Torque talk

Although a confirmed Blitz user I am thinking of getting Torque engine for occasional use.I got the demo but it spends more time showing its prowess than explaining how to get started.My unanswered ouestions are
1 Is programming involved?
2 Do you need a c compiler?
3 Do you need a seperate 3d Modelling program?

1: yes.
2: no. you need a c++ compiler.
3: i think so.

Gord,

1 yes
2 yes
3 yes

Amongst others I know that Mousey and Red have Torque afaik - you could ask them direct.

IPete2.

1. almost certainly... unless you are gonna make a copy of Tribes...
2. depends on what you plan to do... you should start out with scripting, and learn how the engine does things... you can do that now with the demo... no compiler needed for thaat... if you need to do something that the engine doesn't do, or does differently from what you need, then you'll have to delve into modding Torque... this will require a c++ compiler, not only to add your new stuff, but you'll need to download the source code so you can do the modding...
3. yes... you should have one already...

also... the Ken Finney book... 3D something or the other ... look on the site, sorry...

good luck

--Mike

have had it for a few years and havent really done much with it was turned off with the horrible 3d art pipeline, seemed impossible to get any models into the engine.

It's easy ... just do it.

1. Yes of course
2. No, you don't neeeeed it but you'll be limited without one
3. No, you could buy content packs and customize the outdoor envirionments just using the editor.

1) you cant do anything good with it without touching the source really. There's a lot there out of the box but its pretty generic stuff.

2)already answered

3)yeah, but there is quite a lot of choice with what you can use as far as modeling goes. the problem is the default art pipeline sucks. And the regular version is very lacking in the graphical feature department.

Having said that, I have worked with a couple of talented guys and have a pretty advanced B3D loader and modified torque GL renderer up and running.

Still a long way to go, and whether anything will come of it I'm still uncertain. I like torque though. But do feel that most of the focus is on the coding and tools for the MOD community. Not a lot there for a professional artist used to AA games yet, but it is coming.

I owe its both,Torque and Torque Shader engine and its great..and very easy to use..

1)Yes, but everything you need you can do trough very easy scripting..
2) As Jeremy said
3) You dont need 3D modeling program if you wanna just drag and drop someones else stuff..if you on your own, of course you need to use 3D modeling programs, and i cant see anything bad in that...you making game, right??

I love it when people answer questions consistently.

ive used the torque engine quite a bit and its no walk in the park. its not very easy and the scripting is quite allot to take on to start with.

that said its a good very fast engine dont expect cutting edge graphics some of the effects you can get in blitz are better and easyer to produce.

its based on a very old engine which has some plus points like its stable network/online code and most of the bugs have been worked out.

if you can program C++ you can do alot if you cant the scripting langage can do a sprising amount.

problems

1. the engines lighting is really poor. even with the add on lighting pack.

2. the code works on the basis of an online game if you dont want to make an online game theres a lot server code that just over complicates things.

3. no tools. the mapping tool for years has been quark which is rubbish they are finally getting to making there own editor. also 3d world studio does now work with torque.

4. the dts (native model format) export is very dodgy milkshape has a nice exporter but doest support vertex weighting the unwrap exporter is poor and needs updating. if you have max or maya you will be ok.

5. the torque shader engine should have been finished by now and updates are slow. the lighting has not been updated yet so apart from shaders and effects its still a bit dodgy.

6. expensive commercial licence for shader engine, for a far from finish version called early adopters (very early).

7 very limited physics no ode etc

there are some good books on torque.

begineers 3d games programming and advanced 3d games programming us torque as there base.

if you dont want to make a online fps or basic racing game you have alot of work changing the code to suit.

Pete

that's a very complete and objective assessment Pete... i agree with everything you've said...

--Mike

As Pete says in point 2 - 'the code works on the basis of an online game' - that is a real killer for me with Torque. If you want to do an action game in single player then, because of the way the networking code works, firing projectiles at targets at point blank range does not always work - even in single player. Or rather - they graphical representation of the projectile does not get drawn until a frame or two after you've fired. Try firing directly at the ground beneath your feet to see this effect.