Portability of TGE
by sandelz · in Hardware Issues · 10/16/2006 (9:04 am) · 6 replies
Hi!
For long I have circled and searched for perfect engine for our game. We have a small team that has aimed for gaming market, but our company has made business software in order to finance game development and the time has come to pick engine to use.
We are interested of developing pc games but gearing towards consoles so I was wondering how portable is the code of TGE? Is it possible to port the TGE for consoles other than xbox360(wii, ps3)?
And small side question, is there any release date for TSE(even quarter)? I read - in some page - that TSE should be released until the end of the year 2006, is this correct?
For long I have circled and searched for perfect engine for our game. We have a small team that has aimed for gaming market, but our company has made business software in order to finance game development and the time has come to pick engine to use.
We are interested of developing pc games but gearing towards consoles so I was wondering how portable is the code of TGE? Is it possible to port the TGE for consoles other than xbox360(wii, ps3)?
And small side question, is there any release date for TSE(even quarter)? I read - in some page - that TSE should be released until the end of the year 2006, is this correct?
#2
Although xbox360 has the XNA "network", we are intrigued to create content on Wii because of the controller(ah so many possibilities). The thing I noticed when researching the engines is that no engine except Unreal 3 or CryEngine are reported to run on platforms like gamecube or wii, I wonder if the advertisement of engine cabable of running those platforms also requires some kind of license.
And of course as a beginner team we don't have money to license those engines. Best thing would certainly be to convince publishers with another engine running the game demo or something like that.
But learning one engine is a tedious job, and we aim for TGE it would be nice to know that it COULD be ported to different platform easily(?). I read something of the TSE that it has "API independent GFX layer" so at least theoreticly it should be possible. And of course if linux and macos is supported it is also a good thing.
Edit: Removed the release of TSE related question.
10/16/2006 (12:21 pm)
Yes, we are aware of that bureaucracy and budget related to licensing a platform. I am just interested to know if TGE has the ability to bend to different platform so if we are to create a title, the porting would not impossible(or that it would we should change engine because TGE cannot be ported to different platform).Although xbox360 has the XNA "network", we are intrigued to create content on Wii because of the controller(ah so many possibilities). The thing I noticed when researching the engines is that no engine except Unreal 3 or CryEngine are reported to run on platforms like gamecube or wii, I wonder if the advertisement of engine cabable of running those platforms also requires some kind of license.
And of course as a beginner team we don't have money to license those engines. Best thing would certainly be to convince publishers with another engine running the game demo or something like that.
But learning one engine is a tedious job, and we aim for TGE it would be nice to know that it COULD be ported to different platform easily(?). I read something of the TSE that it has "API independent GFX layer" so at least theoreticly it should be possible. And of course if linux and macos is supported it is also a good thing.
Edit: Removed the release of TSE related question.
#3
There are a number of professional engines which are made to work with consoles, but they also assume professional studio budgets to license. Most smaller, indie, studios do not usually fit the demographic of console manufacturers. XBox arcade changed that to a degree and has been changing it ever since. Whether or not Nintendo or Sony will follow that trend is not known (though both have made some very vague and interesting statements about their hopes).
You can look at SNSYS, Renderware, and Jupiter for an example of some engines which target current and next-gen console hardware, but they are expensive to license since they are not targeted to you and I. Torque is one of the few indie engines which has jumped on the 360 and XNA framework. I would not be surprised if more jump on XNA. I am hopeful that more consoles open up to indies and edge around the studio mentality that has been prevalent for so long. It took a long time for the PC industry to do it. Now we have a ton of excellent engines. We just need more games.
10/16/2006 (1:09 pm)
Well, TGE has a platform layer which you would need to write with the platform SDK in mind. Doubtless, you would need to make some other changes along the way as well.There are a number of professional engines which are made to work with consoles, but they also assume professional studio budgets to license. Most smaller, indie, studios do not usually fit the demographic of console manufacturers. XBox arcade changed that to a degree and has been changing it ever since. Whether or not Nintendo or Sony will follow that trend is not known (though both have made some very vague and interesting statements about their hopes).
You can look at SNSYS, Renderware, and Jupiter for an example of some engines which target current and next-gen console hardware, but they are expensive to license since they are not targeted to you and I. Torque is one of the few indie engines which has jumped on the 360 and XNA framework. I would not be surprised if more jump on XNA. I am hopeful that more consoles open up to indies and edge around the studio mentality that has been prevalent for so long. It took a long time for the PC industry to do it. Now we have a ton of excellent engines. We just need more games.
#4
Thank you for information. I think we'll license torque because of the price and it has - from what we have heard/read - great features, just waiting for TSE to be released.
10/16/2006 (10:27 pm)
Agreed.Thank you for information. I think we'll license torque because of the price and it has - from what we have heard/read - great features, just waiting for TSE to be released.
#5
10/16/2006 (11:18 pm)
I need to forewarn you, the TGE/TSE EULA expressly denies using the stock license to port to a console platform. You will need to negotiate a deal with GarageGames directly for porting a code base to a console platform other than XBox360 (and would need to purchase an XBox360 license for that target platform). 
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
2. XNA is an initiative which allows developers to create and test on the XBox 360. TorqueX is oriented towards XNA. TSE 360 uses the official developer SDK from Microsoft which requires a SDK license from MS.
3. Sony and Nintendo have not announced any development options similar to XNA so far and so it is impossible to give a definite answer. If your company is an official developer that has paid their money to Sony or Nintendo, then a port is possible with some talented programming staff who can get up to speed with the intimacies of platform technology. But right now there are no official announcements, though I would not be surprised to see games like Marble Blast or Tube Twist on the Wii or PS3 if the online market is available.