Torque 3D Development - Marching Towards Beta 3
by Brett Seyler · 06/05/2009 (10:16 pm) · 50 comments
Hey GG'ers. Sorry for the radio silence in the past couple weeks since Beta 2. I spent most of this week at E3 and holy crap...E3 is back! I saw Mickey Rourke at the Bethesda booth, and Stan Lee at the Activision booth. Definitely a gamers paradise. I did get *some* work done too, mostly doing private demos of Torque 3D for studios and publishers at the show. Like at GDC, the response has been pretty phenomenal.
There's still a lot happening on Torque 3D, but everyone's been hard at work on Beta 3, and a major part of that work involves making sure everything we've got is also working smoothly on OSX. Here's a glimpse:
In other news of progress, Pat Wilson is making steady progress with Torque 3D on the Xbox 360, so that route will be available to Torque 3D developers in short order.
Also, I believe I've mentioned this before, but one of the under-touted improvements to Torque 3D is a fully unified Undo / Redo stack from the editor. This means that any change, using any of the editors, can be undone and redone in order. Lara put together a short video showing this off. Check it out...
There have also already been tremendous cool new projects from Torque 3D developers. I expect a lot more of this to come, but here are some of the highlights...
From Matt Kronyak:
From OmegaDog:
From Adam Beer:
From Mike J.:
Using EdgeAA to create a cartoon styling PostFX shader
Finally, Tom Spilman threw together this nice montage of lights, materials and physics to show off...
The community is doing awesome stuff with Torque 3D, even while in beta. It's fun to watch and we're definitely on the lookout for more.
If you're ready to move to Torque 3D, you can still get $100 OFF pre-order discount right now. This discount will expire when we've released a final version of Torque 3D. If you're already a Torque 3D owner, congrats! Please remember to post your Beta 2 feedback in Torque 3D Private Forums. We need your help!
More development blogs to come. This is post #22.
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.
#3
John K.
www.envygames.com
06/05/2009 (11:26 pm)
Looking really good! Looks like the Torque 3D team is making incredible progress.John K.
www.envygames.com
#4
06/05/2009 (11:38 pm)
Brett! The files to compile for the Xbox 360 will be available to all Torque 3D owners? (It would be interesting for tests)
#5
i presume that the xbox compilers will require the windows version ?
06/05/2009 (11:50 pm)
Glad to hear about the OS X version ..i can't wait .i presume that the xbox compilers will require the windows version ?
#6
06/05/2009 (11:54 pm)
The Xbox path will be open to people who are creating game with Torque 3D, but Microsoft has to approve any developer who has access to the XDK, Xbox dev hardware, and the Torque 360 code. To comply with these requirements, Torque 360 licenses must be done separately.
#7
06/06/2009 (12:28 am)
Great blog and lots getting done. One question tho, isn't that one developer (top right corner with the T shirt on) a little young? Brett, I think you are recruiting them too young now. :-D
#8
@Brett, tears flowing! I'm a big teddy bear and I haven't slept( > 3 Hrs ) in weeks I think I am starting to look like my avatar! Awesome blog.
@John K. T3DBox is upon us!
06/06/2009 (12:48 am)
@ALL Indie or Not! Welcome to the dawn of Torque3D Era@Brett, tears flowing! I'm a big teddy bear and I haven't slept( > 3 Hrs ) in weeks I think I am starting to look like my avatar! Awesome blog.
@John K. T3DBox is upon us!
#9
This is great, thanks for making such a great product GarageGames! I'm really happy to be part of a great community.
-Pete
06/06/2009 (1:16 am)
Hey, I know that person on the bottom right!This is great, thanks for making such a great product GarageGames! I'm really happy to be part of a great community.
-Pete
#10
@Mike - if they can code, and have valid bank details, they're in! Shame "dad" takes the glory for the coding, I hear he's just there to obey orders of the child genius! [/jk] 8D
The undo feature is really useful, so much nicer than cockups in TGEA and then having to delete objects and start again.
06/06/2009 (1:39 am)
Stan Lee - awesome!@Mike - if they can code, and have valid bank details, they're in! Shame "dad" takes the glory for the coding, I hear he's just there to obey orders of the child genius! [/jk] 8D
The undo feature is really useful, so much nicer than cockups in TGEA and then having to delete objects and start again.
#11
06/06/2009 (1:43 am)
How exactly does the building destruction work? Would it be difficult to specify the joints between all of the different objects? 
#12
06/06/2009 (1:57 am)
@Bryce - Its a specially built structure in 3dsmax and exported via the PhysX plugin. I believe we're gonna have a tutorial describing how exactly to make those.
#13
Let's say you have a building like that in the game... Would it fall if you just ran into it? Would a certain amount of energy be needed to effect something? Or could you control it?
Like a wall with 3 peices that can be broken. I don't want someone to walk into the wall and have it fall, but if some dynamite explodes, it would go flying...
06/06/2009 (2:30 am)
I have a question...Let's say you have a building like that in the game... Would it fall if you just ran into it? Would a certain amount of energy be needed to effect something? Or could you control it?
Like a wall with 3 peices that can be broken. I don't want someone to walk into the wall and have it fall, but if some dynamite explodes, it would go flying...
#14
img387.imageshack.us/img387/1542/hostileplanetwall.jpg
img265.imageshack.us/img265/6354/hpgrateshadows.jpg
06/06/2009 (3:47 am)
I like those aircraft shots! I got some pretty good lighting going on myself, check it out:img387.imageshack.us/img387/1542/hostileplanetwall.jpg
img265.imageshack.us/img265/6354/hpgrateshadows.jpg
#15
That said you can change that in the code if you like. You just be sure to balance the masses of your player and objects well against the buildings.
@Helk - I got a flash of Dead Space there. :)
06/06/2009 (4:09 am)
@Tyler - How we have the code setup by default... the player cannot run into it and break the building. That said you can change that in the code if you like. You just be sure to balance the masses of your player and objects well against the buildings.
@Helk - I got a flash of Dead Space there. :)
#16
@Helk - Nice shots, Video would be sweet and/or surrender your material.cs! Input! Input!
HD Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QKjFURUwjc Click HD! Click Full Screen!
06/06/2009 (4:21 am)
@Tyler - Physics 101 - Define Properties i.e. marble vs bowling ball so you can control how everything reacts.@Helk - Nice shots, Video would be sweet and/or surrender your material.cs! Input! Input!
HD Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QKjFURUwjc Click HD! Click Full Screen!
#17
(purelight is the 3rd party addon for lighting, correct ?)
Thanks for any info. ;)
Edit: will you guys be adding the ability to map shaders to particles ?
06/06/2009 (8:30 am)
Is there any information on Purelight's price ? A ball park figure ??(purelight is the 3rd party addon for lighting, correct ?)
Thanks for any info. ;)
Edit: will you guys be adding the ability to map shaders to particles ?
#18
Approximately 1% of the price of it's peer competitors. Sound familiar? =) pureLIGHT has been licensed for mid 5 figure license fees for the past couple years. The guys who run the company are smart and thankfully, they share our licensing philosophy and want to make an impact in the games space. Like others have said, it's a really good fit for the platforms and audience we want Torque to support the best.
In any case, an official announcement on price / licensing and technical details isn't far off. I think you'll be happy.
06/06/2009 (8:41 am)
@eb: Quote:Is there any information on Purelight's price ? A ball park figure ??
Approximately 1% of the price of it's peer competitors. Sound familiar? =) pureLIGHT has been licensed for mid 5 figure license fees for the past couple years. The guys who run the company are smart and thankfully, they share our licensing philosophy and want to make an impact in the games space. Like others have said, it's a really good fit for the platforms and audience we want Torque to support the best.
In any case, an official announcement on price / licensing and technical details isn't far off. I think you'll be happy.
#19
06/06/2009 (11:58 am)
I know this has prolly been addressed somewhere already: what starter examples come out of the box, and what kits are in development as add-ons? 
#20
06/06/2009 (11:16 pm)
Torque 3D will ship with a basic FPS Genre Kit. It will also have the pureLIGHT and PhysX demos and may include an updated Barricade demo. There will also be the Full template (includes an example datablock of everything you can add from the World Editor).
Torque 3D Owner Andrew Brady
Nice work everyone.. looking good.