TGB + TGE = ?
by Jay Barnson · 11/10/2006 (8:33 pm) · 9 comments
I did a little write-up over at Tales of the Rampant Coyote about my effort to combine Torque Game Builder with the latest (1.5) version of the Torque Game Engine. And why I'd do such a thing!
Many thanks to Gary Briggs for the invaluable assistance getting it up and running. He did the hard part, weeks ago. I'm surprised more people haven't done this.
TGEPlus: Two Game Engines In One!
In a nutshell: It's not perfect. But thanks to the efforts GG has made to keep the two engines joined at the hip, and Gary's efforts to hunt down a few more missing pieces, it took me only about an hour to join the two together and working. Beats the couple of WEEKS I'd have had to put in to add all the dynamic UI changes I wanted to make. Now I can just make T2D calls and get the same thing.
Oh, and since there's the whole "Have Screenshot in Your PLAN" thing - here's some artwork from the game I'm pushing towards alpha right now:
It won't be taking as much advantage of the combined engine (which I've dubbed "TGEPlus") capabilities as the NEXT game, which is already in design. But you'd better believe I'll be sneaking them in wherever I can during the next few weeks.
Many thanks to Gary Briggs for the invaluable assistance getting it up and running. He did the hard part, weeks ago. I'm surprised more people haven't done this.
TGEPlus: Two Game Engines In One!
In a nutshell: It's not perfect. But thanks to the efforts GG has made to keep the two engines joined at the hip, and Gary's efforts to hunt down a few more missing pieces, it took me only about an hour to join the two together and working. Beats the couple of WEEKS I'd have had to put in to add all the dynamic UI changes I wanted to make. Now I can just make T2D calls and get the same thing.
Oh, and since there's the whole "Have Screenshot in Your PLAN" thing - here's some artwork from the game I'm pushing towards alpha right now:
It won't be taking as much advantage of the combined engine (which I've dubbed "TGEPlus") capabilities as the NEXT game, which is already in design. But you'd better believe I'll be sneaking them in wherever I can during the next few weeks.
About the author
#3
Remember you guys don't have to be like intel where they have cool names inside and have to send out some lame box with a number that looses all the fun of the product from the development staff.
I think there should be a contest where members, associates and even the employees lol could suggest names and then pick best one.
11/10/2006 (9:59 pm)
Get rid of the abbreviation names and make some cool names for the new products.Remember you guys don't have to be like intel where they have cool names inside and have to send out some lame box with a number that looses all the fun of the product from the development staff.
I think there should be a contest where members, associates and even the employees lol could suggest names and then pick best one.
#4
I still can't figure why more people haven't been doing this. Or maybe they are and are just keeping mum about it.
11/10/2006 (10:01 pm)
Me too, Gary! I appreciate the work you did... while there were some differences between TGE 1.4 and 1.5 (mainly less work to do, I thought), I felt like I was painting by numbers after reading your post :) Made it easy.I still can't figure why more people haven't been doing this. Or maybe they are and are just keeping mum about it.
#5
But this sounds like a fun idea. Might make myself a copy sometime.
11/10/2006 (10:06 pm)
Its actually not that hard to add a lot of the animation functionality to the TGE gui you know... certainly no more than a day.But this sounds like a fun idea. Might make myself a copy sometime.
#6
11/10/2006 (10:18 pm)
Cool! I'm still waiting for someone to build a GAME based on TGB imbedded in TGE. Check out this killer video, from this thread.
#7
btw, this is allowed by the eula, right?
11/10/2006 (11:28 pm)
Great! There's a good chance we'll be doing something similar soon (still waiting to get that project approved). I just hope I'll be able to merge the 2 engines without much problems.btw, this is allowed by the eula, right?
#8
1 day versus 1 hour... ? ;)
Actually, I have had automated translating buttons before, and it was pretty easy. Rotation is another matter - the UI image classes assume rectangles all the way through, so you'll have to create a new class with your own primitive calls. Or do animation via swapping textures, which is also not hard to do but consumes way more texture space than it should.
I'd expect more than an 8-hour day to get it all in, tested, and debugged though. I'm sure you can ask Melv if it's apparent ease is deceptive or not :) For the upcoming project (A.C. can't get done fast enough), I figure I probably saved myself several days of effort, actually. But that's part-time-indie days, which are 4 hours long if I'm LUCKY.
But no, it wouldn't be worth it to buy TGB just for its potential enhancements to TGE's UI functionality. But if you happen to have both, it seems like a reasonable way to go. I'll have to report back when I've had more time to play with it.
btw, this is allowed by the eula, right?
Both EULAs seem compatible to me, so long as I abide by their restrictions. According to Josh Williams, it sounds like this was one intended use of T2D, originally. Pre-TGB era.
11/11/2006 (12:07 am)
Its actually not that hard to add a lot of the animation functionality to the TGE gui you know... certainly no more than a day.1 day versus 1 hour... ? ;)
Actually, I have had automated translating buttons before, and it was pretty easy. Rotation is another matter - the UI image classes assume rectangles all the way through, so you'll have to create a new class with your own primitive calls. Or do animation via swapping textures, which is also not hard to do but consumes way more texture space than it should.
I'd expect more than an 8-hour day to get it all in, tested, and debugged though. I'm sure you can ask Melv if it's apparent ease is deceptive or not :) For the upcoming project (A.C. can't get done fast enough), I figure I probably saved myself several days of effort, actually. But that's part-time-indie days, which are 4 hours long if I'm LUCKY.
But no, it wouldn't be worth it to buy TGB just for its potential enhancements to TGE's UI functionality. But if you happen to have both, it seems like a reasonable way to go. I'll have to report back when I've had more time to play with it.
btw, this is allowed by the eula, right?
Both EULAs seem compatible to me, so long as I abide by their restrictions. According to Josh Williams, it sounds like this was one intended use of T2D, originally. Pre-TGB era.
#9
Also keepin in mind particle effects, tile maps, paning, scrollers. You really have a lot of GUI advantages by using TGB.
"But no, it wouldn't be worth it to buy TGB just for its potential enhancements to TGE's UI functionality."
I'd argue that it might be, if you really are planning on making some visually advanced GUIs. Of course for just a couple cool animated effects, maybe not so much :)
I'd also like to second Josh D. on that, seeing TGB run on a TGE texture plane is just awesome. In the past I had hoped to work on something doing that. Though now I definately don't have the time, I'm looking forward to seeing some game concepts with that as well :)
@Jay: great blog btw!
11/11/2006 (7:18 am)
The major limiting factor of doing animated GUIs using the Torque GUI controls is you only can use integer positioning and precision, which means animation is going to look choppy when you start using more demanding visuals and wanting that extra quality. Using TGB as a GUI layer is more than ideal for anything that TGB can handle and I am definately looking forward to seeing what people come up with :) Also keepin in mind particle effects, tile maps, paning, scrollers. You really have a lot of GUI advantages by using TGB.
"But no, it wouldn't be worth it to buy TGB just for its potential enhancements to TGE's UI functionality."
I'd argue that it might be, if you really are planning on making some visually advanced GUIs. Of course for just a couple cool animated effects, maybe not so much :)
I'd also like to second Josh D. on that, seeing TGB run on a TGE texture plane is just awesome. In the past I had hoped to work on something doing that. Though now I definately don't have the time, I'm looking forward to seeing some game concepts with that as well :)
@Jay: great blog btw!
Associate Fyodor "bank" Osokin
And yeah, nice cows!
p.s. opening blog links and following there for some read...