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How far can I go with Torque Script?

by Ryanz · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 07/28/2009 (4:57 am) · 3 replies

Hey,

I have this idea for a 3rd person RPG game, and was wondering if it was possible to make it on TGEA without having to edit the engine code.

I would like an GUI which the player would be able to interact with using the mouse, then the camera would be turned by right clicking the mouse, and players would turn left and right using the arrow keys.
There are many control aspects of the game which I am really not yet sure how to edit.

I would also like there random weather changes, and day and night in my game, where lighting would hugely effect the game, and also time of day, I'm not sure if this is avaliable without editing the engine code?

The last thing is atlas terrain - I would like a map which is larger than a game such a Zelda. I would like to build a few cities ect. How large is it possible to go?

I bought The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque, and it's teaching me the basics, it's just that I don't know how far Torque Script can be stretched.

Thanks
Ryan
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Associate Michael Hall
Distracted...
#1
07/28/2009 (9:23 am)
Torque script can go a long way, but you would likely still need to modify the source code eventually.

The interactive GUI can be done in script and it would be 90% ready for use.

Movement controls can be done in script, although I think the right-click to move may take some trickery -- it's not something I've ever tried but it's possible it could faked/prototyped through script by forcing camera movement to the client.

It's possible to call up "storms", lightning, fog layers, and clouds all through script.

In TGE source code changes would be needed for proper day/night and time-of-day. Day/night could be faked by swapping skyboxes through script. I think there was a TGEa resource that had a time-of-day, seasons, and day/night cycle that was all done in script -- but I never tried it. In Torque 3D you could practically set it up from the editor.

Atlas terrains can practically be as huge as your system can manage. Memory usage and hard-drive storage would eventually put a limit to how big your map could be -- but they can be huge!!

Without knowing your goals it's hard to say just how far Torque Script can take you. Different people get different mileage with it. But do learn as much as you can, the more you understand it then the more you will be able to do with it. An almost feature complete game (in a variety of genres) can be done in script although the more you stray from the first person or 3rd person action genre and arcade type racing generes, then the harder your task will be.

Ryanz
#2
07/28/2009 (2:20 pm)
Thanks for the reply :) clearer a few things up. I was also wondering how it would be possible to edit features on a model, changing skin colour, armor, facial hair ect.

Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
#3
07/29/2009 (3:38 pm)
@Ryanz: Do a search for character customization, and you'll see several resources. Thing is, most of it requires source code changes. Some of it can be accomplished with mounting though, depending on how you do it, but you will almost definitely need to made source code changes for a lot of that functionality.