Perspective ...
by Le Roi · 06/14/2006 (12:09 am) · 4 comments
Last Night I was busy working on my game in the torque game builder when I stopped and realized that I was approaching this wrong.
The TGB is a very powerful engine with an excellent toolset that accompanies it.
You still have to "write" your game in script.
When I first started using TGB , I was under the frame of reference that it was a sort of "click and play" application (which it is for level editing btw) , and I got frustrated because I couldn't understand how I would code my game (splash screens etc.) - because I'm used to doing everthing myself (code wise).
Then it dawned on me ,
I should change my frame of reference from a
"TGB will do for me with a few clicks"
to
"I can let TGB do using script and use TGB's tools to fast forward the process".
Once I did this change to my frame of reference , I started delving into the documentation , and tutorials , and got started doing my game properly.
Luckily for me (coming from a programming background) - to change my frame of reference was quite easy , I'm just glad I realized this before I were way in over my head.
Anyways , so then I started thinking , for the game i'm busy with I would like to have that "jump-in" facility like Starwars Lego ,
Thus I came up with this structure
GameObject - is the Base Class for any/all Game Objects
Actor Object - is the Base Class for Player/Enemy/whatever.
Now every Actor should have a Controller , thus you associate a Controller (be it Player or AI) to an Actor
And thus you also associate a movemap(keybindings) to each Actor (which the controller can replace).
Thus if I was playing and my buddy wanted to jump in , The game will just swop the "AI Controller" with the "Player Controller" and supply the different movemap(keybindings) and wolla , immediately my buddy can start playing along.
Feel free to comment on this.
I'll keep this blog updated as I progress with my game.
Cheers for now
The TGB is a very powerful engine with an excellent toolset that accompanies it.
You still have to "write" your game in script.
When I first started using TGB , I was under the frame of reference that it was a sort of "click and play" application (which it is for level editing btw) , and I got frustrated because I couldn't understand how I would code my game (splash screens etc.) - because I'm used to doing everthing myself (code wise).
Then it dawned on me ,
I should change my frame of reference from a
"TGB will do
to
"I can let TGB do
Once I did this change to my frame of reference , I started delving into the documentation , and tutorials , and got started doing my game properly.
Luckily for me (coming from a programming background) - to change my frame of reference was quite easy , I'm just glad I realized this before I were way in over my head.
Anyways , so then I started thinking , for the game i'm busy with I would like to have that "jump-in" facility like Starwars Lego ,
Thus I came up with this structure
GameObject - is the Base Class for any/all Game Objects
Actor Object - is the Base Class for Player/Enemy/whatever.
Now every Actor should have a Controller , thus you associate a Controller (be it Player or AI) to an Actor
And thus you also associate a movemap(keybindings) to each Actor (which the controller can replace).
Thus if I was playing and my buddy wanted to jump in , The game will just swop the "AI Controller" with the "Player Controller" and supply the different movemap(keybindings) and wolla , immediately my buddy can start playing along.
Feel free to comment on this.
I'll keep this blog updated as I progress with my game.
Cheers for now
#2
I'm so used to doing all TGB stuff in code, that now I can't get used to the editors.
06/14/2006 (7:56 am)
I'm just the opposite....I'm so used to doing all TGB stuff in code, that now I can't get used to the editors.
#3
I love TGB
06/14/2006 (8:18 am)
@Chris : I thought I was the only one who tried to rip out the editors, too used to the good'ole way....but, as of RC1, with all the docs in place, I feel that the editors save looooooooooots of time for trivial purposes.I love TGB
#4
Chris, can't is a strong word. Beleive me, I know where you're coming from. Though I also know the tools personally save me a lot of time when building up demos (and my own personal projects as well).
06/14/2006 (8:51 am)
I'm glad you've started taking advantage of the tools :) Personally when we were originally envisioning the tools and somwhere in the early alpha/beta versions we finally realized the potential of these tools. We also realized how far we wanted to take them for now, to not completely eliminate scripting. I personally like this, because scripting gives people so much power. Hopefully the tutorials (especially the version of docs in the upcoming release) will help those that aren't comfortable with scripting, learn it and realize that you don't have to be a programmer to script in TGB :)Chris, can't is a strong word. Beleive me, I know where you're coming from. Though I also know the tools personally save me a lot of time when building up demos (and my own personal projects as well).
Torque 3D Owner Rodney Rindels - Torqued
Divide By Zero
I had a similar experience with it, once I thunked down.. I'm really pleased with TGB.