Game Development Community

Torque 3D Status - 7/29/2010

by Matt Fairfax · in Torque 3D Professional · 07/29/2010 (8:02 am) · 111 replies

Hey all,
Let's start with the good news =)

We are fairly confident that we are going to be able to deliver Torque 3D 1.1 Beta 2 in the next couple of days. We have a few more blocker bugs to work through before we will release it and the Docs team is jamming long, long hours to make sure that it ships with a complete script reference. As always, there is risk that something unexpected will pop up and push us into the beginning of next week but we are working hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

After I post this, I am going to be posting a preliminary changelog so that you can start to wrap your head around just how much work has gone into this release.

Here is some statistics that I hope you guys will find very exciting:

New Features - 21
Improvements - 191
Fixes - 254

Now the bad news...

Torque X 3.1.5 took a bit longer than we had hoped and we didn't really begin to ramp QA back up onto Torque 3D fulltime until last week. We have been working hard to capture a complete picture of exactly what is left to fix in Torque 3D 1.1 and the list is longer than we'd like despite the huge strides we have made (as you will see in the changelog). There is still a lot more bugs we want to fix before we call this 1.1 Final...so many so that we think we will need a Beta 3.

Now, before anyone gets too concerned...there will be a much shorter gap between Beta 2 and Beta 3 than there was between Beta 1 and Beta 2. By shorter, I mean closer to a month rather than 5 months. I will also be updating you guys weekly on what we have fixed and what new bugs we have discovered until we ship Beta 3.

Tomorrow, I plan to post a Known Issues list showing the bugs that we will be focusing on for Beta 3. This list isn't completely fleshed out yet because there are still bugs making their way through the QA pipeline that haven't been properly verified, documented, and prioritized for the developers. There are a lot of bug reports on the Torque 3D forums which is an amazing testament to how awesome this community is and we are still playing some catch up. As I mentioned above, this Known Issues list will get updated every week and I will also be adding some lower priority bugs as I get them organized.

There is a slight chance that I won't be able to get the Known Issues list posted tomorrow because I have some family business that could interfere but I will try my best!

Disclaimer: All timeframes in this thread are estimates and should not be considered final
Matt Fairfax's profile picture
Associate Matt Fairfax
PopCap

About the author

I am a Game Designer at PopCap who has worked on PvZ Adventures, PvZ2, Peggle Blast, and Bejeweled Skies. I am an ex-GarageGames employee who helped ship TGE, TGEA, Torque 3D, and Constructor.

Recent Threads

  • PopCap is Hiring!
  • Come help make iPhone Games!
  • Torque 3D 1.1 Beta 3 Changelog
    • NextNext Thread
    PrevPrevious Thread
    More from Torque 3D Professional
    Page«First 1 2 3 4 5 6 Last »

    Torque Owner TheGasMan
    G.A.S. [+others]
    #41
    07/31/2010 (2:04 am)
    MattF, My buddy Andrew still says you're his favorite person here, with Mich a close 2nd. ;)

    - I personally do not mind a day or seven considering it is a beta release. What I am hoping to see is; continual progress until the engine stands strong(low bug count and high reliability). Pull through on that and you won't hear* a gripe from me, ever...in fact, I'll probably become a poster-child. ;)

    Torque 3D Owner Caylo Gypsyblood
    #42
    07/31/2010 (2:32 am)
    Considering everything this T3D build have included, missing a estimated release date by a few days is not a disappointment at all.

    It is encouraging to see such prompt informative news updates. Bad news is easier to take then no news(And thats not such bad news anyhow).

    Employee Eric Preisz
    GarageGames
    #43
    07/31/2010 (3:20 am)
    When we launch on Monday, we still won't have the ammount of QA we were hoping for...but getting it out to you guys will set us up for a much closer round of fixes and QA. iTorque 2D is the only other product that is queued for QA in August so that will help. This will get us in really good shape for a beta 3.

    Torque Owner Andy Rollins
    ZDay Game
    #44
    07/31/2010 (9:26 am)
    Awww shucks the missus is away for the weekend was hoping for some great nerd time with the new beta over the weekend but heh monday's not too far away.... will just have to ignore her when she's back.

    who am I kidding?

    Thanks for letting us know

    Torque Owner Jules
    Something2Play
    #45
    07/31/2010 (12:11 pm)
    awesome list! feel a bit dizzy reading it all now :) Good work guys. Can't wait to test it out, especially the multiplayer (server/level info) is now fixed!

    Torque Owner elvince
    Neo Studio
    #46
    07/31/2010 (12:25 pm)
    Waouhh!!!
    Honnestly, I was pleased to read all the list even if I didn't catch everything, I bet this will improve the current version to what we all expected.

    Good job, and I will be very happy to test the next beta to find & fix the remaining bugs before 1.1 release!

    Associate Matt Fairfax
    PopCap
    #47
    07/31/2010 (12:40 pm)
    Alright...here is an initial pass on the Known Issues that we will be targeting for Torque 3D 1.1 Beta 3. I will be adding to this list over the next couple of weeks as we verify more bugs against the latest version.

    Critical Bugs:

    Major Bugs:

    Normal Bugs:



    Torque 3D Owner Caylo Gypsyblood
    #48
    07/31/2010 (8:18 pm)
    This list contains many of the bugs I have been waiting for a fix. Im happy to see they are priority for beta 3.

    Torque 3D Owner Chris
    #49
    07/31/2010 (8:34 pm)
    What would it take to get this bug added to the list? It is pretty critical to our project and preventing us from using any mission with a forest.

    This bug is also blocking our beta releases. I would hate to think that it would still exist in B3

    www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/117079


    Associate Matt Fairfax
    PopCap
    #50
    07/31/2010 (9:16 pm)
    Hey Chris,
    That bug is on our internal list but hasn't made it through the verification process yet. However, it is high on the list to evaluate for Beta 3.

    Once we release Beta 2, we'll have you test again and then follow up pretty quickly if it is needed.

    Thanks!


    Torque Owner Jules
    Something2Play
    #51
    08/01/2010 (11:01 am)
    When ready.. I take it that we'll be able to read the EULA from our account before clicking download? Currently goes nowhere.

    Associate Steve Acaster
    [YorkshireRifles.com]
    #52
    08/01/2010 (1:17 pm)
    @Mr Rollins
    Quote:
    the missus is away for the weekend was hoping for some great nerd time with the new beta

    Do you have to live an exciting, secret, double life?

    Mild mannered macho man by day, secret tech nerd by night ...

    :P

    Torque Owner Enel
    ENEL Indie studio
    #53
    08/02/2010 (12:50 pm)
    now isn't monday?

    im so exhausted plz come on..

    Associate Konrad Kiss
    Bitgap Games
    #54
    08/02/2010 (12:58 pm)
    It's 6am in Vegas right now. Let them wake up at least. :)

    Torque 3D Owner Sailesh
    #55
    08/02/2010 (1:19 pm)
    Count down is on 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 .....

    Employee Eric Preisz
    GarageGames
    #56
    08/02/2010 (1:51 pm)
    Yawn! 6:49, and I'm the only one in the office. The team has been working all weekend to wrap up loose ends and wrap up docs. From everything I've heard, we are still on track. QA was testing all weekend as well -we are awaiting their report this morning to make sure that we didn't introduce any showstopper bugs in this final push.

    Torque Owner Enel
    ENEL Indie studio
    #57
    08/03/2010 (5:32 am)
    plz GG dont test my patience :(

    Torque 3D Owner Caylo Gypsyblood
    #58
    08/03/2010 (5:39 am)
    All signs point to 'very soon' now. A few days time do not constitute a 'test' of patience, anymore then waiting that last 24hours before Christmas , for a child. And if you had been waiting for a year, waiting a day or so more should be easy, almost enjoyable.

    Associate Matt Fairfax
    PopCap
    #59
    08/03/2010 (5:48 am)
    Hey all,
    I have good news and bad news...

    The good news is that the developers just finished documenting the last of the classes for the Script Reference!

    We made a commitment that this release would have a full Script Reference and we are sticking to it even though it has caused a little delay. That is how important documentation is to our company!

    The bad news is that means we won't be able to get it released until tomorrow =(

    We are going to put it into QA first thing in the morning and everything looks on track to get the release out to you guys as soon as possible!

    Thank you for bearing with us...part of being this transparent in our development processes is that you guys get to see the little slips that push us back a couple days past where we want to release. This happens every couple of releases but in the past we haven't talked about it much. We really appreciate that our community has been so understanding about seeing us wrap up this release!

    Meanwhile, here is new things that will be added to the changelog since I posted it last week:

    Features:

    • Added PhysicsForce object for doing gravity and push effects
    • Ported Physics Demo over to use new PhysicsShape based breakables

    Improvements:

    • Added real gravity gun to Physics demo.
    • Added support for either full (0-1) or single frame UV texture mapping for animated Material sequences (www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/93257).
    • Added exposure field to CloudLayer so you can get clouds brighter than previously possible even with a baseColor of white
    • The installers and Torque Toolbox are now signed executables
    • Can now set Anti-Aliasing level in the Options dialog. In Basic Lighting this will affect everything that renders, in Advance Lighting it will affect GUI elements only but will also enable EdgeAAPostEffect if AA is non-zero.
    • Protected against bad auto billboard settings and Material creation failures

    Fixes:

    • Fixed crash bug caused by not clearing the pointer to a volatile index buffer which is later set on the device in a non-index drawPrimitive call
    • The RenderImposterMgr now properly clears its metrics stats
    • mZOffset wasn't hooked up in GroundCover
    • Fixed case where GuiDefaultProfile being deleted was leaving garbage pointers in GuiControl
    • Fixed a memory corruption on vector resize in PersistenceManager (www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/115489)
    • The BL_ProjectedShadowRPM is now added to RootGroup so that its not destroyed on level shutdown
    • Basic Lighting shadows are no longer disabled in the 'Lowest' lighting setting (www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/110823)
    • Fixed problem with skinned Collada models with negative bone indices (such weights will be ignored)
    • ShapeBase now applies the offset matrix in getMountTransform()/getRenderMountTransform()
    • Fixed mismatch between "number of frames" field in Material Editor, and "frameSize" field in Material (one is the inverse of the other)
    • TerrainBlock::setFile() now returns true if the file is not null
    • TexturePainter Slope Max and Min's text fields and sliders correctly set (www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/118339)
    • Fixed the theta min/max angle range in the Particle Editor to match the valid range in ParticleEmitterData (0-180)
    • Corrected 'auto detect graphics quality' to call the recently changed GFXCardProfilerAPI::getVideoMemoryMB()
    • ParticleEmitter now skips submitting renderInstances if its VB is not valid.
    • Prefabs now always store the mainDotCs relative path to their prefab file (could previously save out an absolute path in some circumstances)
    • Fixed problem with DecalRoad sometimes not rendering segments towards towards the end
    • Placing a decal and continuing a mouse drag in one action no longer causes the decal to be placed at the world origin
    • Disabled the decal editor's 'forceRedraw' code because this is unnecessary and it is also not possible to trigger rendering code directly from script (the engine is not prepared to render at this point and generates GFX asserts)
    • Fixed mismatched detailScaleAndFade index in Terrain Material shader that caused assertion
    • Fixed compile error in generated shader when both SpecularMap and RTLighting features are enabled

    Torque Owner Jules
    Something2Play
    #60
    08/03/2010 (6:28 am)
    extra awesomage thrown in at the last minute :) Some very worthwhile fixes there. Look forward to the release.
    Page«First 1 2 3 4 5 6 Last »