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Torque X!
Torque X!
| Name: | Brett Seyler |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Mar 13, 2008 | |
| Rating: |  3.7 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Brett Seyler |
Blog post
It's been about 18 months since we announced that we were developing a brand new Torque engine for Microsoft's XNA framework. Josh's post Torque X, Why We're Doing It, described our very early interest in Microsoft's venture, and why we chose to partner with them to remove barriers for indie game development.
We worked our asses off with our highest powered engine devs to deliver Torque X last June. Since that time, XNA has grown to huge proportions and Torque X development has continued apace, in many ways leading the charge for our overall Torque engine development. Torque X's component architecture is a significant break from our C++ engines and it's something of a model for where those engines are headed.
Until recently Torque X was a 2D only game engine. Lots of you downloaded our beta release of Torque X 1.5 which supported a full range of 3D features, but the last component missing was an update to the XNA 2.0 framework. Today we're proud to release Torque X 2.0. This release is a full-featured 3D component engine compatible with XNA 2.0. Big credit goes to Thomas Buscaglia and Adam Larson for doing most of the heavy lifting to add 3D functionality last fall. Huge credit to superstar John Kanalakis for working on the update to the 1.5 beta to achieve XNA 2.0 compatibility. W00t!
What can Torque X 2.0 do now?
Torque X 2.0 takes full advantage of XNA 2.0, including its improved content pipeline, multiple-render targets, consistent behavior between Windows and Xbox 360, faster rendering performance, and simplified deployment process to the Xbox 360. Torque X 2.0 also works with Visual C# Express and all variations of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows XP and Vista. Torque X 2.0 can load and render a variety of 3D model formats, including GarageGames' .dts, .x, .fbx, and .xsi model formats. Animation support for other formats is in the works.
Sweet! How do I get it?
The current lineup of Torque X products looks a little different than our C++ engine products. This was intentional. For Torque X, we were able to independently develop the engine from the editors and, in the spirit of more options always being better, we decided to offer the engine and the editor separately. What you see on the Torque X landing page actually looks like 5 products. We have:
-Torque X Engine binary FREE
-Torque X Engine Pro (with source code) for Indies $150
-Torque X Engine Pro (with source code) for Commercial $750
-Torque X Builder for Indies $100
-Torque X Builder for Commercial $495
Yikes that's a lot of choices! I get confused just looking at them... : / In general, I want to make it easier to describe which product does what. For Torque X, we'll be moving towards the goal of less products and more obvious choices with future releases. For now, Torque X 2.0 will be a straight update to the Torque X 1.5 beta engine and at no change in price. That means you can still check out the binary of the new 3D engine for FREE. For those looking at 5 choices and not sure what they need to build a game, here are my recommendations:
Torque X Builder is still 2D? When will there be a 3D WYSIWYG editor?
TXB has been updated for XNA 2.0 compatibility with engine, but at this point is only supports 2D WYSIWYG editing. Our next big project with Torque X is going to rock. We demo'd this quietly at GDC last month and all the features aren't quite there yet, but we're moving *very* fast and this new editor is awesome! For an early look, I'll let this video (and John Kanalakis!) do the talking:
Video Preview of Torque X Builder 3D
See? Told ya :) When will this be available? Well, you guys know better than to ask for a delivery date, but we're working on getting it to you ASAP and as you can see, progress is fast.
Can I see examples of what's been done with Torque X?
Sure! XNA and Torque X are still very new, but there are already a lot of cool projects and games. Back in 2006 we showed, more as proof of concept than anything else, Marble Blast Ultra done with Torque X. We saw great performance and the port job was done in a matter of weeks.
Youtube Video of MBU in Torque X
We also have Simian Escape published last year. The bulk of this game was created in just 4 days during GDC 2007. Since shipping the game, Last Straw Games has started a couple new projects with Torque X: Fowl Prowl and Rattle Battle.
Simian Escape
Another veteran of the XNA Challenge 2007, Josh Butterworth has two very good looking Torque X games under his belt. The first was a product of the same 4-day crunch last year at GDC. It was titled 'Final Stand' then, but is now known as Damage Control.
Damage Control
Josh has another great looking game called Last Alarm made with Torque X. Check out the trailer by following the link below:
Trailer for Last Alarm
On top of these cool 3rd party projects, there's the great looking Platformer Starter Kit.
Platformer Starter Kit
Lastly, if you want to see what can be done in a short time with some basic art assets, the FPS demo that ships with Torque X has some impressive game play and visuals.
Video of the Torque X FPS Demo
There are likely many more Torque X games out there that we haven't seen. If you have a cool project, please send us an email and let us know what you're doing. We'll add it to the Powered by Torque page and possibly do a developer feature on GarageGames.com.
What's Next?
Aside from the 3D editor, we have big improvements planned to the art pipeline including compatibility with XSI's XNA Mod Tool. All the tutorials and starter kits (including the hugely popular Platformer Starter Kit) either have been or very soon will be updated.
We're doing Torque X boot camps across the country. Davey Jackson and the team just returned from a regional camp in Texas hosted by SMU Guildhall. We look forward to doing more camps like this with Guildhall and with other schools who want to target developers in their region. Send us a note if you want to see a camp in your area.
Oh yeah...John Kanalakis, on top of trouncing a mountain of work in the XNA 2.0 update to Torque X, is in the midst of finishing a book titled The Complete Guide to Torque X. It should be awesome.
Not a final cover design...but close!
Beyond that, the future for Torque X is wide open. XNA 3.0 offers some truly amazing opportunities to developers who want to make XNA games. For the first time, there's a real, viable commercial path for your games with the ability to publish to Xbox LIVE Community Arcade. Did we mention that you can make games for the Zune?! Wow. Anybody up for porting Legions? :) Okay...we don't know what the hardware will support yet, but when the XNA 3.0 SDK is out, we'll give you the straight scoop. This should be fun!
We worked our asses off with our highest powered engine devs to deliver Torque X last June. Since that time, XNA has grown to huge proportions and Torque X development has continued apace, in many ways leading the charge for our overall Torque engine development. Torque X's component architecture is a significant break from our C++ engines and it's something of a model for where those engines are headed.
Until recently Torque X was a 2D only game engine. Lots of you downloaded our beta release of Torque X 1.5 which supported a full range of 3D features, but the last component missing was an update to the XNA 2.0 framework. Today we're proud to release Torque X 2.0. This release is a full-featured 3D component engine compatible with XNA 2.0. Big credit goes to Thomas Buscaglia and Adam Larson for doing most of the heavy lifting to add 3D functionality last fall. Huge credit to superstar John Kanalakis for working on the update to the 1.5 beta to achieve XNA 2.0 compatibility. W00t!
What can Torque X 2.0 do now?
Torque X 2.0 takes full advantage of XNA 2.0, including its improved content pipeline, multiple-render targets, consistent behavior between Windows and Xbox 360, faster rendering performance, and simplified deployment process to the Xbox 360. Torque X 2.0 also works with Visual C# Express and all variations of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows XP and Vista. Torque X 2.0 can load and render a variety of 3D model formats, including GarageGames' .dts, .x, .fbx, and .xsi model formats. Animation support for other formats is in the works.
Sweet! How do I get it?
The current lineup of Torque X products looks a little different than our C++ engine products. This was intentional. For Torque X, we were able to independently develop the engine from the editors and, in the spirit of more options always being better, we decided to offer the engine and the editor separately. What you see on the Torque X landing page actually looks like 5 products. We have:
-Torque X Engine binary FREE
-Torque X Engine Pro (with source code) for Indies $150
-Torque X Engine Pro (with source code) for Commercial $750
-Torque X Builder for Indies $100
-Torque X Builder for Commercial $495
Yikes that's a lot of choices! I get confused just looking at them... : / In general, I want to make it easier to describe which product does what. For Torque X, we'll be moving towards the goal of less products and more obvious choices with future releases. For now, Torque X 2.0 will be a straight update to the Torque X 1.5 beta engine and at no change in price. That means you can still check out the binary of the new 3D engine for FREE. For those looking at 5 choices and not sure what they need to build a game, here are my recommendations:
- Experimenting with the technology, new to game development
Grab the FREE binary and TXB for a total of $100 if you qualify for our Indie discount. Get used to writing your own components and working with the WYSIWG editor. When you're ready, give importing 3D assets a try and see what you can do with the FPS demo. - Some programming experience, want to make a game
You're probably a candidate for our Indie discount, so grab Torque X Pro and TXB Indie for a total of $250. You get source code for the engine and the 2D WYSYWIG tool and should be well equipped to make your first game. Add a Creator's Club subscription from Microsoft to the mix and you can deploy to the Xbox 360! - Part of an established studio, want to try XNA for prototyping or commercializing a game with Community LIVE Arcade.
You can equip your team with Torque X Pro and Torque X Builder Commercial licenses for $1245 / seat (programmer). Our commercial license also allows you to publish and monetize your game with Microsoft on the XNA LIVE Arcade channel. Site licenses are also available. Contact licensing@garagegames.com for details.
Torque X Builder is still 2D? When will there be a 3D WYSIWYG editor?
TXB has been updated for XNA 2.0 compatibility with engine, but at this point is only supports 2D WYSIWYG editing. Our next big project with Torque X is going to rock. We demo'd this quietly at GDC last month and all the features aren't quite there yet, but we're moving *very* fast and this new editor is awesome! For an early look, I'll let this video (and John Kanalakis!) do the talking:
Video Preview of Torque X Builder 3D
See? Told ya :) When will this be available? Well, you guys know better than to ask for a delivery date, but we're working on getting it to you ASAP and as you can see, progress is fast.
Can I see examples of what's been done with Torque X?
Sure! XNA and Torque X are still very new, but there are already a lot of cool projects and games. Back in 2006 we showed, more as proof of concept than anything else, Marble Blast Ultra done with Torque X. We saw great performance and the port job was done in a matter of weeks.
Youtube Video of MBU in Torque X
We also have Simian Escape published last year. The bulk of this game was created in just 4 days during GDC 2007. Since shipping the game, Last Straw Games has started a couple new projects with Torque X: Fowl Prowl and Rattle Battle.
Simian Escape
Another veteran of the XNA Challenge 2007, Josh Butterworth has two very good looking Torque X games under his belt. The first was a product of the same 4-day crunch last year at GDC. It was titled 'Final Stand' then, but is now known as Damage Control.
Damage Control
Josh has another great looking game called Last Alarm made with Torque X. Check out the trailer by following the link below:
Trailer for Last Alarm
On top of these cool 3rd party projects, there's the great looking Platformer Starter Kit.
Platformer Starter Kit
Lastly, if you want to see what can be done in a short time with some basic art assets, the FPS demo that ships with Torque X has some impressive game play and visuals.
Video of the Torque X FPS Demo
There are likely many more Torque X games out there that we haven't seen. If you have a cool project, please send us an email and let us know what you're doing. We'll add it to the Powered by Torque page and possibly do a developer feature on GarageGames.com.
What's Next?
Aside from the 3D editor, we have big improvements planned to the art pipeline including compatibility with XSI's XNA Mod Tool. All the tutorials and starter kits (including the hugely popular Platformer Starter Kit) either have been or very soon will be updated.
We're doing Torque X boot camps across the country. Davey Jackson and the team just returned from a regional camp in Texas hosted by SMU Guildhall. We look forward to doing more camps like this with Guildhall and with other schools who want to target developers in their region. Send us a note if you want to see a camp in your area.
Oh yeah...John Kanalakis, on top of trouncing a mountain of work in the XNA 2.0 update to Torque X, is in the midst of finishing a book titled The Complete Guide to Torque X. It should be awesome.
Not a final cover design...but close!
Beyond that, the future for Torque X is wide open. XNA 3.0 offers some truly amazing opportunities to developers who want to make XNA games. For the first time, there's a real, viable commercial path for your games with the ability to publish to Xbox LIVE Community Arcade. Did we mention that you can make games for the Zune?! Wow. Anybody up for porting Legions? :) Okay...we don't know what the hardware will support yet, but when the XNA 3.0 SDK is out, we'll give you the straight scoop. This should be fun!
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 03/26/08 - Torque's 2D and 3D Future 03/13/08 - Torque X! 12/22/07 - What a year... Here comes 2008! 04/30/07 - Still looking for Senior Engineers 04/11/07 - GarageGames Now Hiring for several positions |
|---|
Submit your own resources!| Chip Lambert (Mar 13, 2008 at 21:33 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
This is all beautiful man, thank you guys.
Hmm keep getting a 404 error trying to download, it keeps telling me to go back to My Account page and request a new URL.
Edited on Mar 13, 2008 21:37 GMT
| Brett Seyler (Mar 13, 2008 at 21:44 GMT) |
| Eric Fritz (Mar 13, 2008 at 21:47 GMT) |
| Ben Ewing (Mar 13, 2008 at 22:21 GMT) |
| Mark Dynna (Mar 13, 2008 at 22:31 GMT) |
| Thorsten Schmidt (Mar 13, 2008 at 22:39 GMT) |
But I'm sorry I cannot install version 2.0. I always get the following error message:
"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program
required for this install to complete could not be run.
Contact your support personal or package vendor"
Is it because I'm using a german version of the visual studio standard edition?
I remember I had a similar problem with version 1.5. I wasn't able to install 1.5 until
I registered the visual c# express edition ...
| Chip Lambert (Mar 13, 2008 at 22:39 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| John Kanalakis (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:15 GMT) |
[Update] The installer still has a hidden dependency upon Visual C# Express. A fix is currently in the works.
John K.
Edited on Mar 13, 2008 23:47 GMT
| Devon Winter (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:43 GMT) |
First, one of the reasons that we were interested in XNA 2.0 (earlier, and didn't go with Torque X because it wasn't yet ready) was that 2.0 introduced network support. Peer to peer and client/server models are supported, and they even include a little multiplayer demo app. I was curious if Torque X 2.0 adds any functionality to the base XNA network layer, or goes to any lengths to incorporate it into it's component model. I didn't see any mention of network support in the initial write up, but I may have just missed it. So, in short, network support?
Secondly, and this may or may not be the best forum in which to ask this, I was curious if you guys thought that the path to the 360, using Torque technologies, is only going to be through Torque X. Currently, we're building using TGEA, and greatly looking forward to Ultimate Torque, the next iteration of that engine. However though, like all PC developers we're more than a little concerned about the future of the PC as a gaming platform, and so are also eyeing the 360. Ideally, in our best world, we could continue to build our engine around TGEA and it's successors, and hoping that eventually GG would port this engine over to the 360. But, if GG is more and more thinking the only path to the 360 is going to be through Torque X and XNA, then we might want to start re-considering our own technology choices while we're still in the prototype stage ourselves.
Can you shed any light? Of course, any reply you make I would take as absolute gospel and irrevocably carved in stone. :)
| Chris \"C2\" Byars (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:44 GMT) |
| Stephen Zepp (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:48 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Brett Seyler (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:57 GMT) |
On the path to the 360 in general, we're actively supporting both Torque 360 (which is native code) and Torque X (XNA). If you have a TGEA game, using Torque 360 to get your game on the Xbox is the best bet for sure.
"Ultimate Torque?" I have to admit, that's the first time I've heard that name. Sort of catchy like "The Ultimate Warrior" no? Seriously, with TGEA's forthcoming update, you guys are getting our latest and greatest tech. I'll address this in detail in a later blog, but for now I can tell you that as Torque evolves, we'll continue to support a native code solution for getting a game on the Xbox and the XNA path with Torque X.
On PC gaming in general, I have to say, I'm a bit biased. I think InstantAction.com has the potential to absolutely blow the doors open for PCs as a platform. Consoles will probably always be around, but for PC's the problem has almost always been around the delivery method and piracy. Games live and in the web solves both very elegantly. The tech around InstantAction will continue to evolve and at some point, we may even look at allowing people us the same tech to host (and monetize) their own games on the web without a publishing deal for a specific platform. The "render in browser" tech is still very new and maturing, so that's a ways off, but I believe PC gaming is just getting started and still offer the very best path for indies. Make a great PC game and you can take to any other platform you want. Do a bunch of custom stuff for a specific console and often times you're left with a game that lives or dies based on it's success there. I could go on and on about the merits of both PCs and consoles, but I think both will be around for a very long time.
| Devon Winter (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:57 GMT) |
Edited on Mar 14, 2008 00:04 GMT
| John Kanalakis (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:59 GMT) |
John K.
Edited on Mar 14, 2008 00:01 GMT
| Guimo (Mar 14, 2008 at 01:23 GMT) |
TGEA = TGEA for PC
Torque360 = TGEA for XBox360
TorqueX = New engine based in XNA so it should be able to target PC and Xbox360. Also more formats supported, better programming interface. Should be able to support FX files.
If this is right this means TX is an evolution for TGEA ad T360? What is the reason to focus in TGEA and T360?
| Chip Lambert (Mar 14, 2008 at 01:28 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| John Kanalakis (Mar 14, 2008 at 01:41 GMT) |
John K.
| Stephen Zepp (Mar 14, 2008 at 01:50 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Therefore, GarageGames provides two separate paths for development on the 360:
TGE-A code base (with separate TGEA360 license purchase, Microsoft award of a developer slot and dev kits). This path goes through the normal XB360 certification process, and can be used for XBLive Arcade, or disk based distribution of approved by Microsoft games. Since TGE-A is appropriate for both PC's and (again, with separate license purchase) the 360, this is a strong path for commercial developers to use for combined PC/360 distribution of games.
Indies can of course also use this path, but it requires that you are an approved developer for the 360.
TorqueX/XNA code base (with Creators Club membership) This path allows you to make your game on a PC, and then, through the Creators Club, deploy your game to your own retail 360. In addition, with the recently announced LIVE Community, Microsoft has stated that games can be rated by the Creators Club community, and then (if they pass the peer rating) published on the XB360 LIVE Community.
This is a good path for Indies with small budgets, because it allows commercial sale of your game on Windows (MS has allowed that for a while now), in addition to allowing you, assuming you pass peer review, to eventually distribute your game in the 360 LIVE community.
It is also a good path for commercial developers that either A) Want to use XNA for their game development, B) want to prototype quickly (managed C# and TorqueX is an extremely rapid prototyping environment), or C) want a lower cost development/distribution path to the 360 for smaller budget games (the approved developer relationship can be an expensive one).
Hope that helps--we realize it's complicated, but honestly, if you're an Indie, and especially one that is just getting started, concentrate on making your game first, and then worry about distribution when your game is ready--regardless of the path you take, the most important thing is finishing the game.
TorqueX is not an "upgrade" or "final destination" for TGE-A--they are completely different paths, using completely different programming languages. They share quite a bit of underlying architecture (and will continue to do so in the future), simply because as we develop features in either engine, when it makes sense we use those same features in the other engine.
Edited on Mar 14, 2008 13:48 GMT
| Chip Lambert (Mar 14, 2008 at 03:50 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Brett Seyler (Mar 14, 2008 at 03:54 GMT) |
| Chip Lambert (Mar 14, 2008 at 03:59 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Edit: NM found the answer to my question.
Edited on Mar 14, 2008 04:05 GMT
| Matthew Shapiro (Mar 14, 2008 at 04:06 GMT) |
For that matter, out of curiosity what was the reasoning for separating the 2d and 3d TXB editors?
| Tom Eastman (Eastbeast314) (Mar 14, 2008 at 07:46 GMT) |
| Donald \"Yadot\" Harris (Mar 17, 2008 at 14:45 GMT) |
| John Kanalakis (Mar 17, 2008 at 16:05 GMT) |
John K.
| Kenneth Holst (Mar 17, 2008 at 22:38 GMT) |
"Torque X requires Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and
XNA Game Studio Express. Install the required
applications, and then relaunch setup."
Thanks again and sorry for the delay. Enjoy!
| Mark0794 (Apr 21, 2008 at 03:42 GMT) |
| Ed Averill (Apr 23, 2008 at 17:17 GMT) |
So much to learn.. so little time (darn day job)..
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