Torque 3D Development - Beta: Part Deux
by Brett Seyler · 05/21/2009 (11:26 am) · 108 comments
Hey all! Hope you're enjoying this week's updates to the website. Now, it's time for Torque 3D Beta: Part Deux.
Download from your Account
We have an enormous list of new stuff (see below), fixes (49) and known issues you'll find posting in the Torque 3D forums.New Stuff in Beta 2!
- Material Editor Mesh Selector (allows you to select materials by object)
- Material Selector (an easier way to preview and select materials)
- Spotlights and Point lights for Advanced lighting
- lens flare / corona effects for PointLight, SpotLight, and Sun
- brightness animation effects (flickers) for PointLight and SpotLight
- PointLight and SpotLight can be mounted to a ShapeBase mountpoint
- Instant splash screen for better feedback that the engine is loading
And, from Lara, we have another great tutorial video, this time showing how assets edited in 3rd party applications update Torque 3D in real time. Have a look!
If you're ready to move to Torque 3D, you can still get your $200 OFF pre-order discount right now. This discount will be reduced to $100 OFF at the end of May. If you're already a Torque 3D owner, congrats! Don't forget to post your Beta 2 feedback in Torque 3D Private Forums. We need your help!
We know a lot of you are waiting on an OSX-enabled Beta. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten. We're expecting that to land in Beta 3.
More development blogs to come. This is post #21.
Torque 3D development blogs:
- Post #1 - Kickoff
- Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
- Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
- Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
- Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
- Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
- Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
- Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
- Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
- Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
- Post #11 - Depth of Field
- Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
- Post #13 - Soft Particles
- Post #14 - World Editor
- Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
- Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
- Post #17 - River & Road Editors
- Post #18 - Beta is UP!
- Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, and the Material Editor
- Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
- Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
- Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
- Post #23 - pureLIGHT
- Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
- Post #25 - Beta 3!
- Post #26 - Coming Soon!
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#22
Hmmm... are we able to share the T3D Torque MMO source patch in the T3D GG forums as an alternate route then? Without being able to use what Repopulation has achieved, no real reason for me to upgrade to T3D at the moment.
05/21/2009 (2:21 pm)
Quote:That lift of the non-game restriction has more to do with the visualization and simulation market than redistributing the toolset, I believe.
Hmmm... are we able to share the T3D Torque MMO source patch in the T3D GG forums as an alternate route then? Without being able to use what Repopulation has achieved, no real reason for me to upgrade to T3D at the moment.
#23
Lookie at my avatar... It's the awesomeness of the new beta 2 :)
05/21/2009 (2:35 pm)
Cool on the license change! *thumbs up*Lookie at my avatar... It's the awesomeness of the new beta 2 :)
#24
05/21/2009 (2:37 pm)
@Chris: Very nice! 
#26
05/21/2009 (3:20 pm)
This looks sweet...If only I had a job 
#27
But -- Where exactly is the link to purchase T3D? I'm not seeing it anywhere...
05/21/2009 (3:24 pm)
Very cool to see this additional stuff being put in! It's making me re-consider whether to purchase this or not... =)But -- Where exactly is the link to purchase T3D? I'm not seeing it anywhere...
#29
05/21/2009 (4:32 pm)
But i own it already :P 
#30
In the video showing off the real-time updates and matieral stuff, I noticed a slot for 'Tone Map'; what exactly is that for?
And does Torque3D support specular maps? Or is it still just flat specular to the whole material.
05/21/2009 (4:38 pm)
Few minor questions.In the video showing off the real-time updates and matieral stuff, I noticed a slot for 'Tone Map'; what exactly is that for?
And does Torque3D support specular maps? Or is it still just flat specular to the whole material.
#31
edit: What a strange! When I play the video tutorial from the first and make no slider movement, it just shows that splash screen and voice but nothing else. But when I move the search slider, it gives me related scenes sometimes. Maybe it is the problem of Vimeo.
Edit:Downloaded files works OK.
05/21/2009 (4:39 pm)
I'm afraid all I can see is the splash loading screeen in the Live Updating Asset video tutorial. Is it happening only to me?edit: What a strange! When I play the video tutorial from the first and make no slider movement, it just shows that splash screen and voice but nothing else. But when I move the search slider, it gives me related scenes sometimes. Maybe it is the problem of Vimeo.
Edit:Downloaded files works OK.
#32
05/21/2009 (4:44 pm)
Quote:And does Torque3D support specular maps? Or is it still just flat specular to the whole material.I'm pretty sure that, in T3D, you can just place the specular map in the alpha channel of the texture map. At least, that's how it works in TGEA.
#33
05/21/2009 (5:05 pm)
Ah, I'd forgotten about that entirely. Thanks Zoidy. Just wondering what the Tone map is for now :P 
#34
05/21/2009 (5:29 pm)
Ah man, if only I had money...
#35
05/21/2009 (6:22 pm)
I'm also interesting about the T3D Torque MMO source patch!
#36
05/21/2009 (6:54 pm)
Yes! Finally works!
#37
Is there any info about merging it into my existing code base (ie, svn repository) (which I created with the Torque 3D beta 1, plus my own changes since its release)? This sort of thing seems like kind of a big deal?
05/21/2009 (6:58 pm)
I just started the beta 2 download, but I am wondering...Is there any info about merging it into my existing code base (ie, svn repository) (which I created with the Torque 3D beta 1, plus my own changes since its release)? This sort of thing seems like kind of a big deal?
#38
05/21/2009 (7:12 pm)
@Game4reset: I think that's a problem with your web browser (clear cache? low on host memory?). It happens for me sometimes in Google Chrome, not just with vimeo.com videos, but also youtube.com
#39
The Live Asset Updating really is a cool feature and I've been waiting for this from Torque. I've seen it in a couple other engines and this really adds some more desirability to the engine.
05/21/2009 (7:16 pm)
Need more money...The Live Asset Updating really is a cool feature and I've been waiting for this from Torque. I've seen it in a couple other engines and this really adds some more desirability to the engine.
#40
Nice improvement guys!
05/21/2009 (7:16 pm)
The warrior camp fps went from like 25 fps to 125 fps with advanced lighting! The basic lighting went from 150 fps to 350 fps!Nice improvement guys!
Torque 3D Owner Andy Simon
Hey those are neat, but can you do reflections on something like the window of a building? Some engines seem to have issues with reflections on vertical planes. Thanks for showing me that!