Cool things about T3D
by Sean H. · in Torque 3D Public · 07/02/2010 (8:34 pm) · 12 replies
Hey folks. I wanted to make a thread to sort of lighten up the mood a bit.
Many people have been very critical of T3D and the TorquePowered engines as a whole. Whether the criticism is deserved is a matter of opinion but we can all agree that TorquePowered offers great products at very reasonable prices.
I feel that it's very important that the community periodically take a moment to commend GarageGames for all the hard work they put into their products and tools fitting our individual needs. These guys work their asses off to help deliver a product to us and we all know even the smallest bit of positive feedback can go a long way toward improving the general morale.
Anyway, so the idea here is to name a feature of T3D, or any of their engines, which blows your socks off. Name any kind of special feature, big or small, that you find especially useful or cool. It doesnt have to be something unique to the torque engine line and this isnt a competition by any means. Name as many or as few items as you want and its fine to reiterate a feature someones already mentioned.
Many people have been very critical of T3D and the TorquePowered engines as a whole. Whether the criticism is deserved is a matter of opinion but we can all agree that TorquePowered offers great products at very reasonable prices.
I feel that it's very important that the community periodically take a moment to commend GarageGames for all the hard work they put into their products and tools fitting our individual needs. These guys work their asses off to help deliver a product to us and we all know even the smallest bit of positive feedback can go a long way toward improving the general morale.
Anyway, so the idea here is to name a feature of T3D, or any of their engines, which blows your socks off. Name any kind of special feature, big or small, that you find especially useful or cool. It doesnt have to be something unique to the torque engine line and this isnt a competition by any means. Name as many or as few items as you want and its fine to reiterate a feature someones already mentioned.
#2
07/02/2010 (8:44 pm)
I love how easy it is to use script to control so many aspects that were once necessary for C'codeing modifications, or art content redesigns. The power of Torque Script in T3D is amazing. 
#3
... or to advise against mistakes.
07/03/2010 (2:50 am)
Quote:
I feel that it's very important that the community periodically take a moment to commend GarageGames for all the hard work they put into their products and tools fitting our individual needs.
... or to advise against mistakes.
#4
OK, so to get back on topic:
- I like the docs that are done so far, so kudos to mich and the doc team. While I consider it still far from being finished, it is so much better than waht we had before T3D, plus what is there is actually very well done.
- Another feature I like very much is the whole Editor...if your art is ready, you can quickly put together a very nice scene.
- I like also the T3D toolbox...easy and fast to get a project started.
- I like the possibility to use collada.
- Live asset update is very nice
- Advanced lightning is very nice to have (altough maybe more for the future, but just the fact that it's there out of the box
- I LOVE the T3D community...so many resources available plus the people are usually friendly and helpful
07/03/2010 (6:15 am)
Clearly positive feedback helps to get people motivated, but also let's not forget we all are paying customers, and so far there are things which were promised but not yet delivered. Does it mean it's impossible to use T3D to finish a game or that T3D is not good? Hell no.OK, so to get back on topic:
- I like the docs that are done so far, so kudos to mich and the doc team. While I consider it still far from being finished, it is so much better than waht we had before T3D, plus what is there is actually very well done.
- Another feature I like very much is the whole Editor...if your art is ready, you can quickly put together a very nice scene.
- I like also the T3D toolbox...easy and fast to get a project started.
- I like the possibility to use collada.
- Live asset update is very nice
- Advanced lightning is very nice to have (altough maybe more for the future, but just the fact that it's there out of the box
- I LOVE the T3D community...so many resources available plus the people are usually friendly and helpful
#5
I think Matt Fairfax is a pretty cool guy, eh fixes code and doesn't afraid of anything ...
[/terrible_joke] 8P
- editors are good
- terrain noise tool is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on
- live asset updating is nice
- T$ is great
- source
07/03/2010 (6:47 am)
[caution->terrible_joke->ahead] I think Matt Fairfax is a pretty cool guy, eh fixes code and doesn't afraid of anything ...
[/terrible_joke] 8P
- editors are good
- terrain noise tool is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on
- live asset updating is nice
- T$ is great
- source
#6
- The new environmental editors (River, Road, Forest)
- Having a team dedicated to only writing docs
@Sean - Nice thread. Thanks for starting it
@All - Thank you for adding to the thread. The words mean a lot to the team.
07/03/2010 (8:15 am)
- The community- The new environmental editors (River, Road, Forest)
- Having a team dedicated to only writing docs
@Sean - Nice thread. Thanks for starting it
@All - Thank you for adding to the thread. The words mean a lot to the team.
#7
- source
- networking
- usability
- license
- new ed tools (especailly river/road/forest)
- live asset updating
- physics layer/abstraction
- the fact there is a learning curve -no drag and drop game maker mindlessness for me :)
In general: all of the little tweaks and improvements that are hidden up under the hood -- the evolution from TGE to TGEa and now it's T3D stage makes it even more awesome!
07/03/2010 (10:59 am)
- it's Tribes... I mean Torque!- source
- networking
- usability
- license
- new ed tools (especailly river/road/forest)
- live asset updating
- physics layer/abstraction
- the fact there is a learning curve -no drag and drop game maker mindlessness for me :)
In general: all of the little tweaks and improvements that are hidden up under the hood -- the evolution from TGE to TGEa and now it's T3D stage makes it even more awesome!
#8
Right away I can say this.
# Networking is good
# Tools work good, small issues need updating
# Asset importing works with a few little quirks that documentation will cover
# etc
Overall if you are making a game its worth the price to license it if your serious. There are draw backs to T3D to and the grass always looks greener on the other side but as it stands right now now there is no complete out of the box fix all do all solution.
At this point I find it kind of deceptive that there is a binary license, from my experience its not possible to make everything you need without a few source modifications. I hope this changes in the future as T3D matures, however the Source license for other engines costs much more and there is a upgrade path for binary users.
07/03/2010 (12:33 pm)
I have to say I own licenses for several engines, and I know I don't post screen shots or videos of my progress but I can say that Torque3D when combine with AFX pretty much beats everyone else including Unity3D assuming we get to T3D1.1. When I do open beta I'm sure people will be shown a lot of really cool stuff Torque3D can do.Right away I can say this.
# Networking is good
# Tools work good, small issues need updating
# Asset importing works with a few little quirks that documentation will cover
# etc
Overall if you are making a game its worth the price to license it if your serious. There are draw backs to T3D to and the grass always looks greener on the other side but as it stands right now now there is no complete out of the box fix all do all solution.
At this point I find it kind of deceptive that there is a binary license, from my experience its not possible to make everything you need without a few source modifications. I hope this changes in the future as T3D matures, however the Source license for other engines costs much more and there is a upgrade path for binary users.
#9
Loving the robust networking.
Great tools, engine is a little buggy but usable, but hey it's a BETA - once the majority of bugs have been squashed to make the engine more stable for out of the box tools and gameplay - you can then make it your own without having to hire a programmer if you are a newbie non c++ programmer - there is TorqueScript, then get into some serious engine coding with c++ for more in-depth engine programmer. Once 1.1 is released it will give you guys more time to develop middleware bolt-ons for the engine once the foundations and goal posts have stopped moving for a while and a bit of breathing space to concentrate on what is required to enhance it further (looking forward to future additions). My 2 cents of input on what is missing - Performance patching on incremental updates will be great, and a repository for all other updates so you can pick and choose what to update would be great, especially for tracking what has been updated.
Middleware such as AFX BETA for 1.1 is a great addition - hope the issues with Road, River mesh effects not working are fourthcoming as soon as T3D 1.1 is out of BETA, as our game is reliant on it and a few other issues, but I'd imagine these will also be fixed quite rapidly as Jeff Faust knows his stuff! AFX is definately worth the price.
Community is great for TGE/A.. the die hard developers who understand the engine can quickly adopt to T3D, but with docs, resources being a work in progress whilst the engine is in BETA does tend to slow the development process down, but with people like Sean, Gibby who port resources help in a big way for those that wish to learn the ins and outs of Torque 3D until the docs catch up and then books start to appear further down the line can only support the engine further, and there is always someone willing to help you out in the forums.
Artists like Alan James, Konrad Kiss, Dexsoft-Games, 3DRT (plus anyone else I've missed out) who create quality content packs to support the engine and make it affordable to prototype/reduce production and make commercially viable games for small teams are also an asset.
Cost Wise - the engine is fair in comparison, and definately worth it once feature complete.
Edit: thought of some more good points - added...
07/05/2010 (10:58 am)
This is more of a BETA 1.1 review. But looking good guys :)Loving the robust networking.
Great tools, engine is a little buggy but usable, but hey it's a BETA - once the majority of bugs have been squashed to make the engine more stable for out of the box tools and gameplay - you can then make it your own without having to hire a programmer if you are a newbie non c++ programmer - there is TorqueScript, then get into some serious engine coding with c++ for more in-depth engine programmer. Once 1.1 is released it will give you guys more time to develop middleware bolt-ons for the engine once the foundations and goal posts have stopped moving for a while and a bit of breathing space to concentrate on what is required to enhance it further (looking forward to future additions). My 2 cents of input on what is missing - Performance patching on incremental updates will be great, and a repository for all other updates so you can pick and choose what to update would be great, especially for tracking what has been updated.
Middleware such as AFX BETA for 1.1 is a great addition - hope the issues with Road, River mesh effects not working are fourthcoming as soon as T3D 1.1 is out of BETA, as our game is reliant on it and a few other issues, but I'd imagine these will also be fixed quite rapidly as Jeff Faust knows his stuff! AFX is definately worth the price.
Community is great for TGE/A.. the die hard developers who understand the engine can quickly adopt to T3D, but with docs, resources being a work in progress whilst the engine is in BETA does tend to slow the development process down, but with people like Sean, Gibby who port resources help in a big way for those that wish to learn the ins and outs of Torque 3D until the docs catch up and then books start to appear further down the line can only support the engine further, and there is always someone willing to help you out in the forums.
Artists like Alan James, Konrad Kiss, Dexsoft-Games, 3DRT (plus anyone else I've missed out) who create quality content packs to support the engine and make it affordable to prototype/reduce production and make commercially viable games for small teams are also an asset.
Cost Wise - the engine is fair in comparison, and definately worth it once feature complete.
Edit: thought of some more good points - added...
#10
Source - Look at all these other engines charging the same price with no source? What can you really do without source..
07/06/2010 (6:31 pm)
The networking - Thank god for not sending packets to EVERYONE even when they are the relative distance of a real world city away!Source - Look at all these other engines charging the same price with no source? What can you really do without source..
#11
... The modular plugin system for adding new editors to T3D is awesome, remember hacking my way through TGEA scripts to find where I needed to define stuff, with T3D I can do it all easily and it took 5 mins to add a basic shell for a new editor :)
Thanks guys
07/17/2010 (8:47 am)
Just porting our NavMesh and AI editor code that was built on the TGEA editors, ok a lil bummed I've gotta rewrite it but...... The modular plugin system for adding new editors to T3D is awesome, remember hacking my way through TGEA scripts to find where I needed to define stuff, with T3D I can do it all easily and it took 5 mins to add a basic shell for a new editor :)
Thanks guys
#12
07/19/2010 (12:58 am)
The Collada pipeline and WYSIWYG editor are pretty good. I enjoy working within the editor quiet a bit. :)
Torque 3D Owner Sean H.
I like the editor in T3D. the new editors are much more streamlined and well thought out. I especially like the new terrain modifiers.