Actual Status of TGEA
by Andy S. · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 06/27/2007 (10:56 am) · 4 replies
Hi,
i own both TGE 1.5.2 and TGEA. After fiddling around for some time in other engines and other projects, i am planning now a game and I am evaluating which engine to use. My game is a scaled down version of "viva pinata" (xbox360 title from rare). I am looking for the engine that provides the most functionality out of the box, without needing to change a lot in the source....i want that i can do (if possible) all in script.
So what TGE and TGEA are both missing is the functionality to select items, but this could be added by arcane-fx. The pinatas should have a kind of life of their own, meaning they walk around on the terrain, go to eat, sleep and so on....the player should also have moments where he can just enjoy watching whats happening on screen. Is something like this doable in script alone? I am speaking of maybe 10-15 pinatas (=animals), not hundrets ;-)!
Now my real questions is: are there any drawbacks or features that don't work in TGEA? I mean, is TGEA basically TGE + Shaders + Atlas2? If i use legacy terrain in TGEA, would there be any drawbacks besides the ability to have huge lands? The game will play on a small island, so basically i need just the island and water around.
Or maybe differently asked: would you recommend TGEA over TGE now to start a new project? If not, why? What issues did you run into when you worked with TGEA compared to TGE? Can i expect that the features that work in TGE also work in TGEA? I want to use TGEA because of the shaders, and also i want to use TGEA (or TGE) and not another engine if possible because of the huge community here at GG...no other engine i know of has this and this is a very big plus for me.
So i wonder what you guys think ;-)
i own both TGE 1.5.2 and TGEA. After fiddling around for some time in other engines and other projects, i am planning now a game and I am evaluating which engine to use. My game is a scaled down version of "viva pinata" (xbox360 title from rare). I am looking for the engine that provides the most functionality out of the box, without needing to change a lot in the source....i want that i can do (if possible) all in script.
So what TGE and TGEA are both missing is the functionality to select items, but this could be added by arcane-fx. The pinatas should have a kind of life of their own, meaning they walk around on the terrain, go to eat, sleep and so on....the player should also have moments where he can just enjoy watching whats happening on screen. Is something like this doable in script alone? I am speaking of maybe 10-15 pinatas (=animals), not hundrets ;-)!
Now my real questions is: are there any drawbacks or features that don't work in TGEA? I mean, is TGEA basically TGE + Shaders + Atlas2? If i use legacy terrain in TGEA, would there be any drawbacks besides the ability to have huge lands? The game will play on a small island, so basically i need just the island and water around.
Or maybe differently asked: would you recommend TGEA over TGE now to start a new project? If not, why? What issues did you run into when you worked with TGEA compared to TGE? Can i expect that the features that work in TGE also work in TGEA? I want to use TGEA because of the shaders, and also i want to use TGEA (or TGE) and not another engine if possible because of the huge community here at GG...no other engine i know of has this and this is a very big plus for me.
So i wonder what you guys think ;-)
#2
Could you please elaborate? It sounds like most, if not all of the game could be scripted. I'm not sure what you mean by missing the functionality to select items.
06/27/2007 (1:43 pm)
So what TGE and TGEA are both missing is the functionality to select itemsCould you please elaborate? It sounds like most, if not all of the game could be scripted. I'm not sure what you mean by missing the functionality to select items.
#3
06/27/2007 (2:00 pm)
I meant selecting an object (a pinata in my case) with the mouse by simply clicking on it. Like you would do in a RTS...clicking a pinata should show it's "properties" like need for sleep or if it's hungry and so on in a gui. I know that arcane-fx would provide this with the "selectrons", so i could add it to TGE, but i guess with TGEA it does not (yet) work. 
#4
06/27/2007 (2:22 pm)
I'm fairly sure it will work in TGEA, it just hasn't been done yet. If you look at AFX's code in TGE I'm sure it could be ported to TGEA with a little work. 
Torque 3D Owner Mark Dynna