The case for Torque 3D
by Devin Passage · in Torque 3D Professional · 11/16/2010 (6:49 pm) · 3 replies
I just wanted to say that as a long time Torque user I think Torque 3D has great value to the indie gaming community and that its loss would be a great blow to the community.
Torque 3D offers a choice to indie devs that nothing else does, a reasonably featureful, source code available technology that is capable of producing modern games. When I was evaluating engines and projects, only T3D offers what I need in terms of features while also giving me access to source.
Is it ironclad, or is the codebase clean? Hell no. Torque 3D is a massive, bloated project that has been in development for over 10 years and has been contributed to by hundreds of people. That it runs as stably as it does continues to amaze me.
Is it a game maker? No, not T3D (T2D is a *fine* game maker, although I found it in my quick experimentations to be a little less stable than TGB). I do not think that it was a good idea to market a binary only version of this product or market it as a game maker. A true 3D game maker is an IMMENSE project, of huge scope, requiring millions and millions of dollars of funding and a team of crack developers. There is a product out there filling that niche, and you know what it is. But the indie game community needs more than just a 3D game maker.
We need technology that can produce the revolutionary kind of games that you see produced by indies working with their own technology, but without having to compormise with simplified graphics featuresets or huuuuuge development cycles to get it done. And T3D fills that niche.
If you arent a coder, don't have one on your team, or dont want to learn to be one, T3D is never going to be the right solution for you. I understand your frustration that T3D did not live up to that expectation, as it was defintely marketed that way. That is the entire reason that game makers exist: to allow nonprogrammers to make games, and often, fantastic games they do make.
But for us coders, losing Torque would mean one of the only bastions of available code to make true 3D multiplayer games would be lost.
My project is far enough along that we are not going to be effected by IA's closure, but the loss of the community and continuing development of new technology to use will be a blow that will resonate deeply with me and with the rest of the devs here as well.
It is my hope that T3D can find a new custodian and continue on, doing a service for independent game development that it alone provides.
-Devin Passage
MartianArctic Games
Torque 3D offers a choice to indie devs that nothing else does, a reasonably featureful, source code available technology that is capable of producing modern games. When I was evaluating engines and projects, only T3D offers what I need in terms of features while also giving me access to source.
Is it ironclad, or is the codebase clean? Hell no. Torque 3D is a massive, bloated project that has been in development for over 10 years and has been contributed to by hundreds of people. That it runs as stably as it does continues to amaze me.
Is it a game maker? No, not T3D (T2D is a *fine* game maker, although I found it in my quick experimentations to be a little less stable than TGB). I do not think that it was a good idea to market a binary only version of this product or market it as a game maker. A true 3D game maker is an IMMENSE project, of huge scope, requiring millions and millions of dollars of funding and a team of crack developers. There is a product out there filling that niche, and you know what it is. But the indie game community needs more than just a 3D game maker.
We need technology that can produce the revolutionary kind of games that you see produced by indies working with their own technology, but without having to compormise with simplified graphics featuresets or huuuuuge development cycles to get it done. And T3D fills that niche.
If you arent a coder, don't have one on your team, or dont want to learn to be one, T3D is never going to be the right solution for you. I understand your frustration that T3D did not live up to that expectation, as it was defintely marketed that way. That is the entire reason that game makers exist: to allow nonprogrammers to make games, and often, fantastic games they do make.
But for us coders, losing Torque would mean one of the only bastions of available code to make true 3D multiplayer games would be lost.
My project is far enough along that we are not going to be effected by IA's closure, but the loss of the community and continuing development of new technology to use will be a blow that will resonate deeply with me and with the rest of the devs here as well.
It is my hope that T3D can find a new custodian and continue on, doing a service for independent game development that it alone provides.
-Devin Passage
MartianArctic Games
About the author
www.martianarctic.com
David McDonald
Bad Uncle Games
A fine summary and post there. *applause*
A few years back when my team moved over from Multiverse to Torque we were swayed by the pretty lights, bells and whistles (Ok, the river editor!) that were presented. We knew it wasn't an MMO game maker, we knew it wasn't a game maker at all.
I;ve had a modicum of coding inmy years gone past and have another lad who was so-so but eagre and together we've managed to nut out the intracacies...well some of them...of T3D.
The Binary version has it's uses as we also have some artists on our team doing level editing so that suits them.
I completely agree that unless you want to put in the hours of learning, developing, modifying and adapting then T3D is not for you however as you so aptly put it "losing Torque would mean one of the only bastions of available code to make true 3D multiplayer games would be lost."
Like you, our game can survive using T3D and the other tools we have, in fact the IA announcement has actually been the kick in the ass we needed. Now we know what state the tools and engine are in so we no longer have to play catch up.
I'll add our voice to your hopes that a custodian can be found, this is a product worth saving.