A contest for new tools?
by Dreamer · in Torque Game Engine · 06/25/2004 (11:44 am) · 5 replies
Just curious to see what the response would be to a Torque All in One or possibly all in 3 toolkit similar to what Conitec has for it's A6 game engine.
What I'm basically striving for here is either one toolkit that can do all 3 functions of Mission or Level Editing, Model Editing, and script editing. Or 3 separate tools, that can function harmoniously, with similar interfaces, and unified project files.
For scripting at least the Cambone Tribal IDE, is an excellent start.
The hope is to make TGE and TSE as easy to work with as Conitecs A6 engine.
Of course someone would also need to step up to the plate and develop this wonderful new toolset, and the quickest easiest way would be to have a contest to draw attention to it.
As a developer, what prize amount would catch your eye enough to make you want to produce a toolset like this for the general populace.
Since this toolset would be for the TGE/TSE community at large, and not just for private use, I would be willing to seed the contest with a donation of $100, and more could easily be added with something like a PayPal or Amazon.com donation box, if GarageGames is willing to setup a way to recieve the funds and then manage all of the details of distributing the prize or prizes and determining a winner.
Anyways just a thought and alot of self talk, but if anyone especially GarageGames is interesting in maybe getting this thing going, please leave feedback here, or contact me.
Thanks
What I'm basically striving for here is either one toolkit that can do all 3 functions of Mission or Level Editing, Model Editing, and script editing. Or 3 separate tools, that can function harmoniously, with similar interfaces, and unified project files.
For scripting at least the Cambone Tribal IDE, is an excellent start.
The hope is to make TGE and TSE as easy to work with as Conitecs A6 engine.
Of course someone would also need to step up to the plate and develop this wonderful new toolset, and the quickest easiest way would be to have a contest to draw attention to it.
As a developer, what prize amount would catch your eye enough to make you want to produce a toolset like this for the general populace.
Since this toolset would be for the TGE/TSE community at large, and not just for private use, I would be willing to seed the contest with a donation of $100, and more could easily be added with something like a PayPal or Amazon.com donation box, if GarageGames is willing to setup a way to recieve the funds and then manage all of the details of distributing the prize or prizes and determining a winner.
Anyways just a thought and alot of self talk, but if anyone especially GarageGames is interesting in maybe getting this thing going, please leave feedback here, or contact me.
Thanks
#2
I think you will find that all of the tools available for Torque albeit, disjointed, are superior to Conitec's. I used A5, and A6 for 2 years before switching to Torque. I don't think what you are proposing is necessary. Here are the similarities from an A6 perspective:
MED = 3D Studio Max, Milkshape, Lightwave, Maya, Blender, GameSpace
WED = Quark, Hammer, GameSpace, and the built in real-time world editor
SED = JEdit, TribalIDe, any other text editor. (the only thing they don't have is smart code completion/code insight, but it will probably be implemented in time).
I think you will find that by meerly having such a vast choice in tools, is part of what gives you the power and flexibility that you don't have with the A6 engine, primarily with Modeling and Level Editing. I know you can export MED models from MilkShape and Ultimate Unwrap, but there were many times I had to open MED to get extra features (detail maps / Mip mapping to work). Not to mentaion bugs in every release.
We moved to Torque roughly a year ago, and you can see some of our old/new screenshots on our home page. At that time, I wrote some of my percieved strangth/weaknesses of Torque vs A6, and why we went ahead with the engine cange (NOT and easy choice), and it has paid in spades.
www.garagegames.com/mg/snapshot/view.php?qid=745
I am NOT bashing A6. A5 still has a full software renderer, which, still may be a consideration for some. I still have a warm place in my heart for A6, as I learned a LOT about game development terminology and mechanics with the engine. With Torque, I have expanded that knowledge quite a bit .
06/25/2004 (12:26 pm)
Creative Edge, (saw this this from our other discussion on TribalIDE).I think you will find that all of the tools available for Torque albeit, disjointed, are superior to Conitec's. I used A5, and A6 for 2 years before switching to Torque. I don't think what you are proposing is necessary. Here are the similarities from an A6 perspective:
MED = 3D Studio Max, Milkshape, Lightwave, Maya, Blender, GameSpace
WED = Quark, Hammer, GameSpace, and the built in real-time world editor
SED = JEdit, TribalIDe, any other text editor. (the only thing they don't have is smart code completion/code insight, but it will probably be implemented in time).
I think you will find that by meerly having such a vast choice in tools, is part of what gives you the power and flexibility that you don't have with the A6 engine, primarily with Modeling and Level Editing. I know you can export MED models from MilkShape and Ultimate Unwrap, but there were many times I had to open MED to get extra features (detail maps / Mip mapping to work). Not to mentaion bugs in every release.
We moved to Torque roughly a year ago, and you can see some of our old/new screenshots on our home page. At that time, I wrote some of my percieved strangth/weaknesses of Torque vs A6, and why we went ahead with the engine cange (NOT and easy choice), and it has paid in spades.
www.garagegames.com/mg/snapshot/view.php?qid=745
I am NOT bashing A6. A5 still has a full software renderer, which, still may be a consideration for some. I still have a warm place in my heart for A6, as I learned a LOT about game development terminology and mechanics with the engine. With Torque, I have expanded that knowledge quite a bit .
#3
After all, I already own Lightwave and some other tools. Since Torque supports those (through third-party plugins), I'd rather keep using those. I'm sure those who own 3Ds Max or GameSpace or Milkshape feel the same...
@Cameron: Sweet looking game! Glad you've had good success with Torque so far, that's got some real good AAA quality to it.
06/25/2004 (12:38 pm)
I have to agree with Cameron. Torque has a HUGE set of tools. While some work better than others, they all let you achieve even the most basic functionality. ;)After all, I already own Lightwave and some other tools. Since Torque supports those (through third-party plugins), I'd rather keep using those. I'm sure those who own 3Ds Max or GameSpace or Milkshape feel the same...
@Cameron: Sweet looking game! Glad you've had good success with Torque so far, that's got some real good AAA quality to it.
#4
I'm talking about a nice unified set of tools, yes you already have Lightwave, and I already have 3D Studio Max 6. However financially speaking providing access to these tools, for all the members of an indie development team, could easily chew up almost the entire budget for the game.
Also none of these tools is completely cross platform, and none were directly intended for use with the Torque Engine in mind (not speaking of exporters here, just the tools themselves).
What I would LOVE to see, is a single unified toolkit, that performs equally well on all the platforms that Torque is intended to run on. This is the ONLY strength that A6 has over Torque. And I am not trying to start a discussion about which is better, I own licsenses for both, and are far more satisfied with both the product Torque AND the developer community as a whole.
I just wish that the tools that were available under A6 could be replicated in functionality and uniformness, for the Torque Engine. This would make speed of development increase by 3 or 4 times over.
But I am not just making wishes here, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. If serious interest is expressed in this idea by both Garage Games and the community at large, I will gladly donate some seed money to start a prize pot, that could be contributed to by those who desire for something like this to see fruition. In the meantime, the developers of the toolkits would get some serious experience in developing a great set of tools.
Anyways call me crazy, but I see a definite need for this product. Final execution would of course have to be up to Garage Games, and the rest of the community.
06/25/2004 (12:59 pm)
To both of you... I have seen all of those tools, and that is EXACTLY the reason for this thread.I'm talking about a nice unified set of tools, yes you already have Lightwave, and I already have 3D Studio Max 6. However financially speaking providing access to these tools, for all the members of an indie development team, could easily chew up almost the entire budget for the game.
Also none of these tools is completely cross platform, and none were directly intended for use with the Torque Engine in mind (not speaking of exporters here, just the tools themselves).
What I would LOVE to see, is a single unified toolkit, that performs equally well on all the platforms that Torque is intended to run on. This is the ONLY strength that A6 has over Torque. And I am not trying to start a discussion about which is better, I own licsenses for both, and are far more satisfied with both the product Torque AND the developer community as a whole.
I just wish that the tools that were available under A6 could be replicated in functionality and uniformness, for the Torque Engine. This would make speed of development increase by 3 or 4 times over.
But I am not just making wishes here, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. If serious interest is expressed in this idea by both Garage Games and the community at large, I will gladly donate some seed money to start a prize pot, that could be contributed to by those who desire for something like this to see fruition. In the meantime, the developers of the toolkits would get some serious experience in developing a great set of tools.
Anyways call me crazy, but I see a definite need for this product. Final execution would of course have to be up to Garage Games, and the rest of the community.
#5
07/01/2004 (6:51 am)
Speaking as a beginner, a unified tool set would be a godsend. I'm awash in a sea of tools, plugins, and exporters...all of which seem to support this, that, or the other feature. But not the same features. At my level, I'd much rather have a single unified tool set than pick through all the disjointed separate this's and that's. Or, this does this, but doesn't do that and vice versa. It's given me a major low order headache, LOL...One set of tools, one integrated interface. 
Torque Owner Dreamer
Default Studio Name