Plan for Peter Dwyer
by Peter Dwyer · 02/03/2005 (5:12 am) · 7 comments
Been a while since I've submitted a plan. I'll be brief and to the point. Work on my second game is going full tilt. I released "Body Armour" to a select group of friends and family (hey it's still a valid release as it covered some 45 people).
The game was a basic beat em up and a way for me to learn all about torque. Anyway, now that I know enough I have begun knuckling down on my real project. I'm using the shader engine exclusively and simply adding back in any missing parts of the game engine that Ben hasn't gotten around to yet.
I'm also starting to feel the pain of having no dedicated torque level editor or shader editor. To remedy this I am currently converting tread to use TSE as it's renderer for levels. So far I have it compiling but, will be replacing the scripting with something like tcl as this ties into c/c++ exceptionally easily, with direct calls to c++ functions as a given. I'm going to be adding a material editor to the mix soon too. However coming from a professional programmer background (I am a trained software engineer). I have a plan and this isn't yet in sight. One thing at a time get's the job done!
Anything I do with tread and the shaders will be released into the public domain as and when I finish them. I think the editor will benefit far too many people to make it anything other than a really cheap (most likely free, though no promises on that score) resource.
later days!
The game was a basic beat em up and a way for me to learn all about torque. Anyway, now that I know enough I have begun knuckling down on my real project. I'm using the shader engine exclusively and simply adding back in any missing parts of the game engine that Ben hasn't gotten around to yet.
I'm also starting to feel the pain of having no dedicated torque level editor or shader editor. To remedy this I am currently converting tread to use TSE as it's renderer for levels. So far I have it compiling but, will be replacing the scripting with something like tcl as this ties into c/c++ exceptionally easily, with direct calls to c++ functions as a given. I'm going to be adding a material editor to the mix soon too. However coming from a professional programmer background (I am a trained software engineer). I have a plan and this isn't yet in sight. One thing at a time get's the job done!
Anything I do with tread and the shaders will be released into the public domain as and when I finish them. I think the editor will benefit far too many people to make it anything other than a really cheap (most likely free, though no promises on that score) resource.
later days!
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#2
Edit: If i sound like a know-it all. I'm sorry, i'm just warning you, i've been down that road, its no fun.
02/03/2005 (10:25 am)
Tread3D works, you need to use the -q 3 parameter when compiling. Use the 2.3 version, 2.4 has more bugs then a ant farm. Have fun with Tread 3D, its written very poorly. You'll find bugs will happen for no reason, like OpenGL failing, not being able to scroll. Assert errors. Also, you HAVE to compile it on VS C++ 6.0 Pro because the of the libraries it requires. I'm building a map editor based upon WxWindows, if you want to help, your more then welcome to it.Edit: If i sound like a know-it all. I'm sorry, i'm just warning you, i've been down that road, its no fun.
#3
I compile under VS.net 2003 and everything works fine. I've been at this programming lark for over 10 years, much of that within the image and graphics fields. As a result I tend to find fixing opengl stuff and graphics stuff in general comes pretty easy.
Tread for the most part is friendlier than quark (once you get it going). My next task once I've changed the renderer for the TSE version and yes that does mean using DX9.0c. I will begin working on a simple shader interface. I envisage something like shaderworks in the end.
@FruitBatInShades
I'm not doing a plugin for tread as I have the source code (2.4 is actally better than 2.3 it's LESS buggy!). Instead what I am doing is replacing the rendering code with TSE code so that means direct output in dif format without the conversion from .map (this is now being done internally). I don't support terrain though as seem to have a phobia for programming terrain engines ;o)
02/03/2005 (10:36 am)
@ChrisI compile under VS.net 2003 and everything works fine. I've been at this programming lark for over 10 years, much of that within the image and graphics fields. As a result I tend to find fixing opengl stuff and graphics stuff in general comes pretty easy.
Tread for the most part is friendlier than quark (once you get it going). My next task once I've changed the renderer for the TSE version and yes that does mean using DX9.0c. I will begin working on a simple shader interface. I envisage something like shaderworks in the end.
@FruitBatInShades
I'm not doing a plugin for tread as I have the source code (2.4 is actally better than 2.3 it's LESS buggy!). Instead what I am doing is replacing the rendering code with TSE code so that means direct output in dif format without the conversion from .map (this is now being done internally). I don't support terrain though as seem to have a phobia for programming terrain engines ;o)
#4
MSN: killer_aka@hotmail.com && digitize_your_mind@hotmail.com
Yahoo: thekingsuoer64
AIM: MMKBlackKnight
E-mail: game64@gmail.com
P.S. I didn't mean to offend you in anyway. I thought from the comment "I've been at this programming lark for over 10 years," That I might have.
02/03/2005 (11:11 am)
Ok, I used VS 2002, and I got tons of linking errors. I heard a rumor that 2002 had some linking problems. But aside, I think you have a great plan. I'm going to go d/l the new source and try to compile it with the 2005 beta, see what I get. Also, i'd kinda/maybe like to help on this, my knowledge is semi limited, but i'm sure if you wanted to work with me on it, we could find some middle ground. So if your up for it, heres my contact info. I'd love to work with you on this, however i'm not a huge fan of MFC, and I think the guys here would love a Cross-platform editor, if you wanna see what i'm doing, read my latest plan.MSN: killer_aka@hotmail.com && digitize_your_mind@hotmail.com
Yahoo: thekingsuoer64
AIM: MMKBlackKnight
E-mail: game64@gmail.com
P.S. I didn't mean to offend you in anyway. I thought from the comment "I've been at this programming lark for over 10 years," That I might have.
#5
02/03/2005 (11:35 am)
The shader thing sounds pretty interesting Peter! Keep us updated. :)
#6
Will do :o)
@Chris
To get 2.4 compiling I had to change the special calls being made to external libraries into standard mfc calls using the latest (and last ever produced) mfc dlls (they come with 2003). As I recall there were a lot of calls that depended on old windows functions. These often had parameters in the wrong order and/or didn't include some of the newer parameters.
I think all told I spent about a week (a few hours each night) converting everything to use win32 calls where possible. I then spent another week removing all of the opengl stuff (this was the real painful bit!). What I will do is tidy up the base code and probably make that available to anyone who wants to use tread as a base for their editors etc. I can't release the torque specific stuff as source though for obvious reasons but, pre-compiled binaries when the torque stuff is stable enough is a given.
02/03/2005 (2:52 pm)
@Timothy Will do :o)
@Chris
To get 2.4 compiling I had to change the special calls being made to external libraries into standard mfc calls using the latest (and last ever produced) mfc dlls (they come with 2003). As I recall there were a lot of calls that depended on old windows functions. These often had parameters in the wrong order and/or didn't include some of the newer parameters.
I think all told I spent about a week (a few hours each night) converting everything to use win32 calls where possible. I then spent another week removing all of the opengl stuff (this was the real painful bit!). What I will do is tidy up the base code and probably make that available to anyone who wants to use tread as a base for their editors etc. I can't release the torque specific stuff as source though for obvious reasons but, pre-compiled binaries when the torque stuff is stable enough is a given.
#7
02/03/2005 (4:07 pm)
I figuared thats what needed to be done. It used that old CJ60 Libraries, which IMO were never great. 
Torque Owner FruitBatInShades
How do you find Tread3d works? Would you say its better tha QuArK? Do you have a plugin that supports torque? If you come up with an interior editor that works well with torque you'll be a VERY popular man!