How should we promote T3D?

#121 Edit: duplicate

#122 For awesome tech demos, look at Ron's cave pack video, that is rendered in plain 1.2 . Actually look at anything Ron puts on his blogs it all looks awesome and it is great tech demos showing T3D's capabilities. According to Ron people often have a hard time believing that it is stock T3D.

For "make a game that is not fps" tutorials, we got these as well, we got an action-tactical hybrid tutorial and a rts tutorial. They may need some shining up but heck it's there and shows how easy it is to create non-fps games.

there is also commercial products for racing games and air combat games.


The thing is we already got what we need to promote T3D. Now we just need to tell people about it and get it out there.

We could collect the videos we've got and create a video reel, that shows,different videos of T3D from it's best site, and then create a Welcome To T3D tutorial since it is not obvious to people that the best getting started guide is the FPS tutorial.
But tbh I think it would be a good idea to separate from GG.com and run a dedicated T3D website since imo it's troublesome for both GG and us to get changes to the site currently. I know someone bought the Torque3D domain and offered it to the steering committee, don't know if he still keeps it tho.
The thing is who should be in charge of all of this? I don't know if I have the,time to get a,project like that done in short term. If we are willing to wait a lot of time I could get it done eventually.

Edit: may have got a bit ahead of myself, how I wanted that part to come off was: I think the above is something we need, and instead of doing the usual "gosh I'd wish someone would do the things I come up with, I would be willing to take on that task if we think it's. The direction T3D should be going. Although I believe someone else would be better suited, since I'm selflearnt web developer as is the case with my coding. So it'd take me longer time than someone more experienced.

#123 Edit: another duplicate yay for crappy internet connection.

#124

Quote:
I know someone bought the Torque3D domain and offered it to the steering committee,

First I've heard of this! Do tell more?

#125 I can remove this if it's felt it's not appropriate.. But for keeping the domain names, this one should also be appropriated.

domain info:
Registrant:
Vyron S.r.l. Societa/Ditta
Via C. Collodi, 7
ROSIGNANO MARITTIMO, LI 57016
IT

Domain name: TORQUE3D.COM


Administrative Contact:
Vyron S.r.l. Societa/Ditta, Vyron S.r.l. Societa/Ditta email@vyron.it
Via C. Collodi, 7
ROSIGNANO MARITTIMO, LI 57016
IT
+39.3497847956
Technical Contact:
Vyron S.r.l. Societa/Ditta, Vyron S.r.l. Societa/Ditta email@vyron.it
Via C. Collodi, 7
ROSIGNANO MARITTIMO, LI 57016
IT
+39.3497847956


Registration Service Provider:
Aruba S.p.A. - Servizio Aruba.it, email@staff.aruba.it
+39.05750505
+39.0575862000 (fax)
http://www.aruba.it
Supporto tecnico - Technical support - Asistencia tecnica :

http://assistenza.aruba.it


Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 08-Feb-2013.
Record expires on 08-Feb-2014.
Record created on 08-Feb-2013.

#126 @Michael can't remember exactly who it was but the link is still active http://torque3d.org/
Whoever it was he said he got the domain before some profitshark could get a hold of it and abuse it, filled it with some placeholder content and kept it in case the steering committee wanted to use it.

Edit: @smally dont know about the .com domain, that looks like a profit shark, it's only the .org domain that I know got bought by someone legit. Seems it was a good thing he did so too, since the .com domain already have been "profitsharked" (just invented that term)

#127 Lukas
That's great, I never knew of that site :)
I'm also with you, we should advertise and posted T3D related things there as well.
It would also be a good central location, if whomever owns it wouldn't mind. I see alot of the links direct you back here. Great find!

#128 Okay I gave up on the website idea, it would be nice to have a dedicated website but it's too much work for me with little gain on a short term basis.
I think a thing that could really boost t3d would be a monthly newsletter which I will begin working on starting today, it's an old idea I wanna bring back to life and I think it will be a great thing for T3D. I've begun designing the newspaper, it will be magazine-ish and I will be sending emails for permissions etc in the next coming days. Will write a blog about it this weekend as well as suggestions for how it could benefit me personally as to keep my interest in the long term. Stay tuned and please share your thoughts there's too much thinking and not enough doing in this thread... Time for some doing!

#129 I'm quite new so I thought i'd give you my perspective on T3D and the whole site/promoting.

I got interested in T3D due to the demo's for the Oculus Rift.
I must say that I do find T3D quite nice and an easier learning curve for me to make some games or environments to use for the Rift and I myself have been promoting it on Reddit to the rift crowd with instructions on setup and getting rift working thanks to david's Rift Template.

I have persuaded a few people to go the torque route but a lot of people needed more info on why they should go this route (Which i posted a thread on why I like T3D)

I am hoping to have enough time to make a T3D game for the Oculus Rift Jam to help spread this engine for people to try it out.

I do think Demo's of games or small fun things to do in T3D at least for the rift guys will bring more people over to it and get it more popular.

Also when Oculus do release the Android Drivers then a T3D android/linux Kickstarter with Rift support would easily get the 10k needed from us reddit users as it would allow portable VR.


Now as for the website I do like this website it's clean and purchasing Assets on the store is easy but quite a few don't say what version of T3D they are or they are for older versions which I am unsure if they will work.

Also searching for tutorials or info on doing certain things has been challenging to say the least.

I do find a few good things but I find a lot of stuff for the older game engines which doesn't help with the T3D V3 i'm using.

Example is i've been looking on how to make a player follow a path and i've looked at the doc's (Which was a tad hard to find) and it didn't really explain how to use the path just how to lay it and a few posts say make the player AI and set it to path but I didn't actually find any examples and found it quite hard to work out how to use it with playing around i'm still unable to work out how to use it.

The Program and site are great but to get started on using T3D is a pain and I think it's possibly a reason why it may not be looked at.

This has just been my experience so far and I have found some great resources but it needs to be organised better and a solid place to start learning as well (While the FPS is great we need more specific items for some of the T3D tools or basics on doing things in game)

I don't want to come across as complaining this is just how it's been for me and I love T3D and am doing my best to promote it in the Rift section as it's the beginning of Virtual Reality and I think if T3D gets it's foot into it then it could be the defacto for creating experiences :)

I don't have much free time but things like walking through the FPS tutorial and updating it where it's out of date i'm happy to do and it might be helpful coming from a beginner perspective.

I think the key to T3D success is ease of use and showing of it's functions.

You also could talk to Oculus about advertising the engine they have UDK and Unity and a open source alternative being shown to the rift community would be a huge boost I think.

Hell i'm slowly buying assets from GarageGames and users on this site that have shown their models for sale in various forums posts and blogs.

#130 It's great to hear from new users on this. Us oldies tend to be set in our ways and have been on the inside for too long! I agree that T3D is pretty darn good when it comes to creating environments and stuff, but gameplay is more difficult to edit - you've got to delve into the complex script templates and so on.

#131 That is true for gameplay you do need to delve into script and it can be complex but I think if there were a few example tutorials nothing complex just some basics for possible game genres or even things like making objects move like a ball rolling when a player or say gun hits it etc

Or even if we actually made use of the templates and added in some different types of games to get a user up and running with a basic of that type of game and they have to build on top of that I think it would attract more people.

I know this does make more work and might not be the direction people want to go in but I think it's a good start.

I can write down a list of possible basic tutorials or game templates or even if people can send me to a threads to some of the stuff on the list I am happy to write up an idiots guide for it as well and maybe we can get a beginners section going?

#132 Actually I don't see that your suggestions are against any direction that people want to go with. I think they are actually aligned with a lot that has been said that needs to be done and further developed. So no worries there.

I don't know what kind of work is going on with the basic templates setups at the moment, I've heard here and there about some people putting new ones together, and have to agree that is something the basic package could benefit from.

If you felt that taking the initiative and coming up with a list like you suggested would be of interest, by all means please proceed ;)

@Lukas what about doing regular focus pieces. Where we can deal with specific few points each time. Those could be stored in a beginner tutorial area as well, in an ordered fashion. I think that would be a huge benefit for users.

Brainstorming is good too. Gotta have a solid direction instead of fractured thoughts.

#133 IMO, honestly, the best thing we can do for T3D is make games with it that people like. Simple (ha) as that. If people see successes, they will want to get involved. Even if the process isn't completely smooth and user-friendly yet, even if there are some bugs, they'll be willing to put in the work because the result is proven.

T3D is useless as a game engine if it isn't being used to make games.

But yeah, more scripting tutorials would be great. Honestly, I am putting a lot of my hopes into this modular template system. After working with T2D briefly, I have very high hopes of what such a structure could do for script projects. Along with proper programming practises and so on. Unfortunately any tutorials written for the current template structure will likely not apply to a modular structure.

#134

Quote:T3D is useless as a game engine if it isn't being used to make games

That's the best line I read on these forums since a very long time.
Not to be :-* )*(
...but I totally agree with that!

#135 Most effective way:
a GOOD video game

#136 Nah man, crap games are all the rage these days.

ZING. ;)

Nils: not sure what that smiley means but I think I get your meaning.

#137 I think the idea has been reversed for some reason.

Game companies who focus on sales of their games can and do create engines for their games. Sometimes they extend known ones, we all know this.

Software groups that write an engine for games and/or simulations, don't always create the games themselves. The point of the tech demo, is to show off just about every feature of said software in a short time.

We were talking about promotion materials and ways to promote the engine itself. So, a tech demo would still be relevant. Games are good for furthering that and acting as mouth pieces. Of course a good game can and does help. Though, when lacking said game, to show off features, you create a demo of these features and you keep it updated with the current state. I don't see a problem with combining some of the demos into one comprehensive version, that's all.

That's all I'm talking about as far as an updated demo goes, and keeping it updated.

#138 @Smally,
I totally agree on a tech demo for features. Except it could take the form of an ultra simple game that is not fps (to help break that image a bit). It too could be added to over time. Perhaps adding/retiring different missions to cover new features/chapters in the engine/game.

If the demo took the form of a game then the progress of the demo creation could be tracked and turned into a tutorial of how to put together a game. The game would not need to be as polished as a full game, but it could have a radically different look to show how different the engine can look from stock. The artwork would not necessarily need to be consistent either. Maybe only consistent per mission. That way one mission could be all toon shaded, while another could be a completely underwater scene.

Artists/coders could volunteer for a mission if they wanted to. To go a step further we could even have each mission be a different game genre. This would require a very modular approach under the hood, but it might be a really good thing in the end. It would be similar to the "toys" in T2D.

Another thing that would help promote the engine and the people at the GG community would be missions that are "owned" by specific contributors. This would give a way for mission contributors to be able to get kudos for making an awesome demo mission. They could include credits and links to their websites as well per mission. If licensed artwork/code were used by contributors it could showcase their work. Would have to really look close as to how to handle this so people don't just take their stuff. Perhaps it would be better to only put in freebees.

I like the build and maintain approach and think it could do a lot for the GG products AND the talented community.

Edit:
I don't think this should be in the main repo for T3D either. It should be controlled in its own repo as the requirements for a game are probably different than a game engine.

#139 Eh, I really meant a repo for just the demo, not the main one. Sorry bout that. ;)

#140 Anyone considered helping with existing Torque projects? For example, helping with an effort to port Legions to Torque 3D. Legions is a great game that already has a player base and a solid foundation. It's running on legacy tech, though. It would greatly benefit from a port from TGEA (Jugg) to T3D.

Game gets update: Good for Legions players
Game gets attention: Good for Torque 3D.