Am I too much of a novice for torque?
by Ken Chen · in Torque Game Engine · 06/27/2003 (2:21 am) · 6 replies
I remembered that the tribes 2 engine was being licensed for $100 and found it as the torque engine here at GG. But I wonder if this engine is too complex for someone at my level.
I have about 2 years of on and off c++ experience and a very rough knowledge of 3d graphics. I have worked in a 4 member group on a opengl spaceship game (very unfinished and barely even playable), a 2d water surface program in wireframe using glut, tried (and got lost very quickly) trying to write a wrapper for ogl and directx, and I am currently trying my hand at another spaceship game with dx9. The only things I have completed on this new spaceship game is a crude 1st/3rd person camera, spaceship movement, quaternion rotation, and projectiles. I need to move on to collision detection and response, a particle system, and hopefully some ui.
I decided I needed to see how the "big boys" do it. I recently downloaded the source code for freespace 2 and noticed how very complex the code looks. If I drop $100 on torque, am I just going to get lost or will I actually learn a lot?
I have about 2 years of on and off c++ experience and a very rough knowledge of 3d graphics. I have worked in a 4 member group on a opengl spaceship game (very unfinished and barely even playable), a 2d water surface program in wireframe using glut, tried (and got lost very quickly) trying to write a wrapper for ogl and directx, and I am currently trying my hand at another spaceship game with dx9. The only things I have completed on this new spaceship game is a crude 1st/3rd person camera, spaceship movement, quaternion rotation, and projectiles. I need to move on to collision detection and response, a particle system, and hopefully some ui.
I decided I needed to see how the "big boys" do it. I recently downloaded the source code for freespace 2 and noticed how very complex the code looks. If I drop $100 on torque, am I just going to get lost or will I actually learn a lot?
#2
Good luck.
06/27/2003 (7:19 am)
I am using Torque to make a game very much "like" a spaceship game. Will you be overwhelmed and confused? Yes. But if you are the type of person that sticks to something they have started, you will succeed with Torque. Especially as there is excellent help to be had here on these forums and in the #garagegames channel on irc.maxgaming.net.Good luck.
#3
06/27/2003 (9:57 am)
I looked at the sample documentation of the engine code and the suorce and headers look well documented. But I am sure that even with great documentation I will have a lot of technical questions. How active are the private sdk forum? Are most members concerned with getting scripts to run, or are many members actively dissecting the c++ code? 
#4
06/27/2003 (10:07 am)
Ken, the private sdk forum stays pretty busy. I'd say it is fairly close to a 50/50 split on the scriptors vs. the c++ coders. The irc channel also stays very active with people helping each other (though it does have lulls throughout the day).
#5
I think you'll find that if you at least TRY to find the answers on your own folks will bend over backwards to try and help. Just don't expect answers out of vague open ended questions, or ones that can be easily aswered by using the search functions here on the GG site.
06/27/2003 (12:32 pm)
Ken,I think you'll find that if you at least TRY to find the answers on your own folks will bend over backwards to try and help. Just don't expect answers out of vague open ended questions, or ones that can be easily aswered by using the search functions here on the GG site.
#6
Lets face it, the torque community is VERY VERY good and helpful. If you want to really try and make a professional looking game, I think torque is about as good as it gets.
Phil.
06/27/2003 (1:29 pm)
Dont want to say anything for now, but if youre into doing space games, you will find that torque may be a very good way to go (not quite yet, but in the next few months).Lets face it, the torque community is VERY VERY good and helpful. If you want to really try and make a professional looking game, I think torque is about as good as it gets.
Phil.
Torque 3D Owner Tom Bampton
Also, it sounds like you know a fair bit more then some of the people trying to use Torque.