Tracking Torque 3D Community Contributions
by Dave Wyand · 06/25/2013 (8:06 am) · 53 comments
Tracking Torque 3D Community Contributions
Back in the Torque 3D 4.0 Proposed Roadmap the Steering Committee introduced the idea of Community Additions. These were items that the Committee were looking to work on but did not have the time to do on its own. With the Committee losing one member, and my own role being cut back to mostly an advisory one for the next few months (due to service work at GarageGames), the Steering Committee is left with one full-time member, Michael Hall. Now more than ever we need to community as a whole to help out with the development of Torque 3D.Community Contributions Page
In our June 17, 2013 meeting minutes we talked about creating a GitHub Wiki page where we could track who was working on any particular item. A number of community members brought up the concern that more than one person may be tackling an item. We now have a new Wiki page just for this purpose: github.com/GarageGames/Torque3D/wiki/Intended-Community-Contribution
On this page we’ve put the items from the v4.0 blog along with all of the feature requests found on the Torque 3D Feature Request Page. This list will hopefully provide enough ideas for those that want to help to expand the engine.
How Do I Sign Up?
Send either me or Michael Hall an email and let us know which item we should put your name against. smally has already signed up to work on the Master Server using this process as you can see on the Wiki page.But I Want to Work On Something Else
The list on the wiki page is not meant to be exhaustive. It is currently populated with ideas from the Steering Committee and the community’s feature requests as of this blog being posted. Only you know what you would like to work on and what you are capable of. To help ensure that no two people (or groups of people) are working on the same thing, we can add your contribution item to the top of the Wiki page under the Community Member Contribution section. Again just contact me or Mike and let us know.Working on GitHub Issues
Another area that we need your help with is resolving the bugs listed on the GitHub Issues List. It is great that people are posting bugs there and now we need people to step up and create solutions. In order to make sure that no two people are working on the same item you can add a comment to an issue stating your intention. The Steering Committee may then assign the issue to you so that others know that you’ve got it.Based on the community’s feedback we hope that having these resources in place will help you with being able to work on and contribute to Torque 3D’s development. We will continue to adapt and change the processes as necessary based on your comments and how this appears to work out. And I’m sure that the new members coming to the Steering Committee will have their own ideas to share to help make this the best open source game engine out there.
Join the Torque 3D Steering Committee
And speaking of the Steering Committee, there is still time to get your application in. Does being a part of the Torque 3D open source Steering Committee interest you? Are you ready to be a leader and organizer in the community? Have you read through the charter and have a feeling of awesomeness swelling inside? If so, then please get in touch by email at davew@garagegames.com and let me know by June 30, 2013. We want to hear from you!- Dave
About the author
Producer at GarageGames LLC
#2
It is no secret that there are plenty of us here that are working on their own and some are working on creating their own engine but when looking at the current situation and since recentlly
the steering commitee came finally to the step where community input is being taken seriously
we as in
Dusan Jocic and myself
(see me as a PR - Person ;) )
are going to open up our so called giftBox
that means the following stuff is going to be contributed
to the T3D Mit Version
- OpenGL renderer for Torque3D (Windows/Linux) with basic lighting
- DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) inside T3D engine
- Direct3D 9 Ex feature
- initializeWMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and setting security levels (CoInitializeSecurity)
- generating console XML exports
- Cg high-level shading language .CGFX instead of separated .HLSL for DX9 and .GLSL for OGL
- Updated physics engine (Bullet 2.81)
- CMake for managing the build process of software
- GMK - Game Mechanics Kit Mit version
Why go that insane way?
you might ask, well there is only one way how this Engine can survive
and that is by contributing to the cause
and bringin it up todate
More info regarding all this to come soon
06/25/2013 (10:29 am)
It is no secret that there are plenty of us here that are working on their own and some are working on creating their own engine but when looking at the current situation and since recentlly
the steering commitee came finally to the step where community input is being taken seriously
we as in
Dusan Jocic and myself
(see me as a PR - Person ;) )
are going to open up our so called giftBox
that means the following stuff is going to be contributed
to the T3D Mit Version
- OpenGL renderer for Torque3D (Windows/Linux) with basic lighting
- DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) inside T3D engine
- Direct3D 9 Ex feature
- initializeWMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and setting security levels (CoInitializeSecurity)
- generating console XML exports
- Cg high-level shading language .CGFX instead of separated .HLSL for DX9 and .GLSL for OGL
- Updated physics engine (Bullet 2.81)
- CMake for managing the build process of software
- GMK - Game Mechanics Kit Mit version
Why go that insane way?
you might ask, well there is only one way how this Engine can survive
and that is by contributing to the cause
and bringin it up todate
More info regarding all this to come soon
#3
Everybody who can should try to donate something, the content of the own projects can be kept for themselves, but improvements of the engine while working on an own project should be donated if possible. If everybody can do a little that would be enough. So far it is more that a few people do a lot.
06/25/2013 (10:45 am)
That sounds really like a lot, but I agree, only this way we can keep up.Everybody who can should try to donate something, the content of the own projects can be kept for themselves, but improvements of the engine while working on an own project should be donated if possible. If everybody can do a little that would be enough. So far it is more that a few people do a lot.
#4
I think another thing that needs to be done (once Linux support is operational) will be to get a cross platform Unity style editor created that comes with the engine for free. Yes developers have source code access, but unless you can bring newbies in with something easy to work with, you just push away more possible contributors down the line. Another thing to look at might be to start to support Lua or Python (I would prefer Lua), as a method to bring new people over and improve script performance.
06/25/2013 (7:49 pm)
@J0linar: so that's why Dushan went silent. Glad to hear you guys are going to help get things up to snuff again.I think another thing that needs to be done (once Linux support is operational) will be to get a cross platform Unity style editor created that comes with the engine for free. Yes developers have source code access, but unless you can bring newbies in with something easy to work with, you just push away more possible contributors down the line. Another thing to look at might be to start to support Lua or Python (I would prefer Lua), as a method to bring new people over and improve script performance.
#5
J0linar: you guys are awesome.
06/25/2013 (8:06 pm)
Cool stuff. Might I suggest that instead of just a username for each community addition, we provide some form of contact detail, or a link to a thread where the work is being discussed? This could let people collaborate more effectively, find out about the progress of each addition, etc.J0linar: you guys are awesome.
#6
you do get the idea - its follow the example time ;)
....cross platform style editor?
well the editor is working on linux (at least our build)
now what is currently still broken is the input system
and another thing that makes ppl look away when they see t3D`s
Editor is it looks
winXP times are over and that shiny bright thing makes my eyes jump out
so we will throw in the mix
my reworked editor skin
(well it`s no real skin/ the colors have been changed and pics inverted, thats it mainly but it`s not braking teh functionality and it`s easeier on teh eyes)
at the end it will depend on the steering commitee wich stuff will make it in but i think the community should at least get the option
to use those things if they wish
ahh teh pic
06/26/2013 (3:04 am)
thanks guys,you do get the idea - its follow the example time ;)
....cross platform style editor?
well the editor is working on linux (at least our build)
now what is currently still broken is the input system
and another thing that makes ppl look away when they see t3D`s
Editor is it looks
winXP times are over and that shiny bright thing makes my eyes jump out
so we will throw in the mix
my reworked editor skin
(well it`s no real skin/ the colors have been changed and pics inverted, thats it mainly but it`s not braking teh functionality and it`s easeier on teh eyes)
at the end it will depend on the steering commitee wich stuff will make it in but i think the community should at least get the option
to use those things if they wish
ahh teh pic
#8
I currently have exactly 1398 errors in my branch.
All that calls are defined for Windows API (WINAPI_PARTITION_DESKTOP) while for getting ARM support and Windows Store, you would need to add WINAPI_PARTITION_APP as Windows API and of course XAML <3
Problem with this is just that I don't want to work alone on this.
06/26/2013 (5:30 am)
If you would like that T3D be compiled with "Windows Store App Support" inside VS, then you would need to build all libraries for that. Also you cannot use any of Direct9 calls and including old Windows calls what T3D is using for Win32/Win64 (for example SetMenu, LoadLibrary, WNDCLASS, LPGLYPHMETRICSFLOAT, Sleep ...).I currently have exactly 1398 errors in my branch.
All that calls are defined for Windows API (WINAPI_PARTITION_DESKTOP) while for getting ARM support and Windows Store, you would need to add WINAPI_PARTITION_APP as Windows API and of course XAML <3
Problem with this is just that I don't want to work alone on this.
#9
the PICOL stuff is indeed nice but it looks like
the license wouldn`t really fit
so either i create the icons from scratch or we keep it as it is
06/26/2013 (6:22 am)
@Danielthe PICOL stuff is indeed nice but it looks like
the license wouldn`t really fit
so either i create the icons from scratch or we keep it as it is
#10
Where are you discussing developing paths? I would like to see if there are areas where I can help out.
@Dusan,
I know exactly how you feel on doing it solo. I am not going to say I know half of what you are needing help with, but I would like to see if there are things I can help tackle.
06/27/2013 (12:04 am)
@Dusan and J0linar,Where are you discussing developing paths? I would like to see if there are areas where I can help out.
@Dusan,
I know exactly how you feel on doing it solo. I am not going to say I know half of what you are needing help with, but I would like to see if there are things I can help tackle.
#11
we don`t really have a public open road path
and we haven`t discussed if we should involve the community in our plan(s)
tbh we do have a somewhat suicideal idea but hey
no risk no win and no fun
and if we could get the community to move on our path
it would mean/ close the gap
when it comes to multiplatform support - that`s all i can say
when i say multiplatform that means mobile platforms included aswell
but we will see it is too early to even mention this
anyways am not leaking how we want to achieve this ;)
06/28/2013 (3:39 am)
@Demolishunwe don`t really have a public open road path
and we haven`t discussed if we should involve the community in our plan(s)
tbh we do have a somewhat suicideal idea but hey
no risk no win and no fun
and if we could get the community to move on our path
it would mean/ close the gap
when it comes to multiplatform support - that`s all i can say
when i say multiplatform that means mobile platforms included aswell
but we will see it is too early to even mention this
anyways am not leaking how we want to achieve this ;)
#12
Better AND Cg,and HLSL,and GLSL ,but with quickly exchanging into
"Project Manager".There is we make selection "Bullet" OR "PhisX".
06/29/2013 (12:35 am)
For @J0linar : "- Cg high-level shading language .CGFX instead..."Better AND Cg,and HLSL,and GLSL ,but with quickly exchanging into
"Project Manager".There is we make selection "Bullet" OR "PhisX".
#13
06/29/2013 (3:59 am)
Griagg: good idea ;).
#14
@Grigg, @Daniel Buckmaster, who update lighting code for OpenGL and who will write all missing GLSL files? :)
EDIT: I don't see point of having all that inside engine. For example if we use approach what you are offering, somebody will have to write CG, HLSL and GLSL if there is some update.
06/29/2013 (5:06 am)
OOookkkk .... :)@Grigg, @Daniel Buckmaster, who update lighting code for OpenGL and who will write all missing GLSL files? :)
EDIT: I don't see point of having all that inside engine. For example if we use approach what you are offering, somebody will have to write CG, HLSL and GLSL if there is some update.
#15
this is all good and fine
but without understanding what CG Shaders are
suggesting a cg - hlsl - glsls - tickable option is nonsense
anyways - the features/ stuff we mentioned above
are slowly getting backported for T3D Mit
and will be available in the next 2 weeks
06/29/2013 (5:26 am)
@Griaggthis is all good and fine
but without understanding what CG Shaders are
suggesting a cg - hlsl - glsls - tickable option is nonsense
anyways - the features/ stuff we mentioned above
are slowly getting backported for T3D Mit
and will be available in the next 2 weeks
#16
github.com/GarageGames/Torque3D/commit/d096c7886a233826306f9e31515e2a60e1939b9a
06/29/2013 (5:30 am)
Btw, support for Cg (with shaders) was included in this commit 4 month ago:github.com/GarageGames/Torque3D/commit/d096c7886a233826306f9e31515e2a60e1939b9a
#17
anyways
@Ander Dahnielson - did you tought about my suggestin regarding fixing linux input system?
06/29/2013 (5:36 am)
ye and the feature list contains more then just the cg partanyways
@Ander Dahnielson - did you tought about my suggestin regarding fixing linux input system?
#18
06/29/2013 (6:46 am)
@J0linar I haven't yet had time to look into it. But I will. 
#19
07/01/2013 (7:42 am)
What particularly is the attraction of CG? The linux RnD branch uses it -- for whatever reasoning -- and we just haven't paid much attention to it.
#20
But, I really don't know much about graphics, so I couldn't comment on the suitability of those options, or how feasible it is to swap shader languages with #defines. Having to update and develop the same shaders in multiple languages for the sake of people who might want to use any of them does sound very undesirable.
07/01/2013 (8:07 am)
Sorry Dusan, I didn't mean to imply that the work should be your responsibility! I supported Griagg's idea because it seemed to play to the strengths of the project manager system and leave the most room for individual developers to choose the technology that they're comfortable with.But, I really don't know much about graphics, so I couldn't comment on the suitability of those options, or how feasible it is to swap shader languages with #defines. Having to update and develop the same shaders in multiple languages for the sake of people who might want to use any of them does sound very undesirable.
Torque Owner Lukas Joergensen
WinterLeaf Entertainment
Good job guys!
And thanks smally for signing up for the Masterserver stuff!