Decision Support to Gamesstudio Pro/Torque 3D/Unity 2.5 Pro

#1 I can't comment on GameStudio, but I can comment on Unity and T3D:

1. Unity:

Better integration between editors.
Unfortunately, No source.
Unfortunately, No water shader in indie version.
Unfortunately, slower than T3D

2. T3D
Faster than Unity
Unfortunately, still in beta (some bugs to be worked out)
Unfortunately, not as integrated


Plus - do you really care about a logo? Even the big games use middleware, and display their logo. I think T3D will be top-shelf when the bugs are squashed and it's released.

I think T3D Indie would be Creme de la creme if they release it as a DLL, with a Link Lib (not as an EXE), and the bugs are squashed.

I think Unity Indie would be great, if they didn't cripple it by giving you only blob shadows and no water.


There have to be a hundred "Unity vs Torque" threads, many with quite valid points. Here's a recent one:

www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/96493

#2 I don't own A7 but I do own A6 and can give you my opinion based on that. One positive, is that Gamestudio is just that. When you buy their product, you get everything you need to make a game. It includes a script editor, model editor, and a world editor which can be used to build structures as well. Shaders are also supported, and I'm not sure what you meant by "no Internet" but multiplayer is supported and in the pro version it's unlimited. They put out a magazine monthly with tutorials and guidance which make the engine very easy to learn. The community is one of the best I've ever seen...possibly even THE best.

I don't have T3D but I have TGE and TGEA so I can give you my opinion based on those, which are similar to what T3D is going to be. Although you aren't given a suite of tools off the start, you can download constructor for free, and an opensource script editor for free if you want, as well as a modeling program like Blender. It takes a lot less work to get your work "looking professional" in Torque. I prefer the graphics engine in Torque to 3DGS, and the networking in torque. One huge positive, was when GG gave out constructor which is an awesome program.

In my opinion, if you were to make a smaller game and have a budget, A7 would be the way to go. You get a lot for what you pay for, and it's easier to start up a game from scratch. If you're looking to make a large game that requires networking, has to be flashy, and "feels" easier to work in, I'd go T3D.

Honestly, either way you go, I would recommend building the game with a cheaper version and then upgrading later on if you really need to remove the logo screen. It will save you a lot of $$$ if you decide to change engines later, or your project gets canned.

#3 Teromous, sorry I meant with "no Internet" no Webplayer. This kind of the play spreading is the future. And here is the "krux": Gamestudio is very simple, but is it not around lengths of the usual Engines back? Don't I set on the wrong horse? I would not like to have spent my money in vain.


I know T3D too little over to measure, as complex programming is. Can I program thereby just as fast as in Gamesstudio? Or do I have to again invent the wheel? At the same time I am fascinated over the quality the T3D engine.
Oh God is that difficulty to be found a decision

#4 I do not own Unity, but I own TGE, TGEA, T3D, A6, & A7:
The Torque products, especially T3D are more professional (require more skills)and are true client/server. While A7 advertises multiplayer, a recent review of the forums suggest much frustration implimenting successfully. I am attempting to learn T3D primarily for the multiplayer and advanced rendering systems (it also is multi-platform).

The best things about A7 are the Studio tools that eliminate reliance on exporter plug-ins, and the third product tool Intense-X which allows you to build a fully functioning game without writing any script. See the intense-x product here www.intense-i.com/index.php make sure to look under support -> online manual -> features section.

In short you can make a PC shooter type game with A7 really quick and without any coding, but I think you will never make a AAA quality game.
T3D is really great, if you can advance your skill set to AAA quality you can make a AAA quality game on the engine.

(Just my opinion - Your's may be different and that's OK by me!)

#5 What anuther1 says in his last paragraph is the largest emphasis I'd like to make. I was at the store the other day and I saw one game that was produced with Torque and another that was produced with 3DGamestudio. It is possible to produce a high quality game, but I suppose the best way to describe it would to be two curves.

With A7 your curve will start low and curve up. It's very easy to make a game with it, but in order to improve the quality of the game later on, it will take more work.

With T3D your curve starts high and curves downward. It is harder to get a game running from the beginning because there's so much work to be done in torquescript, but once you get a "template game" it becomes much easier later on to just drop the template in and work from there, without having to worry about improving the graphics engine, etc.
(also if you noticed with T3D it says "genre kit compatible" so very soon this might not be as much of an issue)

#6 A little bit old but I will throw my 2 cents in on the subject as a TGEA/ Unity Pro owner (who has also tried gamestudio)

While I am sure that it is possible to make good games with gamestudio, the editors look like they were built in the late 90's and never updated. Compared to the workflow of torque or unity, gamestudio is far behind in the editor as far as I am concerned.

My experience with torque is TGE/A and the experience I had with those engines was not so good. The documentation was just horrible. Grant you they had a lot of documentation but a lot of it was scattered around and a bunch of them had broken links. The next point is not really bad but more just a warning, if you are going to be using the engine for more than a FPS, you are going to have to dig in and make minor to moderate engine source code chances (and this is good if you need the integrate middleware into the engine). Of the three from a per tech feature level, it might be better than Unity pro however it really depends on what you are looking for.

Unity pro is currently the engine of choice for me right now for a few reasons. The first reason is that I have no interest in playing around with the engine source so unity not providing source access is not a problem. The bigest thing I like about unity is that the IDE they provide always for the cleanest workflow of game engine tools that I have ever used. The next best thing about unity is the community. 99% of the community is very nice to even the most "noob" questions , elitist attidute here (not saying that the torque community is bad or elitist because they are not, Unity's is just a little more active in my opinion. If you are dead set on needing some other middleware component in your game engine, then Unity might not be the best choice however you can still integrate some (not all) middleware into Unity through the C++ plugin system.

I would also like to recommend another engine to look at and that is C4, heard pretty good things and from what I have seen, it is pretty capable just not sure what kind of tools are available for it (like world editor and what not).