Torque 3D Development - Beta 3!
by Brett Seyler · 06/24/2009 (1:45 pm) · 130 comments
Thanks for your patience everyone. I know this was a longer stretch than expected between Beta 2 and 3, but wow, we've been busy!
Download Torque 3D Beta 3 from your Account
Again, we have an enormous list of new stuff (see below), improvements (~200), (fixes (100+) and known issues you'll find posting in the Torque 3D forums.
New Stuff in Beta 3!
Shape Editor - This new feature allows you to apply various changes to a mesh after it is loaded. You can merge animations, define nodes, rename meshes, and more. Tutorial video and extensive docs on this are forthcoming, but it's pretty intuitive to play with, so have fun!
Decal Editor - This allows you to quickly paint and edit decals in the scene. On the engine side, we've done a major rework of Decal-related source code, so it's now much more efficient and significantly easier to understand. As with the Shape Editor, we'll have a tutorial video and extensive docs available soon.
Mesh Road Editor - This allows you to quickly prototype a 3D mesh road. We're stressing the word "prototype" here because there's a lot this tool is not yet wired to do. For example, applying an arbitrary mesh profile (for different shaped roads with curbs for example) is not yet possible. This would be an excellent community project if someone want to give it a go, but we're going to leave this as a prototyping tool in this release.
Beta 3 also includes...
Mac / OSX Support for:
- Basic Lighting
- TerrainBlock
- Water
- ScatterSky
- CloudLayer
- Toolbox
- pureLIGHT
For the full monster list of improvements, fixes, and remaining known issues, see the Torque 3D forums for details.
If you're ready to move to Torque 3D, you can still get your $100 OFF pre-order discount right now. This discount will be reduced to $50 OFF at the end of June. If you're already a Torque 3D owner, congrats! Don't forget to post your Beta 3 feedback in Torque 3D Private Forums. We need your help to get to the finish line!
We've still got a ways to go to fully catch up on the Mac / OSX side, but we're moving quickly. Full feature and stability parity with Windows is our goal for Beta 4.
More development blogs to come. This is post #25.
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
06/24/2009 (3:25 pm)
good job, keep up the great work! 
#23
Apologies for being off-topic
Cheers
06/24/2009 (3:38 pm)
I think I have found a fairly serious glitch on the GG website. Anyone from GG, please contact me via e-mail on my profile (or better yet, add me on MSN via the same address). I haven't been able to test this glitch properly yet, for reasons that you will later understand.Apologies for being off-topic
Cheers
#24
</end off topic>
06/24/2009 (3:42 pm)
@Zoidy: I'm sending you an e-mail CC'ed with our lead web dev.</end off topic>
#25
The "if you have detachable bones in T3D" question:
Do you know how awesome that is?
The "we don't have detachable bones in T3D" question:
So now you're gonna add detachable bones too? PLEASE!
06/24/2009 (3:42 pm)
Just one question:The "if you have detachable bones in T3D" question:
Do you know how awesome that is?
The "we don't have detachable bones in T3D" question:
So now you're gonna add detachable bones too? PLEASE!
#27
06/24/2009 (4:01 pm)
Great! Thanks guys for your hard work. 
#28
Brian
06/24/2009 (4:15 pm)
Wow, you guys are really trying hard to make me want to quit playing around with Torque X aren't you? Good thing I have to save up for PAX or I'd be completely broke...Brian
#29
06/24/2009 (4:20 pm)
The Shape Editor is a nice addition. What would be great is if we had a way to add to the mesh and then resave it though. I was thinking in terms of like the auto-billboards, being able to embed them into the mesh without using the TSShapeConstructor stuff would be a nice bonus. 
#30
Jason Culwell
Developer / Founder
Micro.Dot Productions
06/24/2009 (4:28 pm)
MmMmm.. T3D is looking even more tasty!Jason Culwell
Developer / Founder
Micro.Dot Productions
#31
Technically that is possible =) Check out TSShapeConstructor::saveShape() (it has been in the TSShapeConstructor docs since Beta 1).
At some point we may wire that up to the Shape Editor but we have to be careful because it could complicate the pipeline/workflow in odd ways (For example, do we automatically switch out the reference to the old shape in the level for you? If we don't, how will people know they need to? Stuff like that.)
06/24/2009 (4:51 pm)
Quote:What would be great is if we had a way to add to the mesh and then resave it though.
Technically that is possible =) Check out TSShapeConstructor::saveShape() (it has been in the TSShapeConstructor docs since Beta 1).
At some point we may wire that up to the Shape Editor but we have to be careful because it could complicate the pipeline/workflow in odd ways (For example, do we automatically switch out the reference to the old shape in the level for you? If we don't, how will people know they need to? Stuff like that.)
#33
Umm... You do know how the REST of that song goes... Right?
Anyway... MAC SUPPORT!!! Now when I buy it in a few weeks, I'll be able to use my Mac instead of that horrible OS...
06/24/2009 (5:50 pm)
Quote:Happy Happy Joy Joy
Happy Happy Joy Joy
Umm... You do know how the REST of that song goes... Right?
Anyway... MAC SUPPORT!!! Now when I buy it in a few weeks, I'll be able to use my Mac instead of that horrible OS...
#35
Full speed downloading~
06/24/2009 (6:09 pm)
Can't be better, very glad to see so many bugs fixed, hope it won't bring me troubles during the process of porting our project from beta2 to beta3.Full speed downloading~
#36
06/24/2009 (6:22 pm)
I'm going to have a heart attack, LOVE T3D!!!!!!!! 
#37
Think I'm addicted....I am....
Great work!! Can't wait to play around with T3D tonight!!!
06/24/2009 (6:50 pm)
Easy does it!.....Just take one great update at a time & breath it in.....ok now slowly move on to the Material editing....hold it...savor it...ok on to the next one.....Think I'm addicted....I am....
Great work!! Can't wait to play around with T3D tonight!!!
#38
Anyway, best blog so far Brett. I'm very impressed with the progress T3D has made in the past few weeks.
Nice work Matt.
06/24/2009 (7:37 pm)
Did someone forget to close a center tag somewhere?Anyway, best blog so far Brett. I'm very impressed with the progress T3D has made in the past few weeks.
Nice work Matt.
#39
06/24/2009 (8:16 pm)
Concerning the Shape Editor, can someone elaborate on "You can.. ..define nodes.. ."?
#40
06/24/2009 (8:22 pm)
@Sean: Thanks! BTW, it sounds like the blog is looking badly formatted for you. Which browser are you using? It looks good for me in both Chrome and FF3.
Torque 3D Owner Matt Young