The beginning: An introduction...
by Daniel Hopkins · 09/13/2008 (9:28 pm) · 2 comments
Hello all!! This is my first blog and I guess I'll introduce myself. First off, I bought Torque back in November and have really enjoyed using it. It's been really nice to find something this good at such a low price.
Originally, I was using the Blender Game Engine as it is free and incorporates the modeling/texturing/animating pipepline right in with the actual game engine so there's none of that back and forth conversion stuff. However, I'm afraid the list of "con's" far out weighs the list of "pro's." The basic "con's" are:
1) it's VERY ineffecient and uses only very basic culling techniques and resource management
and
2) it has no editors geared towards common game tasks such as a gui editor or particle system editor
As a result, making games with Blender ended up becoming very "monotonous" as I was continually having to devote time to manually creating effects and guis and such instead of being able to concentrate on how it all looked or the gameplay. Couple that with a very ineffecient render pipeline, and you've got pure agony. And so began the search for a good game engine. After a great many demos and a lot of searching, I ended up buying Torque: I have never regreted it. Although there are some things missing as far as editors are concerned, the capability is there, backed up by a great engine. Due to my Blender scripting skills (I had to do a lot of that due to Blender's lack of a game related tasks), C++ programming skills, and the great community support/Torque documentation, I was able to dive right in.
Since then it's been an exciting trip. Eventually, I got a very loose "work at your own schedule" job creating 2D games for an animation studio (Studio125). Due to how well my TGE experience went, I decided to take the plunge with TGB--I never regreted that either. It has a refined editor and a great link between datablocks and sprites: behaviors. Again, I am amazed and excited that such great things are available at such low prices! Go INDIES!!!
So, that's a short history of me and my experiences with Torque. I would like to finish by thanking all the people who have beared with my "newbie" questions (and continue to do so) and the Torque community for the great overall support: thanks guys!!
EDIT: Here's some screens:
The main [untextured]character, his weapons, and...a ladder
A closer look:
Through the scope:
Everything was modeled with Blender and textured with Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Have a great day,
Daniel
Originally, I was using the Blender Game Engine as it is free and incorporates the modeling/texturing/animating pipepline right in with the actual game engine so there's none of that back and forth conversion stuff. However, I'm afraid the list of "con's" far out weighs the list of "pro's." The basic "con's" are:
1) it's VERY ineffecient and uses only very basic culling techniques and resource management
and
2) it has no editors geared towards common game tasks such as a gui editor or particle system editor
As a result, making games with Blender ended up becoming very "monotonous" as I was continually having to devote time to manually creating effects and guis and such instead of being able to concentrate on how it all looked or the gameplay. Couple that with a very ineffecient render pipeline, and you've got pure agony. And so began the search for a good game engine. After a great many demos and a lot of searching, I ended up buying Torque: I have never regreted it. Although there are some things missing as far as editors are concerned, the capability is there, backed up by a great engine. Due to my Blender scripting skills (I had to do a lot of that due to Blender's lack of a game related tasks), C++ programming skills, and the great community support/Torque documentation, I was able to dive right in.
Since then it's been an exciting trip. Eventually, I got a very loose "work at your own schedule" job creating 2D games for an animation studio (Studio125). Due to how well my TGE experience went, I decided to take the plunge with TGB--I never regreted that either. It has a refined editor and a great link between datablocks and sprites: behaviors. Again, I am amazed and excited that such great things are available at such low prices! Go INDIES!!!
So, that's a short history of me and my experiences with Torque. I would like to finish by thanking all the people who have beared with my "newbie" questions (and continue to do so) and the Torque community for the great overall support: thanks guys!!
EDIT: Here's some screens:
The main [untextured]character, his weapons, and...a ladder
A closer look:
Through the scope:
Everything was modeled with Blender and textured with Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Have a great day,
Daniel
About the author
Torque 3D Owner Novack
CyberianSoftware