Starting Out
by Mike · in Torque Game Engine · 11/02/2006 (1:07 am) · 3 replies
Okay heres my situation. Here in Western Australia we are having a competition with the universities and colleges for Indie Games. We have decided to go with the TGE because 1) We dont do games programming courses at our college (despite trying for the past year) 2) we arent allowed to make a mod, or program in .NET or Java and 3) We currently have around 10 - 15 multimedia students who can create the art work, models, music etc but only 2 programmers (myself included) whose programming experience is mostly making a small 2d RPG battle with C# and DirectX 7.
What I want to know is what resources that the community would recommend for someone who hasnt had much experience in coding with a 3d engine and using vertexes, meshes etc. The game is currently centred around a multiplayer game that will incorporate fps and rpg elements into it. We have until the end of march 2007 to complete the game and it must be no larger than around 600 - 650mb. Us programmers should be able to pick up c++ well enough having had a years experience with c# but as for coding for a 3d engine thats a completely different issue, and we're eager to learn :)
Currently ive stumbled across a website called gamedev.net thats been helpful with our 2d game design, and my friend has given me a "How to program games in c++" cd that is using DirectX 7 (its pretty old) If there are other resources like books or web articles that you can point us in to get started then that would be very appreciated :)
What I want to know is what resources that the community would recommend for someone who hasnt had much experience in coding with a 3d engine and using vertexes, meshes etc. The game is currently centred around a multiplayer game that will incorporate fps and rpg elements into it. We have until the end of march 2007 to complete the game and it must be no larger than around 600 - 650mb. Us programmers should be able to pick up c++ well enough having had a years experience with c# but as for coding for a 3d engine thats a completely different issue, and we're eager to learn :)
Currently ive stumbled across a website called gamedev.net thats been helpful with our 2d game design, and my friend has given me a "How to program games in c++" cd that is using DirectX 7 (its pretty old) If there are other resources like books or web articles that you can point us in to get started then that would be very appreciated :)
#2
To help with your conversion from C# to C++, as well as familiarizing yourself with TGE, this is a good book to get (if resources and shipping allow): The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque.
You found my favorite site for non-Torque related 3D game programming, which is gamedev.net.
Of course, your best resource will be the Garage Games and gamedev community. When you run across problems, or you have questions, search the forums carefully for someone who has already posted the same subject. If no one has, create a new thread and you should get quick responses.
11/02/2006 (5:18 am)
Hey Mike, welcome aboard. Ian has the right idea with studying the starter.fps kit that comes with the demo and full SDK.To help with your conversion from C# to C++, as well as familiarizing yourself with TGE, this is a good book to get (if resources and shipping allow): The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque.
You found my favorite site for non-Torque related 3D game programming, which is gamedev.net.
Of course, your best resource will be the Garage Games and gamedev community. When you run across problems, or you have questions, search the forums carefully for someone who has already posted the same subject. If no one has, create a new thread and you should get quick responses.
#3
11/02/2006 (5:14 pm)
Cool, ill have a look into it, and so far GameDev.net has been great for responses with questions about the 2d tile based game engine that my mate and I were building. Thanks for the quick responses, and hopefully my lecturer will order the engine today, a lecturer from the University across the road that is also in the competition has suggested that we use Torque Engine, its what theyre using as well so things should be interesting :) 
Torque Owner Ian Roach
As for where to start. Since you are focusing on an fps, i would try to get a good understanding of the starter.fps that comes with torque.
There are also a number of great torque books around this website which might also help you greatly.
Best of Luck :)