Torque X Book Completed

It's finally finished. After several months of work, the The Complete Guide to Torque X is finally completed and on its way through the rest of the book publishing process. I'm not sure about the final page count (since it still needs to go through copy-editing and layout). But it should be really comprehensive. Here's a sneak preview of the topics covered in the book. (Not the final book cover)



Introduction to Torque X

The first chapter provides an introduction and overview of XNA and Torque X. It covers some of the history behind XNA and its roots in Managed Direct X. It goes on to explain the benefits Torque X adds on top of XNA to quickly prototype and create new games.

Part One: Torque X Game Design Tools

Chapter 2 dives right into game development by describing the Torque X Builder 2D game design tool. It starts by creating a new game project in XNA Game Studio and then use Torque X Builder 2D to pull game art assets together and organize them into game levels. The chapter ends by building a simple game using only the stock Torque X components applied to different scene objects.

Chapter 3 works with two more important Torque X Builder 2D editors, the Tilemap Editor and the Particle Editor. Both are important tools to understand when building games with Torque X.

Chapter 4 introduces the Torque X Builder 3D game design tool and shows how to create material definitions, position game objects within a scene, assign components, and then save the resulting 3D scenes.



Part Two: Programming with Torque X

Chapter 5 begins shifting game development work from the designer to code. This chapter presents an introductory overview to the C# programming language. In outlines the fundamental aspects of the C# language that will be used most throughout the remainder of the book. Concepts, such as classes, object, interfaces, and delegates will all be spelled out.

Chapter 6 introduces to the key classes that make up the powerful Torque X Framework. Understanding these classes will be key to successfully creating games. This is also where components will become familiar with examples of how to use them.

Part Three: 2D Game Programming

Chapter 7 begins working with the Torque X Framework code by manipulating tilemaps and uses them to build a completely Tilemap-based puzzle game.

Chapter 8 focuses on the 2D representation of a player and its related responsibilities, such as responding to player input positioning the player on screen, animating the character, and interacting with other game elements. This chapter presents the inner workings of components and best practices for creating them.

Chapter 9 adds more common 2D game functionality using components. In doing so, it uncovers more useful Torque X Framework classes and reveals best practices for designing and creating your own game components.



Chapter 10 continues to create additional components that enhance gameplay features. It creates three new components that implement some basic artificial intelligence for game enemies. In addition to adding some interesting game functionality, these components demonstrate some important lessons.

Part Four: 3D Game Programming

Chapter 11 exposes the fundamentals of 3D game programming. This chapter discusses the concepts of 3D coordinates, vectors, scene graphs, models, and animations.

Chapter 12 applies the new knowledge of the Torque X 3D Framework to create a series of player-centric objects. This chapter applies the same techniques of modular design to create re-usable game components that will move and animate a 3D player.



Chapter 13 shows how to create additional 3D game objects. These useful game objects will work together to help implement a basic first-person shooter game.

Chapter 14 revisits some of the AI concepts discussed earlier and translates them into 3D space. This chapter shows how AI components that were easy in 2D quickly get complicated when it applies to 3D space.

Part Five: Finishing the Game

Chapter 15 explores the audio tools available for creating sounds with XNA. Adding audio to a game using XNA is much more restrictive than for a PC game since the game must run within a managed code environment. There are restrictions on audio formats and compression that need to be met.

Chapter 16 explains the fundamentals of GUI building with Torque X and then applies those fundamentals to create some game setup screens and HUD controls.



Chapter 17 explains materials and shaders and how shaders effects can significantly enhance the visual appeal of a game by adding more to the screen rendering process. This chapter dives into the Framework code, tools, and effect files that put shaders to work.



Chapter 18 will focus on what's involved with moving a game over to the Xbox 360 game console. This starts with design considerations for games that target the console and television. Then, this chapter covers specific steps involved in moving a game onto the Xbox 360, using the project converter, XNA Game Studio, and a Creator's Club membership.

That's about it. It took about seven months to pull all of this together. The biggest challenge was probably trying work on the book in middle of some big changes to Torque X. I will also be managing a new website dedicated to the book, where I can post book updates, downloadable code, and a forum dedicated to answering questions about the book. The site is going to be located at: TorqueXBook.com and should be available in a few days. But now that the book is finally finished, I can get back into the Torque X forums more often ;)

John K.