Torque 3D 1.2 Education Materials Now Available
by Dexter Chow · 12/02/2011 (9:28 am) · 11 comments
As mentioned in my previous blog, Educational Materials to accompany the Torque 3D 1.2 Tutorials are now available at:
http://www.garagegames.com/education
The goal of this project was to take the Torque 3D 1.2 Tutorial and integrate it into a 13 class, 52 hour curriculum to help teachers and educators have examples for a wide variety of introductory game development classes. These classes may include programming, level scripting, game design, art, portfolio, introduction to game development, and computer lab classes at both the high school and college levels. With the wide variety of class types, teaching rubrics, and student aptitude, we expect most of the users of these materials to take what works for their class/workshop and modify or add what they need to complete the education materials for their specific class needs.
The Torque 3D 1.2 Educational Materials include:
Educator Letter (getting started document)
Extensive Teaching Materials in PowerPoint Form (and PDF document)
Curriculum Example
Quiz Examples
Lab Examples
The Torque 3D 1.2 Teacher’s Guide announced in my previous blog was scheduled for the end of the year, but may now slip into January. Apologies in advance if we don’t make this release date. We have a lot of great stuff coming out over the next few weeks!
Thanks and Kudos to the Team:
Documentation Team - Janet Fisher, David Montgomery-Blake, Geoff Beckstrom, Chris Tauscher, and Richard Ranft
Launch Team - Scott Burns, Masaki Oyata, Matt Wood, Jon Williams, and James Dickinson
Special Thanks - Eric Preisz, Derek Bronson, QA, and the dozens of teachers, students, and gamers that help guide our development of Torque 1.2 Tutorial and Educational Materials
Educators and Students, please provide comments in our education forum:
Torque in Education forum
Learn more about educational lab licensing and full version instructor
evaluation licenses at:
www.garagegames.com/education
Evaluate the free Torque 3D tutorial materials and 1.2 demo at:
www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d/fps
About the author
Designer, Producer and Business Development Manager
#3
Sync Reloaded (Torque 2d): www.makingindiegames.com/Sync.html
Reflection Grid (Torque 2d): www.makingindiegames.com/Reflection_Grid.html
It also looks like there are a lot of sections that can be integrated into an existing curriculum. An example of this is in class 6/7 on Torque Script (I really liked how the code snippets are explained). However, it looks like the class is very linear, building on itself, and may be difficult for professors who teach class out of order.
I checked out the quizzes and could not answer a few of the questions.
Ex: Q: Which is a bigger download? A: DirectX SDK B: DirectX Runtime. It looks that the quizzes challenge students to pay attention.
I do have a question from the one of the quizzes. I have been using Torque Script arrays since 2006 and found that I can use any data-type, floats, ints, bools. Is this different on the 3D engine, or are you teaching correct programming practices? Just curious.
"Q: What is an array?
A: A Shelf with All the Trophies B: Winning Game C: Store Values of the Same Type
12/03/2011 (7:50 pm)
Congratulations on the release! Torque documentation is definitely getting better and shrinking the audience for my resources, www.makingindiegames.com. I am not complaining. It is proof that what you guys are doing is working and helping the Torque community. Keep up the good work!Educational Discount for Making Indie Games Resources
I would like to let teachers, schools, and students know that my team will give you amazing discounts on our Torque resources. To get the discounts or ask a question, email kevinoflaherty@makingindiegames.com. We have licensed our original Torque Script Interactive Tutorial for a semester at ITT Tech for about 100 students for $300. Rates are always negotiable.Available Resources for Torque Engines
Torque Script Interactive Tutorial 2: www.makingindiegames.com/TSIT.phpSync Reloaded (Torque 2d): www.makingindiegames.com/Sync.html
Reflection Grid (Torque 2d): www.makingindiegames.com/Reflection_Grid.html
About the Release
I briefly looked over the resource. You did a great job at outlining a class for Torque. It looks like teachers will be able to easily pick up the material and generate a class out of it. This is great for teachers who may be new to the engine.It also looks like there are a lot of sections that can be integrated into an existing curriculum. An example of this is in class 6/7 on Torque Script (I really liked how the code snippets are explained). However, it looks like the class is very linear, building on itself, and may be difficult for professors who teach class out of order.
I checked out the quizzes and could not answer a few of the questions.
Ex: Q: Which is a bigger download? A: DirectX SDK B: DirectX Runtime. It looks that the quizzes challenge students to pay attention.
I do have a question from the one of the quizzes. I have been using Torque Script arrays since 2006 and found that I can use any data-type, floats, ints, bools. Is this different on the 3D engine, or are you teaching correct programming practices? Just curious.
"Q: What is an array?
A: A Shelf with All the Trophies B: Winning Game C: Store Values of the Same Type
Torque Users
This documentation looks like anyone can use it. I recommend checking it out and seeing what you can learn from it. It is very detailed.
#4
We've had a great reception with the local high school and college teachers.
12/05/2011 (9:20 am)
@Kevin - Thanks for the comments. Your Torque educational materials look very helpful. I think it helps all of us to bring more people into making games, so there are more unique games to play.We've had a great reception with the local high school and college teachers.
#5
I have noted 1 issue so far... In the example quiz doc, Lesson 4 ...
Should not the question be:
??
Hewster
12/06/2011 (8:51 am)
Good stuff :)I have noted 1 issue so far... In the example quiz doc, Lesson 4 ...
Quote:
Q: Torque 3D supports all these 3D formats BUT which one?
Should not the question be:
Quote:
Q: Which of the following 3D formats does T3D NOT support
??
Hewster
#6
I think they're just supposed to be examples of the type of questions that should be asked, an educator would probably want to reword them to fit their environment (and to avoid ridicule from their students lol)
12/06/2011 (1:52 pm)
It's the same question, just that their version is not very good grammar. Good thing it's not an English test ;)I think they're just supposed to be examples of the type of questions that should be asked, an educator would probably want to reword them to fit their environment (and to avoid ridicule from their students lol)
#7
12/06/2011 (2:36 pm)
We will release an updated Version 2 based on feedback both internally and externally with the release of the Teachers Guide. We'd be happy to include your detailed feedback. Send me your feedback at dexterchow@garagegames.com.
#8
I like the newer version of TGE to the old one that we used in class. Work more like TGB 2D which is really nice. That is the question I have as I really want to stick with Indie work for awhile as I keep reading about this company laying off this much and so on.
12/10/2011 (9:13 am)
I am really interested in this material. I just graduated from Devry's program and loved using TGE in the class we used it for. I was going through the power point and I see it says to read this chapter and so forth. What text book are we talking about? The book we used for the class was 3D game programming All in One second edition. I like the newer version of TGE to the old one that we used in class. Work more like TGB 2D which is really nice. That is the question I have as I really want to stick with Indie work for awhile as I keep reading about this company laying off this much and so on.
#9
Here is the link to the starting page for the FPS Tutorial referred to in the Educational Materials. Feedback welcome!
-Dex
http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d/fps#/1-setup/1
12/12/2011 (9:18 am)
@AlHere is the link to the starting page for the FPS Tutorial referred to in the Educational Materials. Feedback welcome!
-Dex
http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d/fps#/1-setup/1
#10
Indeed - there is no type checking in TorqueScript. It is best practice to use the same type in a given array to ensure that functions iterating through the elements produce expected results. Other less orthodox uses of the array structure are indeed possible but can be confusing to people who expect certain behaviors from known constructs.
12/12/2011 (11:06 pm)
@Kevin re: Arrays.Indeed - there is no type checking in TorqueScript. It is best practice to use the same type in a given array to ensure that functions iterating through the elements produce expected results. Other less orthodox uses of the array structure are indeed possible but can be confusing to people who expect certain behaviors from known constructs.
#11
All you need is a voice over explaining each slide at the Tutorial Presentation and Quiz Examples converted to a self test after each class.
You can even make it a certification for developers at the profile.
This is not a big effort and there are many companies that can help you do this conversion...
It can be an extra stream of revenue from an automated service...
01/25/2012 (2:07 pm)
The Education Materials are a good foundation to an online self training curse:All you need is a voice over explaining each slide at the Tutorial Presentation and Quiz Examples converted to a self test after each class.
You can even make it a certification for developers at the profile.
This is not a big effort and there are many companies that can help you do this conversion...
It can be an extra stream of revenue from an automated service...
Torque Owner Luis Rodrigues
WinterLeaf Entertainment
Kudos to everybody - great work in decresing the learning curve