment, this works, because I can zip up my current executable with the modified starter.fps, send it to them, and they can stick their own assets into the game, create levels and even play with the scripts.
How does this work with T3D? It seems the 'basic' licence is geared towards artists - so will it be necessary for artists to own the engine to be able to get their assets into it? If not, then why would they purchase it?
Though I could swallow the $1000 price tag, an additional 250 per artist I am certainly not willing to provide - and never mind what that says about modding the finished product.
About the author
Studying mechatronic engineering and computer science at the University of Sydney. Game development is probably my most time-consuming hobby!
#2
05/16/2009 (12:48 am)
Hmm... thanks for the information! Unless anyone can tell me otherwise, it's TGEA for me. Thanks again. :) 
Torque Owner Gerald Fishel
Development Ninja
Yes. That's one of the biggest changes with the new licensing model, and one of the primary reasons the Basic license exists. The tools are no longer free to distribute, so anybody using them will need at least a Basic license. When they get a Basic license it does allow you to distribute builds from the Pro version to team members with the Advanced lighting as well, so they're not stuck with the Basic lighting, but your artists will need a Basic license.
As far as modding the finished product, it's my understanding that you can negotiate a separate license to distribute some or all of the tools with your finished product for modding. That license will probably not be real cheap, but it will probably depend on what tools you want to distribute, how much they're modified, and more importantly how close they come to becoming a game making product of their own.