AIplayer.cs Questions

#1 Well, I only have a couple days a week to work with this software so...
I'm sure this will only apply to a very few people :)

I'm glad most everyone else has arrived, I can tell that this software is really
going to go far !

With all Torque's wonderfull features, I can't understand why so many world class
games like TES, farcry (cryengine), Ureal Tournament, and others were not coded with this engine.

Why did they choose to pay 10's of thousands for these engines when there's Torque ?

Hmmm... It just dosent add up... Or does it ?

I've been programming C++ (in general) for years, and with some HUDGE development groups
working millions of lines of code in some cases. I've worked in some modern game development studios also.

I must say that after ATTEMPTING to be productive with Torque (as a single developer), I've all the books,
notebooks full of hand notes, custom "feature package labs" I developed to try to get a handle on this MONSTER, months of analysis. Oh, and I've made some progress... However,

I GIVE UP, I'M DELETING THE SOFTWARE.

Until someone who is able, writes a reasonable scripting tutorial that puts a handle on the scripting
constructs that everyone needs but no one every talks about, things like using Sim Sets to store
NPC templates so that they can be cloned and reskinned on the fly in an abstract manner that's reuasable
and will not go obsolete with the next 0.1 version upgrade.

It took me FOREVER to figure out how to do that ! And it's still probably not reasonably correct
because of some missing function calls that I CAN NEVER REALIZE.

I bought one of the nice Torque books. (I'll not mention it's name here). IT was totally worthless because the
source code was implemented in such a hardwired way that it could not be implemented outside the
context of its own demo. (even though it was all in Torque Script !)

Please don't think I'm trying to be rude. That's not my goal.

You would be surprised at the people that will pay thousands of dollars for something they
can get to work.

Then again, you can have the greatest solution in the world, but if people can't use it, it get's ignored
and left behind.

I really would have liked to have been able to use this software, And I really tried, but...

Somethings are just not worth the energy.

#2 There is a very good tutorial on how to use the engine and scripting language. It's called "The game programmers guide to torque". It costs around $40. I'm not sure if you're just venting, or if this is a "cry for help", but if you haven't totally given up, I recommend to look at this book.

edit:

I see the retail price is $64, though you can get it for $40 on amazon.

#3 Any idea how much of the code is portable to TGEA if I upgrade ?

The shader engine is the way to go for the most modern features.

I like the features of Torque and obviously the TGEA, But...

There no good if I can't reasonably figure out how to implement them.

Not trying to vent, just being real.

Thanks,

#4 I use it for TGEA myself - Since TGEA is a superset of TGE, there are some things that aren't covered (such as materials, the new objects like megaterrains, etc), but the core classes and gui controls are all the same, and this gave me a good start. Truth is, I felt kind of lost until I got this book. There was a lot to learn, and I just didn't have the time to dig into the code to understand everything from scratch. This put me on the right track. Of course, the book doesn't cover everything - I still dig into the code, and dig around TDN sometimes.
He has a second book out that I haven't purchased yet. Probably pick it up soon.

#5 @Areal - I have been working with Torque now for about 4 years, and I am just now getting to a point where I understand a bit of what is going on. When I started, I knew very little about programming and slightly more about scripting. Many times I have become frustrated with the engine and had to simply walk away for a few months and come back with a clear head. I have found that most of what I want to accomplish has been done before, and while there are not many tutorials around that have been particularly useful to me, I have found that my greatest grasp of the engine has come from resources. If you dig a little, you will find a plethora of information that can help get you on the right track. More specifically, if you are looking to learn about AI, disecting this resource has helped me immensely. You will learn that this is a great community that has a lot to offer. So if you haven't already, don't give up!