Torque 2D Development - Real-Time Networking

It's been over six months since GarageGames first starting talking about Torque 3D development. Since then, we've learned a lot about communicating our roadmap to the community. We know developers want to know engine roadmaps as soon as possible. On the flip side, we also need to be 95% certain that what we talk about is achievable for the final version of the engine. It's a hard balance, but definitely something we've managed to maintain with our Torque 3D blogs.

I'm pleased to announce that Torque 2D is finally reaching the point where we can start talking about it. You already know we hired the original Torque 2D developer Melv May in February, but the truth is that the Torque 2D Team has been hard at work for over a year. We collected information from developers in July 2008 about what you wanted in the next version of Torque 2D. Some of those features were complex, other simple. We spent the time to make sure we had a solid roadmap and could deliver a stunning upgrade from Torque Game Builder, which has already been used to make over a hundred casual games. And we know that it will make 2D game building all the more easy for developers out there.

So what can you expect from here on out? We'll be showing you bits and pieces of Torque 2D as it nears completion. We will have a pre-order beta period, where there will be deep discounts for current owners of Torque 2D to help us test the beta versions. There will be a licensing discussion. And there will be weekly updates whenever possible to let you know what's happening so you can keep abreast of what's happening with the engine.

So, without further ado, let's talk specifics:

Feature #1: Real-Time Networking

For those of you who caught the live streamcast, you know that we announced that Torque 2D will have real-time networking at Casual Connect. Torque 2D provides nearly 100% feature support across the network so you get mounting, flipping, image-map changes, animation, world-limits, collision-detection, dynamic-field updates, etc. The engines gives you control over what data is sent across the network to each client. Torque 2D breaks its features down into over 25 groups. Individually, these groups can choose to send their data upon creation of the object, or you can choose to send the data when it changes or is requested. This reduces the amount of information sent across a wire and makes it much more feasible to manage a scene with thousands of objects on it at any given time.

And perhaps most exciting, Torque 2D provides an extension mechanism to allow C++ developers to create their own network objects that work right inside the editor with very little work.

Check out the Platformer Kit demo that Phillip O'Shea ported to the new Torque 2D codebase in just a week:




Not interested in real-time networking, but worried that its implementation will make the engine top heavy for networked games? No problem! Torque 2D provides two project templates out-of-the-box, one for single-player and one for multi-player. This allows those who are not interested in networking to ignore it.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to giving you a sneak peek into the process. This is Post #1.

Torque 2D development blogs:

• Post #1 - Real-Time Networking
• Post #2 - Coming Soon!