So where is the TGB roadmap?

#1 It's because so many portions of the Torque 2D project are still in heavy R&D. We made a decision last year to not do development blogs such as the one Brett did for Torque 3D until we knew the vast majority of the min spec was achievable. iTGB is far enough along its current path that announcing a roadmap is doable.

We're getting REALLY close on Torque 2D, but we don't want to jump the gun just yet.

#2 What if I buy both T-Shirts, the mouse pad and the sticker?
Is that incentive enough? :D
I'm not looking for the holy grail here. My plan is and will always be to develop with Torque. I like the technology. I'm still trying to learn the technology. What I'm curious though is if T2D is going to be a radical departure from what it is now. Right now, I'm still struggling with TGB to produce a game. Is T2D going to be much easier to make a game as opposed to TGB?

#3 Its always gonna take work to make a game... so don't plan on Torque 2D solving that. :)

#4 No holy grail with a "make baldurs gate with NWN multplayer capabilities" button? :-(

^^

#5 @Stephen: We're definitely aiming to do with Torque 2D with we've done with Torque 3D, i.e. better editors, more "most wanted" feature sets, and a beta iteration where we get feedback from the community. One thing we've mentioned on the forums in a *cough cough* type of way is that we're integrating the 3D and 2D codebases. This kind of integration will make it easier to make games since Torque 3D has a lot of cool stuff that we're hoping T2D can grab.

#6 The thing I hope most for, aside from addition of modern features and real DX support (TGB as TGE doesn't have one that works acceptable on those systems requiring DX), is what we have been hoping for since the original T2D EA phase: back addition of the realtime networking and related dedicated server capabilities.
Its one of the major "buzzes" about Torque and at least to me a sad thing it was ripped out.

#7 Is Torque 2D going to be something totally different from TGB, or is it just an interchangeable name? (If I've read the old posts and TDN info correctly, then TGB used to be called Torque 2D, right?)

If so, will there still be a TGB? Or will Torque 2D take over as the beginner game engine?

And examples of "cool stuff" that you'd like to see T2D be able to grab from T3D?

#8 @Marc - That's what I am hoping for too which is why I'm more interested in T2D than TGB.

@Tom - I know it's going to take some work, that's why I bought Torsion ;)

I'm not looking for an easy way out. What I would like is more explainable material on making games under TGB. While the tutorials have some information, a lot of them are just cut this code and paste it without explaining what is being pasted. That's what I am most frustrated with.

#9 @Mike - Torque 2D will become the flagship 2D engine for GG, just as Torque 3D is our flagship 3D engine.

TGB will essentially be TGB 2.0, but if development gets anywhere close to what Torque 3D has accomplished it will easily blast past the usual versioning scheme.

I'm sure we will continue to offer TGB 1.7.4 for a short time during and after Torque 2D. Honestly, though, most everyone will want to use Torque 2D once they find out the features (mmmmm, drooling already).

#10 @Michael - Stop teasing us. You're holding all the cards!!
<Finds an Ace up Michael's Sleeve>
*GASP* o.O


Oh and that's what I was seeing when T3D was first posted as information which is why I jumped on it. The same will go when T2D gets released as well.

#11 I'll admit, that sounds pretty exciting, but how would a beginner fare with the projected Torque 2D? Could TGB be thought of as a stepping stone to get to Torque 2D?

#12 I would think the concepts will be the same although I would think there would be some major changes with the editor. Don't take that as an official answer. That's just me wishing.

#13 So umm.. when did Torque2D and TGB become different engines?

#14 @Joe - Really?

Quote:TGB will essentially be TGB 2.0

@Mike - Yes, learning TGB will prepare you for Torque 2D. They will share a lot of the same base technology and concepts, but there will be a lot of changes that will require new docs. The same treatment I'm giving Torque 3D will be repeated during Torque 2D development. I'm actually super stoked to write the Torque 2D documentation from scratch. If it is anything like Torque 3D, the docs will probably end up being around 300 - 400 of brand new pages.

#15 @Michael - That might be one of my sticking points to waiting for T2D. I've seen the T3D Documentation and I see it being a lot more organized than what is even offered for TGB.

#16 @Stephen - Why, thank you good sir =)

#17 @Michael-That's cool your doing the documentation for the new Torque 2D.

Now if you can just break down certain concepts about programming in Torque Script or programming in general that would help a lot of beginners and novices new to Game Development and Programming.

It took me a good year and a half to grasp TGB and Programming. It's been pretty tuff at times trying to understand programming concepts. I even taught myself how to use photoshop and other art packages so I could do my own art. Thank goodness there has been good resources in the TDN network and forums. Will be posting up demo of my new game pretty soon.

If so I would like to see some video tutorials in the new Torque 2D to aid people.

All in all in the new documentation I would like to see everything broken down into Torque 2D for dummies kind of a level.
Simplicity all the way, if you know what I mean.

May even see a lot more games being developed in this new version.

#18

Quote:TGB will essentially be TGB 2.0, but if development gets anywhere close to what Torque 3D has accomplished it will easily blast past the usual versioning scheme.

Yupp yupp, there is a lot of potential and things to be learned from T3D that would make sense for T2D too:

1. Shaders (TX shows their use with the NMs)
2. Better visual representation of the objects in the level editor
3. A new good map editor (a kingdom for an expanded TGB 1.1 tilemap editor or something along the line of www.mapeditor.de.vu)
4. Realtime Networking and Server :)
5. The much cleaner code structure of the newer Torque engines, especially the modularity of given subsystems, especially the support of real sound libraries that don't lock the startup etc (-> OpenAL)
6. Browser Deploy
7. Learning some of the easy expansion capabilities from the 3D torque side for new object types, which is missing in TGB. Actually with TGB 1.5, even the Datablock dropdown was removed which costs a lot of productivity as now each single placed object on its own must be datablock linked instead of having it already at placement time. Generally I hope that quite some of the anti-workflow-optimizations done with TGB 1.5 are reconsidered so the workflow becomes as powerfull again as it once was

#19 @Michael Perry,
I'm confused.. I bought Torque2D back when it was in early adopter. Then it seems like the name was changed to TGB, but it's still the same old Torque2D engine. In fact I still have all the older versions of the engine so I know for a fact it used to be called Torque2D... Am I missing something here or what? Are there going to be two separate 2D engines from GarageGames now?

#20 @Michael
Good thing I read this thread. I was thinking about buying TGB, but now I'm reading that there is a new version on it's way?

Is there something of an ETA on the new version, and if TGB owners will get a discount or something? You'll probably understand I don't really feel like buying it now and then paying full price again in a couple of months (should something like that occur).

On that note, is there any info on this new version anywhere? I searched the site, but couldn't find anything.