It was a year ago this week that I recall reading in a UK computer mag about how a group of ex-Dynamix staff (the makers of Tribes and it’s sequel) had acquired the rights to the engine used and was selling it on as open source through Garagegames.com.
All my previous tinkering with graphics programming were solely with 2D, I was looking at a way to ease into 3D. Being an adventurous sort I paid a quick visit to the site and downloaded the demo SDK.
I was impressed so ordered my Torque Game Engine SDK "Indie" License. Doing so opened up areas of the garage games site that I was unable to access as an outsider. I was also given instructions on how to retrieve the source code.
The source for torque is written in C++. It is also being added to by the garage games staff, not on a regular basis but regular enough to have to make monthly checks against the central repository. This was rather nice to start with, but as I started adding my own code to the source it started making monthly updates a royal pain in the arse.
Torque had a scripting language that was used to create its editors. If you wanted to edit the landscape of the map you were playing you would simply load the script from the control panel, which could be invoked with a shortcut. Again this was great when I first started, but I had to customize the editors (Mainly the mission file creator) that meant messing with script files (A sort of c language). This was pain number 2; it was more a case of trial and error to get the script to work correctly. No Rad development environment was available for the scripting language.
A good point about Torque was the resource library and community. But this invariably led to pain in the arse number 3. Resources were described, they were not simply a case of 'Download this and unzip it in to you working directory'. Because everyone’s source could and probably was different each step to enable the resource needed to be spelt out.
1) Add global variable to class car
2) Add new function to class script
3) Insert the code below in to the function 'Areyounotpissedoffyet'
4) Spend you weekend tinkering until it sort of works
5) Finally give up and revert to an old version
This would normally end with all the cases in which the code would not work, or what it might break.
The bottom line is that the torque engine is an ailing engine that is only any good if you want to make a FPS. To do anything else would require delving deep in to the source and hoping you don't break too much when you add the functionally your game requires.
In retrospect I can now clearly see that Garage Games has done an excellent job at polishing a turd. One thing you do not see as an outsider visiting the garage games website are pages and pages of unfinished projects that read like a D-day obituary. Although this was quickly lept upon and
Digital bone yard was born.
I stopped using Torque 8 month after I had bought my license (If anyone wants it then by all means be my guest)*. It coincided with when I found true vision 3D. Unlike Torque, it wasn't in a magazine that I had heard about it but in a forum.
*EDIT: I have given my license away to Tom Gibson, Could people please stop sending me private messages asking :roll:
My first visit to the TV3D site can only be described as positive, with information easy to find and the layout clean. I was really surprised at the number of examples available in the SDK. I was also pleased that using True vision allowed me to develop my application in the language I am more comfortable with. I had a clean canvas on to which I could write my game logic, which after the nightmares of having to delve in to other peoples code was a breath of fresh air.
I don't think I need to go on as I feel I don’t need to preach to the converted. I do wish to add that the TGE Editors ended up being more of a hinderance than a godsend. I spent far to long trying to get the editors to do what I wanted, in which time I could have built my own tools using RAD development tools.
And if TV3D 6.2 can pistol-whips torque to the floor before booting its hide out the door. 6.5 will batter it in to unrecognizable goo. All though to be fair 6.5 sibling would be TSE for which I haven’t used so can't comment.
