Yack Pack is Gone!

#1 I don't think it's something happening because of Torque rather than a relatively tough year for middleware vendors. Emergent also went through some bad luck (and came out of it) recently.

For the record, not only do I have my product up still, but I'm working on more ;)

#2 What would a tough year for middleware vendors have to do with it? All they had to do to sell more Yack Packs is ....nothing. If they just left it there, they had a chance to sell more.If they took it down, which requires work on someone's part, then it seems to me something more than a "tough year for middle ware vendors" has to be the reason. Unfortunately, I wanted to buy Yack Pack. I just wasn't ready for it in my project yet. I figured I had plenty of time. Now, well..now I don't know what I will replace it with.

#3

Quote:What would a tough year for middleware vendors have to do with it?

Everything, if you're one of those vendors affected (see Torque, for example).

Quote:All they had to do to sell more Yack Packs is ....nothing. If they just left it there, they had a chance to sell more.

No, not nothing. They'd have to support whatever is being sold, and that costs money. If Yack Pack wasn't pulling in enough to justify that, then why continue selling it, unless you just want to lose money on it? I have like 5-6 products that I can put up on my site and sell- but then I'd have to deal with support, which isn't worth it, and so I ignore the emails that come in occasionally asking for the products. It's simple math: If it costs more for you to support than to sell, then don't sell it.

Quote:Unfortunately, I wanted to buy Yack Pack. I just wasn't ready for it in my project yet. I figured I had plenty of time. Now, well..now I don't know what I will replace it with.

Well, that does suck, and I think we've all been there. Have you considered rolling your own solution? And along those lines, what are you looking for in features?

#4 I dont think the yack pack was available for T3D 1.1. TGE/a I believe, so without a port being available or known to people (which there is one in the resources - or at least a semi-port) then there was probably no real point in keeping it there as no future sales would have been generated - the owners didn't want to create an updated version (probably not justified - given the current circumstances and things change).

#5 Recently I was talking to a vendor of a 3rd party product. It appears many seem to have a wait and see attitude at this point. Waiting to see if Torque will still continue certain platforms, or engines in the future. No released information yet.
Now I use Unity3D too, and I see an increase of 3rd parties working on creating prefabs in JS & C# which is nice.
I had always hoped that the number of 3D party products would increase for Torque 3D too, but there were those that never updated their work from the old TGEA to T3D. Filament Games was one of those. I talked to them a long time ago about updating their code, and they said they would think about it.
There really wasn't a lot of support from them for the product.
The Torque community basically supported ourselves.
There is the posted migration to T3D so that the YackPack product can continue.

#6 I have about 4 packs waiting to be released, some have been converted from TGE, to TGEA and now T3D. Some still have bugs to iron out but once they are I'll release them for people to buy as I still believe there is a market out there and if people can still buy packs, the engines will continue. The only problem is that if your pack requires source code changes to the engine then how do you distribute them without permission or a website to place the engine changes on. So I'm also waiting to see what happends in the next few weeks before I launch them. Some of the packs that are still in progress but with a bit of a push they will launch sooner as there are only scripts that interface with external software.

#7 While on the subject, I see elsewhere on these forums that Chat Mapper has received some attention and there was some talk of a parsing program to convert the XML to TorqueScript. Now, I realize that I've not fully looked into the subject, but has there been any progress on that line? Otherwise, are there any viable dialogue handling alternatives?

#8 I believe Kevin is working on a dialogue system.
here's the link

Edit: sorry Ted, posted the wrong link :)

#9 Actually, that's Kevin Mitchell's dialog system. Mine can be seen at the top of this page. ;)

#10 But YackPack works fine with the T3D. It only takes a few corrections to the script and an arrangement of sources. I had already integrated YackPack into T3D for third parties.

I think it's an excellent product. Once integrated into the T3D, you can simply edit your dialogue script, and add it to the datablock of the bot or anything scripted object.

#11 Well, your points are well thought out, Ted, and I guess no one at this point knows exactly why Yack Pack was taken down, but I was under the impression that they haven't supported it in quite some time and thus incurred no cost in keeping it up. It certainly isn't/wasn't supported for T3D, that much is clear.

As for what I need in my system, I haven't really begun to think about it yet.

#12 Sorry Ted, posted the wrong link. I've corrected it in my post. Past week of working to 4am and then up at 7am has got the better of me :)

#13

Quote:Past week of working to 4am and then up at 7am has got the better of me :)

Oh, I was there not too long ago. Got a pretty bad cold from the exhaustion (those always suck). Luckily, things are a lot more stable between the two contracts, and I actually have a bit of time to hone other skills (like now, at 1 am, lol).

#14 A word of recommendation (if anyone is interested).

I've worked on a contract once, a game heavily based on players dialogs. Thousands and thousands of dialog lines.

We used TGEA and Yack Pack. I have to tell you, besides a few corrections, the Yack Pack really shines in what it does.

The real caveat, is about the correct understanding of the dialogs flow, and even the correct use of the tech for that understanding, from non-coders.

Technically, the Yack Pack was perfect, but then I got to teach the rest of the crew how to use it (coding wise), because if I was in for feeding in all the dialogs myself, the game would never be finished.

That brought all the problems of non-coders putting their hands into the yack pack dialog scripts. And it was really not off place either, as in the end, data-entrying the dialogs, should not need programmer hours.

The tech you use for dialogs, is nothing with a proper tool that abstracts you from their inner workings. A form-type tool would do, but a visual tool would be better.

#15 Yack on T3D 1.1 beta 3:

#16 Alfio, can you email me at jnelson (at) suspicious-activity (dot) com
Wanted to talk to you about your video.

#17

Quote:
Anyone else notice any shutdown of 3rd party products we typically use with Torque?

Actually I noticed that the Torque specific download had gone from EvolverPro.com a couple of weeks back.

#18 Well, I got to the bottom of this. the new GG can no longer sell Yack Pack because they did not acquire the rights to do so from IAC. Filament games can not sell Yack Pack becuase they have a contract granting exclusive sales rights to Torque, which is non-transferrable, which is why GG did not get those rights from IAC.

So....the only entity which can sell copies of Yack Pack --at the moment-- is IAC, and I'm sure they don't care about it at all.

Does anyone know if the license to Yack Pack is transferrable?

#19 Hey Steve - This is on the list of things to do for sure a long with several other 3rd party products. However, due to the legal nature of this stuff we had to pull the products down for the time being. Sorry for not catching and responding to this thread sooner.

#20 Thanks to you Derek, and all the others who will work to bring it back. It is very reassuring to know that GG will respond to us, even if it is just a few folks who are still interested in the "Lost Add-Ons".