Torque3D - Pre - Purchase Questions

#1 Hello and welcome!

1. You get source access with T3D, so basically anything is possible!
The only limit to "map size" is a limit to the stock terrain system. If you implement your own it would have potentially no limit besides memory etc etc.

2. Windows is the only natively fully supported client.
Mac is natively supported but has limited features ( the main one is afaik that it can only run the basic lightning system {forward lit while the advance one is deferred})
However some community supported versions of linux and mac ports can be found, I don't know the state of them.
But the linux build may be functional (don't quote me on it) and the mac is still getting merged into the T3D CE (community edition)
Alread discussed here

3. Torque3D is not multithreaded and therefore only runs on a single core, if you utilize PhysX it runs on a seperate core tho (one for the engine one for the PhysX).

#2 T3D out of the box is runs under Windows. It does fine with 64 bit event when compiled 32-bit. I have never compiled to 64-bit. Right now it has okay support for MacOS and no support for Linux. There is some community effort toward those 2 platforms, but there is no movement on it.

T3D is multithreaded and runs fine on multi core. How much it uses multiple cores I do not know. I just know it has threading.

I don't know how the polyvox system works, but there is no hard limit. However at large distances near the extents of the 32 bit numbers that represent position it tends to get funky. However, if the PolyVox just keeps the player near the center of the 3D space that will not affect it.

The main reason I responded is that PolyVox system looks awesome. I am not sure what it will take to turn it into an object in the engine with collision, but I think I may need to integrate it now that I have seen it. The license looks excellent. I am currently working on a random terrain generator for T3D. I think the PolyVox would be beautiful. Even if it were only used as an object to enhance the current engine it would be great. It reminds me of the worms engine.

#3 @Frank Haha we are contradicting each other :)
I believe Torque has some kind of threading yes but it only runs on a single core. I don't know the extents of the threading.

#4 @ Lukas - Thank you for that link. I will love to look at it when i purchase torque3D. :D

@ Frank - Glad to hear I am not alone when it comes to random terrain generation. :)

#5 Oh it's in the private forum sorry about that. I can summarize it:
Ahsan Muzaheed 08/13/2012

Quote:"I've got the engine compiled on Linux (have a local git branch), and I can push it to the trunk..
It runs, and I can connect from Windows... but the problem is, that it (server on linux) crashes when running sim with Bullet enabled (crash happens somewhere deep in lib). I don't have spare time to track down the issue, so this is why I still haven't pushed it into repo.
Of course, I can push it as is (so it doesn't use Bullet), but then, the dedicated build on Linux will not work with bullet-enabled client.
Any thoughts/ideas?
P.S. My changes doesn't break/change anything if you run on Windows."

https://lab.collateral-studios.eu/trac/ticket/39

Ahsan Muzaheed 08/13/2012

Quote:there is mac and linux port.still in testing level.but the problem is there is no tester.
everybody wants the port to be done by someone.
and then gave them to fulfill their needs.
alas,if i had enough knowledge on opem GL :(

Also, the linux port is probably a "dedicated build" meaning that all the openGL stuff still needs to be ported over if you want it to work as a client.

Steven Saric 08/14/2012

Quote:I was going to get a mac version working with the CE, but I'm still awaiting a reply from Mich about it.

Once we get a mac version working, hopefully, moving to linux won't be too trivial.

So there is some movement on the topic but it is still in it's beginnings.

#6 @lukas - Alright - At least there is some movement on the side of Mac OS

Quick question for the Devs of torque 3D, does anyone know if there is going to be official support for Linux and Max OS later down the line?

Is there a Public Road map for torque?

#7 No road map atm, but they have said that they would publish some information about T3D within the next weeks. Can't say when but it shouldn't be too far away.
I don't think there will be support for linux but I believe they are working on bringing the Mac version up-to-date.
Would like confirmation on this tho.

#8 We are not officially supporting Linux in Torque. The cost of development was high for next to no ROI when were were developing TGE.

We are supplying the Mac code that we contracted a third-party to work on to the CE project. We would need a full-time dedicated Mac programmer who is not afraid of large codebases to get feature parity with Windows. We have been searching for over a year for this developer. Good Mac developers are hard to find.

#9 @David - Hey, Thanks for the info on this. :)

I will most likely be choosing torque3D for my upcoming project. :D

#10 @Lukas,
Sorry for the contradiction. I was just relaying that I saw no issues running on a multi core processor. I don't know if it actually uses more than 1 core. I thought threading would allow that. If not then I will defer to your knowledge.

BTW, do you know how to make code run on another core. The terrain work I am doing would be better to put on another core to reduce the processor load from interfering with the running game.

#11 @Frank, I read that, to allow T3D to be multicore it would need a rewrite. But having just a single worker thread on another core might not cause the same troubles.
The problem I could imagine with having it run on another core is you have to transfer the data not only from thread to thread but maybe even from core to core.
Unfortunately I don't know anything about this. But a short google search would do I can imagine!

#12 Hmmm, I thought threading allowed for transparent multi core processing. I must be really mistaken then. Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like I have some research to do. One thing I know will allow multi core is to process things in another app. Well, I could use multiple threads for what I need. Just need to not block the main thread.

#13 Hey I found some info on the status of the multi core.
www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/117601/2#comments

It looks like parts of the engine are in different threads, but for the most part it is in one thread. I knew there was some support for threads, but definitely not balanced.

I think for the terrain computations I will put some of that in another thread if I can to offset the pausing that occurs in the engine. That way it could be generated while playing a mission. Hence, potential for larger missions generated on the fly!

#14 @ Frank - Could you give me the run down since i do not have access to that area yet?

Thanks -

Ben :)

#15 Sorry about that.

It basically said that some stuff was in other threads, but the majority was still in the main thread. So it does not attempt to balance out the processing load between threads. What I got from the conversation is that more work would need to be done to spread the load out.

#16 @ Frank - No problem :)

Now - I have a few more questions - mainly about the Networking abilities of torque 3d.

1. Is there any 'Default / Soft Limit' on the number of number of players that can connect to a server?

2. Is Terrain streaming available network side?

#17 There is not a soft limit to the number of players. You will need to manage your data and connections more than players.

There is no terrain streaming out of the box in Torque.

#18 @ David - Thank you for your answers - It really means allot.

I still have a few questions -

Is there occlusion culling within torque? if not is it planned?

Now the following may sound like a stupid question... However I have swapped engines because of it. :/

Is there support for non-biped skeletons/Rigs within Torque 3D?

#19 Occlusion is handled by the designer using zones and portals. We do not have an auto-occlusion system built in.

You should be able to use non-biped rigs, but our artists have used them in the past for compatibility between versions of Max workflows. I know that others in the community have used non-biped rigs.

#20 I have used multiple types of skeletons in TGE and I see no difference in T3D. You can design any kind of rigging you want for objects. There are no default non-biped rigs however. You will need to create your own.

You can also view and edit your rigging inside of T3D. There is also support in the scripting for modifying/creating objects. I plan on using that feature to create dynamic objects to complement my dynamic terrain generation. You know like bridges and arches (like in Utah).