What to buy? - There's sooo much =)

#1 Hey Elliot. First off I don't own T2D so I'm certainly not an expert, but I've lurked these forums enough to give you some reasonable answers until someone else comes along more knowledgable than I. Plus you're a Kiwi so I have to help you out :)

1) I'm not entirely sure on this sorry. You can apply values to an object which determines things such as its mass etc, and then ingame it will behave according to its characteristics. There is a demo of the physics floating around on these forums somewhere. I think searching for Matthew "King Tut BoB" Langley's .plans may turn up something.

2) I'm almost certain that this is in T2D. Download the little space shooter T2D demo and you'll see different layered backgrounds.

3) Torque sound will be able to do anything you want really. It has a few quirky behaviours, but CD quality sound is most definitely possible (although I recommend compressing your audio).

4) This is one of T2D's strengths. The particle engine is among the best around. I haven't experienced it first hand, but I've downloaded all of Melv's development videos and its very impressive.

5) Detailed control? If I understand your question correctly then yes, this is simple.

6) Sounds like you just need T2D. If you've got the cash to splash buying TGE and then T2D maybe a wise investment if you want to use TGE further down the track.

7) T2D was made out of Torque, so its an expansion in a sense, but will have a lot of unneccessary functionality from TGE stripped out I assume.

8) Don't even worry about this. If you're making $250K the corporate licence upgrade isn't going to be an issue. But yes you can upgrade later.

#2 Yep. I'm originally from around Nelson, but studying at University of Otago atm (probably make this my last year, finishing with the Games Programming paper in summer school)

#3 1. Realistic Physics -

Physics Demo
Should give you an idea :) Also check Melv May's latest plan for some videos and descriptions. Currently constraints aren't supported though.
(though you can mount objects to other objects)

2. Bold Graphics - Stock T2D comes with 31 layers... you an order within these layers too (you can also mask collision and selection to these layers for efficiency)


3. High-Fi Sound - Same sound system as Torque


4. Modifiable Particle effects - You won't be disappointed :)


5. Detailed Controls - That will be tricky but I'd say its doable ... a mini T2D game called "Cloudburst" (by David Grace) had a boss enemy with mounted limbs

6. Do I need TGE and T2D, or just T2D?
just T2D, though you can compile them together if you get both.

7. Is T2D an expansion to TGE or a completely new engine?
completely new engine based upon some of the same core of TGE

8. If I buy an Indie licence, can I upgrade to a Corporate lincence?
I beleive you can

#4 Sounds like you want IK, which is not something that T2D currently supports. You could probably do it manually with individual sprites for the the body parts (foot, lower leg, upper leg, stomach, chest,neck, head, upper arm, lower arm, hand), but animating it all would be a nightmare. Particularly if you want it to look natural.

The other option is to have the character made out of less parts, and have pre-canned animations of the various actions.

#5 """Oh yeah, with the physics, (just explaining it better here) I want to have a character who is made up of parts. I want to be able to move the mouse left and right to change direction (as well as swing his arms to the direction of movement). I also want to be able to hold down the right mouse button, and be able to move the character about the screen, with the physics side of things handling collisions.
For example, I'm running right, the character's arms are outstreached infront of him. I then hold down the right mouse button, pull the mouse down to compress the character's body (ie. knees bend, pelvis drops, torso hunches over etc), then push the mouse up. The character then extends (legs unbend, toes lift off of the ground, arms point up - full body streach).
that's the sort of thing I want to be able to do."""




this is the type of engine you want for that stuff..
http://www.realmsofkrel.com/tech.html

It has tools with it too that help you test out all that stuff you want to do.. but I doubt you can afford it. :P
the tools can be download over at Fileplanet but you can't use it commercially without a paid license.

#6 He doesn't want to make a MMO game though, and that's Abyssal's strength. It has other candy, too, but that's it's strength.

He can fake IK chains with mount points and rolling his own constraints. Working in 2D is infinitely easier in terms of IK than in 3D. I'm not sure how much he'd have to roll in the C++ code, though. The interface control is also doable.

#7 I like the looks of that engine of realmsof. Have you heard any good or bad reports of it? I am working on putting together a MMO and it looks perfect for what we need.

Thanks