What is torque3d.net lacking

#1 Well what does Torque3D.net do that garagegames.com doesn't?

#2 Chris this was covered long ago, I get the feeling your going to make the argument that there is no need for the website but many have and still feel another website is in order so that torque3d is not solely reliant on a company that could monetize it's content, sell it's content or the company itself to another corporation, etc etc.

To be clear, I have a lot of respect for the current staff at GG, they've been very kind to me but business is business and things could change tomorrow depending on monetary requirements. Torque3D is there for your use, I can take it down if an overwhelming amount of people don't want it there or it can grow and prosper as a secondary resource for Torque3D.

I'm looking for answers to what drives the Torque3D Community, I'm sure 1 out of every 10 people from this website take a look at it, and want to contribute it some way but aren't sure how, or maybe they feel it hasn't taken off yet, I'm trying to isolate these issues.

#3 It's not about the company tbh, it's about being able to innovate. The GG.com forums are.. Fine.. But tbh we have little control over them (and neither does GG as I understand it lol ;)
To me it's not like we need to make the move over night or that we need this super awesome and perfect site, we just need a site that we can scale, redesign and grow. GarageGames.com already has it's limits and we keep hitting those limits.

Resources gets lost, pages gets out of date, blogs have a life-span of about a week and it's hard for new users to navigate around the website.

I don't know if Torque3D.net is the answer, but it sure could be the beginning.

#4 That's kind of what I'm hoping for Lukas, and the ultimate thing here is I want people to jump in and help out. I love being the fat lazy uninvolved guy who just adds some touches here and there, I love it when members of a community take responsibility and bring ideas to the table. That's the ultimate goal of Torque3d.net... Let the community take charge.

What do I get out of it? Possibly some awesomely designed free version of a game engine so I can finally make my little shooter game! :D Plus (I know I'm digging deep but shuddup cause I don't care! :P), Tribes 1 was my life as a kid so in a way this is kind of giving back for me, Dynamix was and in my mind still is the best dev team. So if Torque3d is successful we can fund a campaign to purchase nooses and string up the CEO of Vivendi Universal. Then work our way next door to SyFy for shutting down Stargate. :P

#5 @James No, I was genuinely asking.

#6 the best answer for that, it has a more reliable backend, it is community driven (meaning I'm going to take what the vast majority of what the community wants and implement it into the site the best I can or allow someone else to do it). Lastly the point of the website isn't to market it's own products or sell services but support a particular game engine, particularly the 3d version and not the 2d version of it.

#7 I honestly never remember there are other T3D websites out there. Mostly habits I guess.

Also, I don't use Facebook anymore so I don't have a need to go to T3D Facebook either.

#8

Quote:The GG.com forums are.. Fine.. But tbh we have little control over them (and neither does GG as I understand it lol ;)

This.

Frankly, what torque3d.net is lacking is people. Aside from that it seems kind of fine. Not sure what there is to do about rectifying that. We'll post all SC blog updates over there as well, but as for me personally, I don't tend to generate much forum content at the moment - just respond to existing posts, which all happen here. I guess linking to this site from torque3d.org would be a nice gesture, but it's unlikely to help if people click the link, think it's dead, and move on.

Something really nice on the site would be editing posts inline, rather than being taken to a separate page to do so. And, if possible, having the full post editor in the same place as 'quick reply'. I mean, this is 2014; is it really that difficult, phpBB???

EDIT: one more barrier to migration is creating yet another account. Seriously. Facebook login? Migrate existing GarageGames account? I contacted GG about the possibility of account migration a while ago - never heard back.

#9 This whole community lacks organization and of course people, but the second is also a result of the first problem, since there are quite a lot of people who use Torque, but you do not hear from them most of the time.

Personally I prefer direct communication over chat and for me the biggest hurdle is to create another account and such.
The community is small, so we should focus on one place.
It took 1.5 years to give Torque3D into the communities hand and form a new steering committee, maybe it will take another 1.5 years to create a new platform for it.

#10 Perhaps add RSS feed from GG into Torque3D.net. Maybe put that on the left or right side of the main content. It seems the website is forum centric. It just looks like a another forum. It should maybe be article centric with links to interesting content. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Put up in game pictures. Scour the Show Off thread and get permission to use pictures in there. People don't get real excited about text. They make emotional connections with pictures.

What does Torque3d.net offer that GG does not offer? If you can spell that out simplyer then people will find utility for the site. It is probably not that nobody cares, it is more likely they are unsure what do to.

#11 Also, put up links somewhere to show off the 3rd party libraries and tools. Do links back to GG links for their content/code packs that are applicable to the engine. I would think the left side might be good. Snag links for the artists that post free stuff like Duion and the Audio designers that have posted recently. That starts to build an economy around T3D. Face it, unless you help people exchange ideas and money it kinds of just dies.

#12 BIGGY:
Link to games that have been made from T3D. Like Steve Acaster's latest title. That stuff will draw interest like no other.

#13 Thanks, I'm taking notes here and trying to implement one after the other. What I can say is I cannot do this on my own, unless a few of you step forward and help out the entire idea will fall on it's butt-again. The only reason I have time atm is I'm recovering from Surgery but soon I'll be back to work-Active Army is long hours :(

#14 @buck

I like the idea of using facebook. It would create some Synergy between the Torque3d fb page and the website creating a much more interconnected feel. I'm working on some other stuff but seeing as I just did this on Lethonline.com with wordpress I don't think it will be impossible or terribly hard.

#15 It would also be nice if you were to copy the design theme thats used for http://torque3d.org/ like I did with http://torque3d.wikidot.com/. It makes the website look more "official".

#16 On the other hand, dark themes are great :/. I guess we can always make a Userstyles plugin for it like I did for this site.

#17 I go to Torque3D.net because...

I can search for scripting inspiration or solutions...

I can search for useful plugins...

I can read blogs about certain Torque tech related topics...

I can see what other people have done OR are doing with Torque tech...

I can read about engine hacks and customizations...

I can find Torque artists to hire or learn from...

I can exchange knowledge with OR help out other Torque tech users...

None of those things I can currently do as torque3d.net and if none of those things are implemented I see no reason to use the site.

I am not trying to be mean here, I am trying to make you understand what makes a website attract potential users' attention :O)

Change the "I can" to "My users shall be able to" and you have a list of functions and features your website needs.

I wish you all the best with this awesome project :O)

#18 I hear ya Dwarf. I completely agree but there is one small problem, it takes someone to generate these questions and solutions, so someone has to make that first step to make it work. I think it's a good step for all developers to post their findings on both websites, a phasing time period... try out both to see which one will fit you best!

#19 Cool would be an easy to use resources section that includes only open-source or at least lets one filter for open-source resources.

A dedicated section for community efforts to open-source resources (if the original author agrees) and porting them to Torque3D MIT could be cool too.

#20 Well I think I'll have an official resource section and a community driven one... so resources that have been documented and proven right will just be moved from the unofficial to the official section and then developers can actually browse for different options to the engine!!