Game Development Community

TGB vs TGE

by netpsycho · in Torque Developer Network · 08/10/2009 (10:21 am) · 4 replies

Hey guys, I'm new here and I'm looking into learning to use the Torque Game Engine/Builder but I don't know what I should focus on. I am interested in building 2D games, which means that the most logical choice would be TGB, but I have many years of working with code so shackling myself to a WYSIWYG structure seems a little backwards to me. I've experimented with the builder and it's quite impressive, but my mind still works in code so I was wondering if you could advice me on what I should do.

  • Is there a difference between the TGB/TGE engine (ie: what runs underneath the builder)?
  • If so, since the TGB is made for 2D games, can I build all games using scripting and circumventing the builder completely?
  • Will this be a good idea or should I just go for TGE and make my games there (aka: can it handle 2D games eloquently or will there be much haxxing to do)?
I haven't taken a look at TGE yet and I am prepared to dig into the builder if that is the recommended way of doing things.
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I'm just an average man, with an average life. I work from 9 to 5... hey hell I pay the price. All I want is to be left alone, in my average home. But why do I always feel like I'm in the twilight zone?

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    Employee Michael Perry
    ZombieShortbus
    #1
    08/10/2009 (10:46 am)
    @Michael - You can feasibly create a TGB game using just the scripts. If you have a lot of experience writing code, you might be interested in purchasing the pro version. This will give you source code access as well, giving you even more freedom to develop a game purely in code.

    Torque 3D Owner Ronny Bangsund
    Torque Cheerleaders
    #2
    08/10/2009 (10:46 am)
    TGE has the most ancient underlying code, I think. TGB is marginally better, but really is a major hack based off TGE. Melv May basically said it's a depthless TGE in some ways - all shapes are infinitely flat shapes, so they work a bit differently from a 3D engine.

    You can perfectly well work with only script, creating and positioning objects. The editor is useful to mock up tests or use the GUI system, but some projects just end up being all code at some point.

    Then again, look at Penny Arcade Adventures. That's really TGE (or is it TGEA? a mix?) with 2D backgrounds and 3D models. You can actually do the same in TGB, but TGE(A) and T3D have the added concept of a Z coordinate. This may be a boon or a curse, depending on what you do.

    But TGB is definitely best for flat games.

    EDIT: And what Perry said.

    netpsycho
    #3
    08/10/2009 (11:16 am)
    Thanks for the help but what does source code really mean? That I get the source code for the engine and I can do what I want with it? From what I could tell it seemed like it only gave me the power to extend the source (to use a different sound decoder or such things) but that I'd end up working in the builder only with my new engine as a backend. Are there any tutorials/examples that go with the source way of doing things?

    Torque 3D Owner Sherman Pendley
    #4
    08/10/2009 (12:02 pm)
    With TGB Pro you get the C++ source for everything, soup to nuts. You can literally do anything you can imagine, including modify the builder app if you need to do so.