Torque 3D Development - Release!!!
by Brett Seyler · 09/28/2009 (10:33 pm) · 335 comments
We're finally here. Release day!
Download the Torque 3D 1.0 release from your account now!
It's been a bit quiet for the past month while we sprint to the finish. I've been in Europe demoing Torque 3D to publishers, studios and the press (you'll hear more about this soon). Meanwhile, the whole team here has been putting in a monster effort to bring you the most stable, solid release of Torque ever.
If you've already made the jump, you know that this is a whole new breed of Torque. The tools are ground breaking for development productivity. The content pipeline gets your art into Torque at light speed and live asset updating lets you iterate on your content in tools of your choice and watch them update in Torque instantly.
What's Inside
If you've been following these dev blogs, you've seen almost every feature of Torque demonstrated first hand. You can also find all these details neatly organized on the Torque 3D page as well. So down to details...here's what's in this release:Engine Advanced Lighting* Particle System Revamped Terrain System COLLADA Import Pipeline Audio API Improved Material System Improved Skinned Mesh Performance PostFX System* Improved Water Blocks and Planes Physics (via PhysX)* Live Asset Updating New Tools River Editor Road Editor Datablock Editor Decal Editor Particle Editor Material Editor Shape Editor Viz Toggles Collada Exporter (for Interiors) Improved Tools Terrain Editor Terrain Painter Object Editor GUI Editor | Publishing** Windows (D3D) OSX (OGL) Web (FF, IE, Chrome, Safari) Projects PhysX: Cloth FPS Example: Burg * Limited or N/A on OSX ** Console licenses for all major platforms available separately. Contact licensing@torquepowered.com for details. |
FPS Example? Yes. If you've been a part of the beta groups, you've seen "FPS Genre Kit" as a project in previous builds (including Beta 5). We are planning to build out a much more robust and complete for-pay "FPS Genre Kit" (with improved functionality and documentation), but we want to minimize confusion between the projects. "FPS Example" has all of the same functionality as "FPS Genre Kit" from the betas. What you're seeing here is less content, but primarily a renaming.
Now, some of you are wondering "what's Burg?" Here is your answer...
In a couple weeks, we'll also be releasing Rasmus Deguchi's War Machine demo. Check it out here:
What about...
Gerhard's stuff
From the beginning, we've been very impressed with Gerhard was able to do with older version of Torque. I had hoped to ship Torque 3D with at least one demo of his stuff, but we encountered a few obstacles. Gerhard lost the artist he was working with and on the programming side, we struggled to keep his projects compatible with the Torque core, particularly GFX. Demos like "Wetness", "Depth of Field", "SSAO", and "Soft Particles" all showcase some great artwork and clever extension of Torque. We now have all these technical features in this release and neatly integrated in the PostFX system, with the exception of Wetness. We're going to follow up on that and build a nicer, more flexible implementation of Wetness into PostFX. See the discussion of that here. Much <3 to Pat Wilson and Sickhead for doing all this kickass PostFX stuff, including Light Rays, Scatter Sky and yes, even lens flares / coronas.
Undercity Demo
The Undercity Demo was built primarily to show at GDC last March. We're really proud of what Logan put together for us and we're looking at doing more work on this demo before releasing it either as part of the forthcoming FPS Genre Kit, or as a FPS Example.
Pacific Demo / Forest Kit
The Pacific Demo is built using Sickhead Games' Forest Kit foliage technology add-on. The Forest Kit is slated for a release to coincide with Torque 3D 1.1. This branch is already being actively worked on and you'll hear more about both the 1.1 release and the Forest Kit add-on in the coming weeks. Tom's already posted a nice teaser showing ground cover materials being properly lit by both Advanced Lighting, and Basic Lighting, all with wind animation.
Barricade Demo
The Barricade Demo was originally built to show off Torque technology circa 2006. Yikes. Sickhead Games are working on an updated version of this to be released in the near future.
Warrior Camp Demo
We never got to a point where we were satisfied with the way this looked, so it's been paused until we decide what (if anything) we want to do with it.
Luma's Racing Kit
Still in the works! Luma's been jamming on all kinds of other cool projects, including Rev, but they are working on finishing the Racing Kit in the next few months.
How is Torque 3D licensed?
The Torque 3D 1.x license is currently posted on the Torque 3D page. You can view it there. This document governs the Professional and Studio licenses. You'll find no reference to the "Basic." Why? As I've mentioned on several occasions where it's come up, we were never really hot on the spec for "Basic." It confuses the primary product spec ("Professional" and "Studio" share identical features) in creating a feature delta and frankly, the number of people who've jumped on the "Professional" license has convinced us that a "Basic" version is not really needed. What you'll see contemplated in the EULA we've posted is an "Artist" version instead. What we're considering here is offering a binary only, full-featured version of Torque 3D for $500 / seat. Discounts for owning prior versions of Torque would apply.If you'd like to make your opinion known, log your vote in the form below. We'll defer making a final decision about this for at least a month or two.
No matter what the results, there will be other changes to the Torque product line up as well. Biggest of all, as of November 1st, 2009, past versions of Torque (TGEA, TGE) will no longer be available for purchase.
What's Next?
A couple weeks ago we spun up an official Torque 3D 1.1 branch for work in parallel to the 1.0 release. The primary goals for the 1.1 release are:1. Performance and optimization
This will mostly be targeted at improving Advanced Lighting (shadows), but the uber geniuses at Sickhead and GameClay keep coming up with ways to get cycles back all over the place. Don't be surprised to see huge improvements (over the already great performance) on mainstream hardware and embedded devices in the next couple releases.
2. Usability improvements
We've a bevy of new tools and we're not silly enough to think we did everything perfect the first, second (or 50th) time, so go, use them. Tell us what you like and don't like. We'll keep improving until they are as perfect as they can be.
3. Particle System refactor
This has been in the works for months actually and Pat (with the help of pureLIGHT) is preparing a fully awesomed-out particle system for 1.1. I'll save going into the spec for a separate blog, but it's going to be all kinds of hawt. Here's Pat showing off wiring up 150 point lights in a PhysX "Lightfall."
4. Core improvements necessary for compatibility with Forest Kit
These are ongoing, but expected to wrap with 1.1 and coincide with the much anticipated release of Forest Kit by Sickhead.
5. OSX feature parity
We're obviously a *little* disappointed we weren't able to get Advanced Lighting to run well enough on OSX to ship with this release (see Alex Scarborough's forum post on Advanced Lighting for details), but we're confident that Torque 3D is the best game engine ever released for OSX games. Basic Lighting (what you're seeing in the Burg Demo) is really a very advanced, very fast forward renderer capable of more than any previous lighting system we've had. Objects and materials can recieve up to 4 lights at a time and each light can cast projected shadows optionally. We'd also like find a workable cross-platform solution for physics. PhysX supports everything *except* for OSX, so we're likely to look at Bullet in the next few months. In all likelyhood, we may never achieve feature parity, but we'll push OSX as hard as it can be pushed for you guys, and then we'll push it harder.
The developer community is already on Torque 3D in a big way. Here are some highlights from past weeks you might not have seen. As always, cool, well made stuff contributed back will go into the core for everyone to use.
Special thanks to Sickhead Games for contributing more to this release than I thought possible. You guys rock!
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 - Documentation
- Post #27 - Beta 4!
- Post #28 - Shape Editor
- Post #29 - Beta 5!
- Post #30 - Collada Import GUI Dialog
- Post #31 - 1.0 Release!!!
- Post #32 - 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.
#222
Most Commented On GG Blog Record Holder?
09/30/2009 (6:03 pm)
Sheese, 2 Days With Over 200 Comment Posts.Most Commented On GG Blog Record Holder?
#223
Regardless, 1k is more than fair for the tech you get in the package, IMO.
On another note, I've been pretty happy with what I could do with the beta versions, so I can't wait to implement some of the things I've wanted in code now that it's released!
Cheers!
09/30/2009 (9:37 pm)
Congrats on the release! I have to say that I agree with the phasing out of TGE and TGEA. T3D with basic can replace both engines in functionality completely. As for the price, I thought a basic version was offered for $250, and the Professional was the $1000 license? Is this still the case, or is basic no longer offered?Regardless, 1k is more than fair for the tech you get in the package, IMO.
On another note, I've been pretty happy with what I could do with the beta versions, so I can't wait to implement some of the things I've wanted in code now that it's released!
Cheers!
#224
I've seen a suggestion for some sort of floating artist licence included with the regular one (binary-only tool to let them do their work). Might be an idea. But a plain binary version of the existing engine would be fine. TGB lets you compile an engine with your changes if you have the Pro edition, and hand the binary over to someone with the non-source version.
09/30/2009 (10:35 pm)
Yeah, they're reconsidering the Basic offer, I guess. I've voiced my opinion about it in some thread around here.I've seen a suggestion for some sort of floating artist licence included with the regular one (binary-only tool to let them do their work). Might be an idea. But a plain binary version of the existing engine would be fine. TGB lets you compile an engine with your changes if you have the Pro edition, and hand the binary over to someone with the non-source version.
#225
So here's my opinion:
09/30/2009 (11:58 pm)
I'm too tired to catch up on 12 pages of posts...wow, this went fast.So here's my opinion:
Quote:Will we have less total customers without TGE and TGEA? Perhaps, but I don't think so. I think instead we are going to see an influx of new developers and content creators who are amazed by what Torque 3D provides out-of-the-box and are excited to bring their ideas to life with our engine.True and false. You'll lose a lot of hobbiest and indies who can't afford a $1000.00 engine. You will gain the higher paid teams tho as t3d is pure awesome.
Quote:Without a doubt. I couldn't have said it better.
This is a great day for Torque! This is a great day for the community!
And as of right now Torque 3D is the best engine money can buy.
#226
...and that's no longer going to be an option without the Basic version.
For the most part you've priced yourself out of the hobbyists market.
No big loss? Well, I wonder how much of your current "tech support" is written by hobbyists? Are the docs and forum posts that answer questions all written by commercial game developers? I'd guess probably not.
So with much fewer hobbyists you're not going to have the mass of material you have now. And that's going to hurt even the commercial developers, I imagine.
Jay Jennings
10/01/2009 (3:01 am)
My son and I are just getting into TGB and I know at some point he's going to want to get T3D to do some shooter stuff......and that's no longer going to be an option without the Basic version.
For the most part you've priced yourself out of the hobbyists market.
No big loss? Well, I wonder how much of your current "tech support" is written by hobbyists? Are the docs and forum posts that answer questions all written by commercial game developers? I'd guess probably not.
So with much fewer hobbyists you're not going to have the mass of material you have now. And that's going to hurt even the commercial developers, I imagine.
Jay Jennings
#227
10/01/2009 (3:19 am)
I just don't understand why people think Torque3D is expensive. You buy a computer(I wonder why this computer cost so much) and as far as development you get zilch! notta! Torque3D allows you to catch up on over a decade of 3D gaming research and will bring your dreams to life, Priceless! 
#228
True. I have friends who are hobbyist photographers, their cameras (which aren't top end) all cost more than T3D. Why should a mature, modern, powerful game development platform cost less than a decent camera?
I think the real distinction is hobbyists vs people who just want to dip their toes in the water and see if they like it enough to commit real resources. For those people there are plenty of other low-cost or free options like Ogre, anyway. An open source TGE down the line would also fit that niche. I'm fine with the current cost of T3D, it isn't cheap, but it isn't out of my reach either.
Especially if the T3D development cycle is an example of how GG product releases will go in the future. If you've been part of the beta you'll probably have been as impressed as I was at the productivity and speed of development of T3D. The guys were really responsive on the forums, turning around bug lists and implementing features very quickly. All very encouraging signs for the future of the product/brand.
Hooray for T3D 1.0 release! And hooray because this also means we'll see the Forest Kit soon! :D
10/01/2009 (4:58 am)
"I just don't understand why people think Torque3D is expensive. You buy a computer(I wonder why this computer cost so much) and as far as development you get zilch! notta! Torque3D allows you to catch up on over a decade of 3D gaming research and will bring your dreams to life, Priceless!"True. I have friends who are hobbyist photographers, their cameras (which aren't top end) all cost more than T3D. Why should a mature, modern, powerful game development platform cost less than a decent camera?
I think the real distinction is hobbyists vs people who just want to dip their toes in the water and see if they like it enough to commit real resources. For those people there are plenty of other low-cost or free options like Ogre, anyway. An open source TGE down the line would also fit that niche. I'm fine with the current cost of T3D, it isn't cheap, but it isn't out of my reach either.
Especially if the T3D development cycle is an example of how GG product releases will go in the future. If you've been part of the beta you'll probably have been as impressed as I was at the productivity and speed of development of T3D. The guys were really responsive on the forums, turning around bug lists and implementing features very quickly. All very encouraging signs for the future of the product/brand.
Hooray for T3D 1.0 release! And hooray because this also means we'll see the Forest Kit soon! :D
#229
And a second word: Linux??? (yes always the same question, but have the linux version almost for the weblauncher or standalone game -not for the Editor- will be a very big feature. Really.)
10/01/2009 (8:19 am)
Juste one word: Greeaaaat!!And a second word: Linux??? (yes always the same question, but have the linux version almost for the weblauncher or standalone game -not for the Editor- will be a very big feature. Really.)
#230
They've stopped doing anything with Linux themselves a long time ago. I'd be surprised to see anything different.
10/01/2009 (9:52 am)
@Ruard: Most likely, the same question will get the same answer from them like the quite from IRC a while back:Quote:[2008-10-16 17:27:05] Jake-GR: with 1.8 if someone in the community was brave enough to port to linux, will that be officially included into a later release? or kept as a resource or such?
…
[2008-10-16 17:28:22] [GG]mattf: if someone ports it *cleanly* to linux then we would consider including it (with a big *not supported* disclaimer)
They've stopped doing anything with Linux themselves a long time ago. I'd be surprised to see anything different.
#231
The economy is all fugged up, a lot of us don't have the extra cash. Here in the US some of us are living check to check. 1000 bucks is close to a mortgage/rent payment.
But on the other hand I fully agree, for the features you get the price is unbeatable. I have tested Unity's art pipeline, doesn't even come close to T3D, plus you dont get source. T3D is more comparable to Unreal engine and CryEngine IMO. And those are like a quarter million. So T3d is not expensive at all if you have the cash for it. Most of the price complaints are from people who simply can't afford it.
10/01/2009 (12:35 pm)
@OmegaDog "I just don't understand why people think Torque3D is expensive."The economy is all fugged up, a lot of us don't have the extra cash. Here in the US some of us are living check to check. 1000 bucks is close to a mortgage/rent payment.
But on the other hand I fully agree, for the features you get the price is unbeatable. I have tested Unity's art pipeline, doesn't even come close to T3D, plus you dont get source. T3D is more comparable to Unreal engine and CryEngine IMO. And those are like a quarter million. So T3d is not expensive at all if you have the cash for it. Most of the price complaints are from people who simply can't afford it.
#232
Artist should not have to be licensed.
Also there should be other options other than $500 which I think is WAY to steep for just the editor tools.
We will prolly resort to just making our own tools on our next project which I anticipate being much larger.
I guess we would still have to license for the people creating the final missions. But that is about it. the rest of the tools can pretty easily be made from scratch and will most likley better suite our workflow.
[u]Edited the keep peoples heads from exploding[/u]
10/01/2009 (3:14 pm)
The Poll should have more choices like:Artist should not have to be licensed.
Also there should be other options other than $500 which I think is WAY to steep for just the editor tools.
We will prolly resort to just making our own tools on our next project which I anticipate being much larger.
I guess we would still have to license for the people creating the final missions. But that is about it. the rest of the tools can pretty easily be made from scratch and will most likley better suite our workflow.
[u]Edited the keep peoples heads from exploding[/u]
#233
"the poll is rigged, there should be more choices like..."
you said instead :
"there should be more choices like..."
It seems like everyone thinks we are twirling our curleh-moustaches and plotting the death of the world or something. ;)
10/01/2009 (3:20 pm)
How about instead of :"the poll is rigged, there should be more choices like..."
you said instead :
"there should be more choices like..."
It seems like everyone thinks we are twirling our curleh-moustaches and plotting the death of the world or something. ;)
#234
At least they're kind enough to make a poll and hear what the community thinks. Most companies don't give a crap and will do what they please whether we like it or not.
10/01/2009 (3:25 pm)
"The Poll is rigged there should be more choices like:"At least they're kind enough to make a poll and hear what the community thinks. Most companies don't give a crap and will do what they please whether we like it or not.
#235
Because the low price is something that people have grown accustomed to and any time you change something that people have grown accustomed to there will be an uproar.
I can agree up until Beta 5. After Beta 5 the door slammed and it was very poorly managed in my opinion. At beta 5 the focus went from putting out a quality product to releasing ASAP at all cost. In my opinion there should have been a Beta 6 and then at that point there should have been a complete feature lock. Then there should have been a release candidate. Then after a few weeks if now show stoppers were found then make a 1.0 release.
Now you have of this stuff that hasn't even been publicly tested on a large scale out and it is a 1.0 release that quite honestly feels a little more buggy than Beta 5 did. The postFX performance and things like ssao defiantly seem to perform WAY better in B5 than in 1.0. Not to mention that Brett himself asked everyone in the beta if we thought it was read and the vast majority of people said no. some professional QA processes definitely need to be adopted at GG ASAP as after beta 5 all of the improvement in GG's new processes seem to have gotten thrown out the window. I don't know what happened. But something defiantly derailed how smoothly things were going after Beta 5. Who know now that they are a bigger company some bean counter came in and said you have to be selling this thing in a release fashion by this date or people are gonna start loosing their jobs. " alot of that going on in the industry right now". All I can do is speculate. But I hope that next time they don't drop the ball on the 10 yard line.
10/01/2009 (3:33 pm)
Quote:"I just don't understand why people think Torque3D is expensive. You buy a computer(I wonder why this computer cost so much) and as far as development you get zilch! notta! Torque3D allows you to catch up on over a decade of 3D gaming research and will bring your dreams to life, Priceless!"
True. I have friends who are hobbyist photographers, their cameras (which aren't top end) all cost more than T3D. Why should a mature, modern, powerful game development platform cost less than a decent camera?
I think the real distinction is hobbyists vs people who just want to dip their toes in the water and see if they like it enough to commit real resources. For those people there are plenty of other low-cost or free options like Ogre, anyway. An open source TGE down the line would also fit that niche. I'm fine with the current cost of T3D, it isn't cheap, but it isn't out of my reach either.
Because the low price is something that people have grown accustomed to and any time you change something that people have grown accustomed to there will be an uproar.
Quote:
Especially if the T3D development cycle is an example of how GG product releases will go in the future. If you've been part of the beta you'll probably have been as impressed as I was at the productivity and speed of development of T3D. The guys were really responsive on the forums, turning around bug lists and implementing features very quickly. All very encouraging signs for the future of the product/brand.
I can agree up until Beta 5. After Beta 5 the door slammed and it was very poorly managed in my opinion. At beta 5 the focus went from putting out a quality product to releasing ASAP at all cost. In my opinion there should have been a Beta 6 and then at that point there should have been a complete feature lock. Then there should have been a release candidate. Then after a few weeks if now show stoppers were found then make a 1.0 release.
Now you have of this stuff that hasn't even been publicly tested on a large scale out and it is a 1.0 release that quite honestly feels a little more buggy than Beta 5 did. The postFX performance and things like ssao defiantly seem to perform WAY better in B5 than in 1.0. Not to mention that Brett himself asked everyone in the beta if we thought it was read and the vast majority of people said no. some professional QA processes definitely need to be adopted at GG ASAP as after beta 5 all of the improvement in GG's new processes seem to have gotten thrown out the window. I don't know what happened. But something defiantly derailed how smoothly things were going after Beta 5. Who know now that they are a bigger company some bean counter came in and said you have to be selling this thing in a release fashion by this date or people are gonna start loosing their jobs. " alot of that going on in the industry right now". All I can do is speculate. But I hope that next time they don't drop the ball on the 10 yard line.
#236
10/01/2009 (3:39 pm)
No conspiracies going on, nothing changed from Beta 5 to 1.0 development, same people involved, I'm not sure where people are getting this conspiracy theory. 1.0 is nothing more than Beta 5 with further work done on it. We've seen some 1.0 issues which we are already addressing for the next release, but it seems people are making up situations to cast things as more than they are. Your feedback (constructive feedback) is always appreciated and will help us remedy any major issues should they arise. 
#237
@James: ON the SSAO front see the post I made about it and the new files. Made the changes and tweeked the strength and there is little to no effect on performance now and of course you can adjust it a bit higher for a more noticeable effect at higher cost to performance. Exactly what I would want as you can put that in as an easy option to tweek. It also looks good too after the changes.
10/01/2009 (3:55 pm)
@Matt: I think a 1 week RC1 wouldn't of hurt to make sure it was tight. I am sure we will look back in 6 months and have a laugh as it is how these things work out, but there are a few issues (transparency for one) that could of probably been caught and fixed. Nothing is ever going to be perfect and even after that I am sure something would of came up on the 8th day that someone stumbled on.@James: ON the SSAO front see the post I made about it and the new files. Made the changes and tweeked the strength and there is little to no effect on performance now and of course you can adjust it a bit higher for a more noticeable effect at higher cost to performance. Exactly what I would want as you can put that in as an easy option to tweek. It also looks good too after the changes.
#238
If money is the only thing you value, then money is the only value you've got.
10/01/2009 (5:57 pm)
Goodbye hobbyists. There is no more room for "garage" games in GarageGames.If money is the only thing you value, then money is the only value you've got.
#239
I Agree, Tell Me, Anyone, Who doesnt Have a good $100 Dollars To Spend On Torque3D? That's The Cheapest Price I've Seen in... Well Ever.
Matt's Concious: You Don't Have $100...
Matt: Shadup.
10/01/2009 (6:04 pm)
Quote:Goodbye hobbyists. There is no more room for "garage" games in GarageGames.
If money is the only thing you value, then money is the only value you've got.
I Agree, Tell Me, Anyone, Who doesnt Have a good $100 Dollars To Spend On Torque3D? That's The Cheapest Price I've Seen in... Well Ever.
Matt's Concious: You Don't Have $100...
Matt: Shadup.
#240
There's been multiple posts about how much money $1000 is in the current economical climate and there's also been lots of posts here and elsewhere on the boards expressing what kind of development effort is expected from GG.
So, to me it seems quite difficult to on the one hand expect a business to work well on really low-cost licenses and on the other hand manage to churn out substantial development effort in return for licenses in the $100-$250 range.
Anyone's who's been here for some time and used TGE/TGEA has seen how very limited GG's development resources in the past have been. Personally, I'd rather see Torque going somewhere than seeing GG continue their low-cost product line that just doesn't move anywhere. Things have changed and I find they have changed in a very good way. Torque is up to something. It finally has a future.
10/01/2009 (6:15 pm)
What I find kind of amusing is the discrepancy I find in what some apply to themselves vs. what they apply to GG.There's been multiple posts about how much money $1000 is in the current economical climate and there's also been lots of posts here and elsewhere on the boards expressing what kind of development effort is expected from GG.
So, to me it seems quite difficult to on the one hand expect a business to work well on really low-cost licenses and on the other hand manage to churn out substantial development effort in return for licenses in the $100-$250 range.
Anyone's who's been here for some time and used TGE/TGEA has seen how very limited GG's development resources in the past have been. Personally, I'd rather see Torque going somewhere than seeing GG continue their low-cost product line that just doesn't move anywhere. Things have changed and I find they have changed in a very good way. Torque is up to something. It finally has a future.
Torque 3D Owner Gary Hoffmann