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Torque 3D Development - Kickoff

by Brett Seyler · 12/17/2008 (9:05 am) · 46 comments

static.garagegames.com/static/pg/blogs/jason-hetu/Torque-3D_Development-Blog-Header.png

Amidst all the excitement here about shipping a Mac-compatible version of TGEA, we've been doing some serious planning around what we want the next version of our 3D engine to look like. I spoke about this some in my last blog, and now with TGEA 1.8 out the door, we're really ready to start opening up the floodgates with new info about the Torque 3D project.

I thought a lot about what I wanted to share with the community first. There are all the various technical elements of what we're planning to discuss, each broken down feature-by-feature. There's also a whole lot of pretty to show when we're ready. One of the more interesting stories around this project that sort of caught me by surprise involves the composition of the Torque 3D team.

This next release brings an incredible amount of talent to bear on Torque. We've assembled the best team of developers ever on a single Torque project. Have a look at these numbers...

There are currently 31 developers working either directly on Torque 3D development, or on a parallel project that Torque 3D will be leveraging.

These developers are spread across 5 continents and 13 cities.


68.233.5.139/~transfer/brett/31_devs_map.png

I was impressed to discover first, that our team was this big, and second, just how much diversity we have in our little project's ranks. Bringing a complex project like this together, especially with so many team members remote from our HQ can be a very tricky process. Matt Fairfax has done a superb job shepherding TGEA along throughout 2008. For 2009, he'll have this, our biggest challenge yet.

I spend a lot of time reading about how products get created, so this kind of thing really interests me. My impulse in writing this, the first official post on Torque 3D development, was threefold. I wanted to:

  1. Help you get to know the developers who have been building this product.

  2. Shine some light on our development process by exposing feature targets early, even if they end up being cut for the final release.

  3. Get you all as excited as I am about what's coming in Torque 3D!
To do all of the above is overly ambitious for a first blog, and I want to develop a more consistent conversation with you guys, our Torque users, so I've decided to spread the above goals out over the course of our development schedule. There's plenty to talk about and I want to get to everything, so don't worry, this is going to be a very fun few months. Here's what to expect...

Every week I'm going to introduce two members of the Torque 3D development team and ask them to talk about how their work ties into Torque 3D. Some of these will be short, some longer. There are people you've never met or heard of, or people who've been part of the GG community for a long time. It's a very mixed and talented group, and it will be fun to get to know them all a little better.

To satisfy my other two goals, I'm also going to be posting every week on our feature targets for Torque 3D. Sometimes these will be videos, sometimes just screenshots, maybe even just quick briefing. With all things we have planned, there almost aren't enough weeks before our planned ship date to show everything you everything!

No matter what though, you can bet that Torque 3D development will be worth watching closely. Stay tuned. This is post #1.

Torque 3D development blogs:




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Torque 3D Owner Brett Seyler
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About the author

Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.

Recent Blogs

• On to a new chapter...
• Binary Announcement and Release
• Torque 3D Development - 1.1 Alpha!
• The New Magic Word
• Q3+ in Review
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Torque 3D Owner Stephen Cook
#41
02/05/2009 (4:55 pm)
Could someone clear up the difference between T3d and TGEA?
I mean is T3d the next gen or is it something different?
do I have to pay for an upgrade to T3D?

Thanks.

Associate Matt Fairfax
PopCap
#42
02/05/2009 (5:18 pm)
Torque 3D will be a paid upgrade from TGEA.

It is a further continuation of the "TGEA" codebase but we are replacing/updating/enhancing some pretty major systems (terrain, lighting, editors, directory structure, docs, etc) along with a lot of bugfixing and polishing.

Torque Owner Sebastian H
#43
02/11/2009 (5:45 pm)
How much would set upgrade cost?

Employee Michael Perry
ZombieShortbus
#44
02/11/2009 (7:10 pm)
@Sebastian - Read Brett's other blogs about pricing.

Dave Heinemann
#45
03/03/2009 (2:37 pm)
Quote:Torque 3D will support Windows and Mac out of the box =)

What about 64 bit? I haven't bought Torque or a new computer yet (still using a no-core).

Also are things like vertex index limit going to be fixed? I'm getting decent at bazillion poly modeling, and now need a computer and game engine that can support 'em.

Making games = more fun than playing them!

Dave

Zero_Master_Developer
#46
05/16/2009 (9:08 pm)
This Engine has had me drool on it for a long time. I think it's going to serve pretty nicely. Since of course I don't really have to search a long time for a decent Game Engine, like this. It's more of an excellent Game Engine.
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