TGE-L, Constructor and TSTPro
by Ron Yacketta · 03/10/2006 (1:39 pm) · 12 comments
Sure has been a long time sense my last blog, bet you have been wondering what I have been up to (or maybe not ;) )
After IGC 2004 I hoped on board with MGT to help them shore up DH:L on Linux as well as to add cnr (linspire authentication), helped with some bot code (getting bots to dynamical load based on game settings) and added a player list gui (not sure if it is fully functional, still waiting for feedback). Things started to dry up a bit with Lore, think that was more of my fault for not being around on IRC as much. Don't blame them one bit for the lack of work tossed my way :) they are a bunch of great guys who I have nothing but deep respect for.
Shortly before IGC 2005 I was asked by Ben G if I would like to get TGE up to snuff for 1.4 seeing that they were planning on releasing it at or shortly after IGC 2005. Without hesitation I jumped on the opportunity and dove in head first. Man was I in for a shock ;) I have done a lot of things with TGE on the surface, but nothing with the finer internal portions of TGE. It was a learning experience to say the least. The port fizzled out after IGC, had personal family issues that kept me from working on it as well as a desire issue. Jeff T. posted an interesting 'Linux Expectation Management' blog which was promptly followed up with a thread by Ben G titled 'Linux Collaboration'. Porting began to pick up, the community got involved and e-mails/patches were flowing through my inbox. After a few months of poking and prodding at the TGE-L we finaly have a stable working 1.4 in CVS and the installers for the SDK and DEMO shipped to Matt F for testing and hopefully posting to the GG products page for mass consumption.
I have also been working on the port of constructor to Linux as well as TSTPro, constructor is near completion for porting. That is, it is up to snuff with the current feature set. We do have one major obstacle to takle and that is the application menu. Currently TGE-L is not setup to use a windowing system that has a menu system. We use SDL/OGL and stock Xlib api calls, neither of them have menu system capabilities. I enlisted the help of Gregory McLean to investigate the possibility of using qt/gtk for menu code, it could be done but would require a major rework of the linxu platform. NOT something we are looking to invest time into right now. So, we are planning on using the current TGE menu system and attach it to the base canvas and have it always visible for linux only. Here is a screen shot (thanks to Tim A for resizing/compressing :)) of Constructor running under Linux.
The topic of T2D (TGB) has a habit of popping up when I speak about TGE-L, right now I am not in the know of any porting being done for it. I have asked and was told that someone in the community was working the port, but to date I have not heard of or seen any posts of a port being done.
All linux dev has been done using Kdevelop 3.2.3, Ubuntu 5.10 and GCC4, not sure if that will be the primary support env or not. I know of several community members who are using Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Fedora and mandriva. Community members are also using a range of compilers from 2.95 (me for testing ;) ) to GCC 4.
Well,looks like it is time to finish this blog for now. If you would like to learn more about TGE-L or need someone to-do some Linux development just drop me a line.
-Ron
After IGC 2004 I hoped on board with MGT to help them shore up DH:L on Linux as well as to add cnr (linspire authentication), helped with some bot code (getting bots to dynamical load based on game settings) and added a player list gui (not sure if it is fully functional, still waiting for feedback). Things started to dry up a bit with Lore, think that was more of my fault for not being around on IRC as much. Don't blame them one bit for the lack of work tossed my way :) they are a bunch of great guys who I have nothing but deep respect for.
Shortly before IGC 2005 I was asked by Ben G if I would like to get TGE up to snuff for 1.4 seeing that they were planning on releasing it at or shortly after IGC 2005. Without hesitation I jumped on the opportunity and dove in head first. Man was I in for a shock ;) I have done a lot of things with TGE on the surface, but nothing with the finer internal portions of TGE. It was a learning experience to say the least. The port fizzled out after IGC, had personal family issues that kept me from working on it as well as a desire issue. Jeff T. posted an interesting 'Linux Expectation Management' blog which was promptly followed up with a thread by Ben G titled 'Linux Collaboration'. Porting began to pick up, the community got involved and e-mails/patches were flowing through my inbox. After a few months of poking and prodding at the TGE-L we finaly have a stable working 1.4 in CVS and the installers for the SDK and DEMO shipped to Matt F for testing and hopefully posting to the GG products page for mass consumption.
I have also been working on the port of constructor to Linux as well as TSTPro, constructor is near completion for porting. That is, it is up to snuff with the current feature set. We do have one major obstacle to takle and that is the application menu. Currently TGE-L is not setup to use a windowing system that has a menu system. We use SDL/OGL and stock Xlib api calls, neither of them have menu system capabilities. I enlisted the help of Gregory McLean to investigate the possibility of using qt/gtk for menu code, it could be done but would require a major rework of the linxu platform. NOT something we are looking to invest time into right now. So, we are planning on using the current TGE menu system and attach it to the base canvas and have it always visible for linux only. Here is a screen shot (thanks to Tim A for resizing/compressing :)) of Constructor running under Linux.
The topic of T2D (TGB) has a habit of popping up when I speak about TGE-L, right now I am not in the know of any porting being done for it. I have asked and was told that someone in the community was working the port, but to date I have not heard of or seen any posts of a port being done.
All linux dev has been done using Kdevelop 3.2.3, Ubuntu 5.10 and GCC4, not sure if that will be the primary support env or not. I know of several community members who are using Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Fedora and mandriva. Community members are also using a range of compilers from 2.95 (me for testing ;) ) to GCC 4.
Well,looks like it is time to finish this blog for now. If you would like to learn more about TGE-L or need someone to-do some Linux development just drop me a line.
-Ron
About the author
#2
EDIT: Nevermind. I just realized it was TGE linux.
03/10/2006 (4:04 pm)
What exactly is TGE-L? I haven't heard of it.EDIT: Nevermind. I just realized it was TGE linux.
#3
03/10/2006 (4:07 pm)
Nice =)
#4
Just my way of separating it from the pack, the Linux platform is always being pushed to the back and given less and less attention, so why not a name change and to give it the recognition it deserves!. Never know, maybe more developers will start using it ;) Heck, why not? if you have a windows/mac game using TGE it is rather trivial to get a TGE-L one going!
LONG LIVE TGE-L!!!
-Ron
03/10/2006 (4:35 pm)
TGE-L 'Torque Game Engine - Linux'Just my way of separating it from the pack, the Linux platform is always being pushed to the back and given less and less attention, so why not a name change and to give it the recognition it deserves!. Never know, maybe more developers will start using it ;) Heck, why not? if you have a windows/mac game using TGE it is rather trivial to get a TGE-L one going!
LONG LIVE TGE-L!!!
-Ron
#5
03/10/2006 (7:31 pm)
You have a buyer for Torque Constructor ;)
#6
Thanks!
I can stop holding my breathe for a linux screenshot of constructor.
You are the Linux Man.
03/11/2006 (12:28 am)
Ron,Thanks!
I can stop holding my breathe for a linux screenshot of constructor.
You are the Linux Man.
#7
Seriously though Ron, thanks for all of the excellent work you have put in to everything.
I really wish you would put up a donation box somewhere I would love to slip you a buck or two as I am sure everyother Linux person would.
If it weren't for you there probably still would not be a linux port of 1.4
Long live TGE-RL (Rons Linux Version)!
03/11/2006 (1:04 am)
I was still holding my breath then I realized I only needed to hit refresh.Seriously though Ron, thanks for all of the excellent work you have put in to everything.
I really wish you would put up a donation box somewhere I would love to slip you a buck or two as I am sure everyother Linux person would.
If it weren't for you there probably still would not be a linux port of 1.4
Long live TGE-RL (Rons Linux Version)!
#8
I just may do that, heck already have the pay pal account ;) Would be better to get a couple of contract gigs that I could knock out rather quickly. Have a sickning feeling that medical bills will be the thorn in my budgets side for the next several months.
Hope to have a TSTPro screenshot by the end of the weekend.
-Ron
03/11/2006 (5:46 am)
@Dreamer,I just may do that, heck already have the pay pal account ;) Would be better to get a couple of contract gigs that I could knock out rather quickly. Have a sickning feeling that medical bills will be the thorn in my budgets side for the next several months.
Hope to have a TSTPro screenshot by the end of the weekend.
-Ron
#9
03/11/2006 (8:28 pm)
Go TGE-L! And I'm glad to hear about recent happenings with the Show Tool Pro on Linux, and Constructor on Linux. E-mail me (Ron, Matt) if you need help with porting and testing issues for these other products. I'm very busy with my game project, but having a cushy University day-job has it perks (i.e. I use Linux on my desktop at work and I tend to "multi-task" a few TGE things in during the course of the day... ;-) )
#10
03/13/2006 (5:02 am)
I'd also like to thank you Ron for sticking with this co-ordination of these Linux ports of TGE, TSTPro & Constructor. It's been amazing following the progress of the Linux collaboration thread with the community. All of the hard work into TGE has the added benefit of helping the Linux versions of the TLK & TGB too. I look forward to purchasing both of these tools (especially Constructor).
#11
03/14/2006 (5:27 pm)
@Ron: I have T2D 1.1 beta ported to Linux and working fine, maybe you should check with GG and see if they want the changes, which are not many to be honest, mainly the makefiles had to be hacked up. 
Associate Matt Fairfax
PopCap
As far as getting Linux versions of the TGE 1.4 demo and SDK installers up on the site, we are in the middle of testing them and if everything is solid it should go up *really* soon.
As a special treat for the patience of the Linux community, we are launching TGE 1.4.2 on Linux first with the Windows and Mac versions to follow in a few weeks (give or take GDC ;). So enjoy!