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
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
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.
#62
I plan to provide even more debugging to see if maybe the team is willing to look at my forest bug in beta3 as the collision bug did not make this round of fixes.
Maybe providing a full working .zip file to demonstrate the issue is in order?
08/03/2010 (7:27 am)
This is all great news indeed.I plan to provide even more debugging to see if maybe the team is willing to look at my forest bug in beta3 as the collision bug did not make this round of fixes.
Maybe providing a full working .zip file to demonstrate the issue is in order?
#63
This may be felt as a blow to TorquePowered ego, but in reality is the type of action what are repaid in full with respectful admiration. No sane person could misunderstand, and grow upset from such open actions of true honesty.
Thank you you TorquePowered for keeping us informed.
EDIT: also for continuing to fix the bugs and make improvements as the QA and DOCs are wrapping up.
08/03/2010 (7:43 am)
Quote: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 may be felt as a blow to TorquePowered ego, but in reality is the type of action what are repaid in full with respectful admiration. No sane person could misunderstand, and grow upset from such open actions of true honesty.
Thank you you TorquePowered for keeping us informed.
EDIT: also for continuing to fix the bugs and make improvements as the QA and DOCs are wrapping up.
#64
keep up the awesome momentum my it continue.....
08/03/2010 (7:54 am)
Looking good on keeping everyone updated on the progress on T3D :)keep up the awesome momentum my it continue.....
#65
08/03/2010 (1:09 pm)
Nice extra improvements ... a real gravity gun you say ... and it'll still be out before HL2Ep3! :P 
#66
08/03/2010 (2:57 pm)
I like that idea Steve Acaster I second that. 
#70
Seriously though, I will be happy even if it took an extra day or three as long as it's stable.
08/03/2010 (8:32 pm)
@Konrad <^.^> LOLSeriously though, I will be happy even if it took an extra day or three as long as it's stable.
#71
more seriously...
@Matt :
Just a question what do you mean when you say :
GuiObjectViewer rendering code is out of date ?
Does this mean that GuiObjectViewer is no longer usable OR simply that it needs improvement to match latest rendering features ?
08/03/2010 (8:35 pm)
LOLmore seriously...
@Matt :
Just a question what do you mean when you say :
GuiObjectViewer rendering code is out of date ?
Does this mean that GuiObjectViewer is no longer usable OR simply that it needs improvement to match latest rendering features ?
#72
From reading over that thread, it looks like it is usable but that it needs a couple of changes to make it play nice with some updates to the lighting systems.
08/03/2010 (9:16 pm)
Vincent,From reading over that thread, it looks like it is usable but that it needs a couple of changes to make it play nice with some updates to the lighting systems.
#73
Does TP need my email address so they can send me the link to download beta 2 first before everyone else gets it? don't want anyone else hogging the bandwidth!!!
08/03/2010 (9:45 pm)
pah to being more serious :P Does TP need my email address so they can send me the link to download beta 2 first before everyone else gets it? don't want anyone else hogging the bandwidth!!!
#75
08/03/2010 (10:15 pm)
:) Just add that to mine, and things will get pretty complex. 
#76
08/03/2010 (11:00 pm)
@Steve - Real in respect that it actually holds the physics object infront of your weapon and can throw it. As opposed to what the physics demo had before which only pushed objects around a bit.
#77
08/03/2010 (11:05 pm)
@Tom: Is that like a zero point singularity? That would be a 'a real gravity gun', as seen and defined from other games.
#78
There are some limitations due to the multiplayer structure of Torque and an unfortunate issue with the arm animation thread not moving the force point on the server... but its working.
We'll make further improvements for beta 3.
Anyway... you'll know what i mean very soon. ;)
08/03/2010 (11:42 pm)
@Caylo - Its like the half-life one. There are some limitations due to the multiplayer structure of Torque and an unfortunate issue with the arm animation thread not moving the force point on the server... but its working.
We'll make further improvements for beta 3.
Anyway... you'll know what i mean very soon. ;)
#79
08/04/2010 (12:25 am)
Will South Pacific ship with beta 2 or 1.1 final?
#80
08/04/2010 (12:30 am)
We are aiming for it to ship with Beta 3. 
Torque 3D Owner Sailesh