My First Steps into Torque 3D #1
by Justin Slabbert · 08/14/2009 (5:16 am) · 5 comments
Hi there,
My name is Justin and I am relatively new to Torque. Well, kinda new. I have been using Torque Game Engine Advanced now for over a year and in the last week, I was lucky enough to upgrade to Torque 3D. Anyway, I thought I would blog about my first steps into it.
The first day I upgraded and downloaded Torque, I was extremely ansy to get started and experiment with various features I had read up about. Such features like the new World Editor intrigued me. I had always found the Torque Game Engine Advanced editors a little clumsy and at times frustrating with half the time landing up completely rebuilding my scenarios in external editors and finally importing them in once I was happy with them. Fortunately, Torque 3D has so far not disappointed me. While I am currently using Beta 5, I found there was very little I couldnt as yet do and when I did hit something that did not work to my satisfaction, I could always tinker around with the code. For example, I found that Particle Creation has not fully been integrated as yet into the GUI. I could create a new particle, but I could not view or edit it inside the Toolset. Fortunately, a little read up on the forums and I was able to work around this problem by means adding an execute for my managedparticles CS file. This was found under my project gameart directory.
I also read through alot of the source code and I was thrilled by just how easy it was to understand what the developers were doing and where. It was superbly written and comments abound everywhere to explain what each function or object is for. I also actually found it quite fun to read as the developers obviously had a sense of humour when writing their comments. Compared to other developers, this source code humour was a breath of fresh air as it just broke of the tediousness of reading each line.
Well, that was merely my initial look at the Engine, I am now off to create my first level! Wish me luck and hopefully soon, I will be able to blog on my experiences with the world editor a little more in detail.
My name is Justin and I am relatively new to Torque. Well, kinda new. I have been using Torque Game Engine Advanced now for over a year and in the last week, I was lucky enough to upgrade to Torque 3D. Anyway, I thought I would blog about my first steps into it.
The first day I upgraded and downloaded Torque, I was extremely ansy to get started and experiment with various features I had read up about. Such features like the new World Editor intrigued me. I had always found the Torque Game Engine Advanced editors a little clumsy and at times frustrating with half the time landing up completely rebuilding my scenarios in external editors and finally importing them in once I was happy with them. Fortunately, Torque 3D has so far not disappointed me. While I am currently using Beta 5, I found there was very little I couldnt as yet do and when I did hit something that did not work to my satisfaction, I could always tinker around with the code. For example, I found that Particle Creation has not fully been integrated as yet into the GUI. I could create a new particle, but I could not view or edit it inside the Toolset. Fortunately, a little read up on the forums and I was able to work around this problem by means adding an execute for my managedparticles CS file. This was found under my project gameart directory.
I also read through alot of the source code and I was thrilled by just how easy it was to understand what the developers were doing and where. It was superbly written and comments abound everywhere to explain what each function or object is for. I also actually found it quite fun to read as the developers obviously had a sense of humour when writing their comments. Compared to other developers, this source code humour was a breath of fresh air as it just broke of the tediousness of reading each line.
Well, that was merely my initial look at the Engine, I am now off to create my first level! Wish me luck and hopefully soon, I will be able to blog on my experiences with the world editor a little more in detail.
#2
I'm excited to learn more about your progress with Torque3D. Would you ever get stuck, the Torque3D forums are probably the busiest place around here right now - there's always somebody around who's willing to help.
Lol, indeed, I love the humor part in the comments. I've been thinking of creating a blog about it and listing my favorites. If you find something funny, be sure to let us know on the Torque3D forums. A little break from coding / modeling / etc.. is always welcome, I'm sure. :)
08/14/2009 (7:27 am)
Welcome to Torque3D, Justin! As someone also coming from TGEA, I pretty much felt the same way about the new terrain system.I'm excited to learn more about your progress with Torque3D. Would you ever get stuck, the Torque3D forums are probably the busiest place around here right now - there's always somebody around who's willing to help.
Quote:
...as the developers obviously had a sense of humour when writing their comments...
Lol, indeed, I love the humor part in the comments. I've been thinking of creating a blog about it and listing my favorites. If you find something funny, be sure to let us know on the Torque3D forums. A little break from coding / modeling / etc.. is always welcome, I'm sure. :)
#4
08/14/2009 (1:27 pm)
I can't wait until I'm able to upgrade to T3D! Really looking forward to getting back into Torque. 
#5
Torque has never been more awesome and easier to use than it is now.
08/15/2009 (7:43 am)
Welcome aboard Justin! Torque has never been more awesome and easier to use than it is now.
Torque 3D Owner User
I had loads of fun messing around with the new features, especially playing with the physx demo and fps starter kit.