I'm new, and I got some (stupid?) questions
by Christian Meyer · in Torque Game Engine · 09/06/2005 (8:24 am) · 5 replies
Hello,
My background (short version):
I've been working with Visual C++ for quite some time now, I've created some
MFC-based applications at work, but no "BIG" projects, just some test-tools for
my company (mostly applications that implement some sort of communication protocol using a
serial port) - as I mentioned: nothing big - just enough to get some experience in using MFC and the Windows Api.
but...
...I always dreamed about making "my" game,
so I bought the torque indie license, downloaded the Torque game engine SDK
(and did not do anything with it for almost a year) but a few days ago I decided
to start creating my first game so I followed the steps described in
"Setting Up the Torque Game Engine" and everything worked fine.
I've built the torquedemo.exe using VC++.NET 2003. so far, so good.
I started reading the online tutorial "GUI Editor Introduction" and everything worked as expected, I've created my first GUI-Button and the Hello World- Window
(my first -little- step into using torque).
But there are a few things, that I would like to know:
1. When following the steps described in "Setting Up the Torque Game Engine"
it leads me to create "TorqueDemo.exe". As far as I understand this is the
main engine executable, so if I want to create my own little game I should
start modifying the scripts that are used for the starter kits ?
So the created "TorqueDemo.exe" is much more than just a demo, but
it's "my" game executable that's already finished and I can do everything else
by using the scripts ? (or am I totally wrong ?)
(if that is true then I slowly start to realize how much work has already been done
for me)
2. When I've finished my first game (somewhere in the future...far far away)
I want to disable the Editors, so that I can hand my game over to my friends
and they only can play the game but not modify it. How do I do this ?
3. Is there any way to hide the little black DOS-like window when running the torqueDemo.exe ?
sorry for these really stupid questions, but I've just started using torque...
Chris
My background (short version):
I've been working with Visual C++ for quite some time now, I've created some
MFC-based applications at work, but no "BIG" projects, just some test-tools for
my company (mostly applications that implement some sort of communication protocol using a
serial port) - as I mentioned: nothing big - just enough to get some experience in using MFC and the Windows Api.
but...
...I always dreamed about making "my" game,
so I bought the torque indie license, downloaded the Torque game engine SDK
(and did not do anything with it for almost a year) but a few days ago I decided
to start creating my first game so I followed the steps described in
"Setting Up the Torque Game Engine" and everything worked fine.
I've built the torquedemo.exe using VC++.NET 2003. so far, so good.
I started reading the online tutorial "GUI Editor Introduction" and everything worked as expected, I've created my first GUI-Button and the Hello World- Window
(my first -little- step into using torque).
But there are a few things, that I would like to know:
1. When following the steps described in "Setting Up the Torque Game Engine"
it leads me to create "TorqueDemo.exe". As far as I understand this is the
main engine executable, so if I want to create my own little game I should
start modifying the scripts that are used for the starter kits ?
So the created "TorqueDemo.exe" is much more than just a demo, but
it's "my" game executable that's already finished and I can do everything else
by using the scripts ? (or am I totally wrong ?)
(if that is true then I slowly start to realize how much work has already been done
for me)
2. When I've finished my first game (somewhere in the future...far far away)
I want to disable the Editors, so that I can hand my game over to my friends
and they only can play the game but not modify it. How do I do this ?
3. Is there any way to hide the little black DOS-like window when running the torqueDemo.exe ?
sorry for these really stupid questions, but I've just started using torque...
Chris
#3
09/06/2005 (3:43 pm)
When you run the game, I believe it compiles the scripts from the normal .cs extension to an encrypted .cs.dso. I think once you're ready to distribute your game you just delete all the .cs files and leave only the .cs.dso, but I am not absolutely certain on that. :)
#4
09/06/2005 (3:53 pm)
It's not actually "encrypted", it's simply a byte-code compiled version of your scripts. But Tim is in essence correct...when the game executes, Torque takes your .cs files, compiles them, and then spits out .cs.dso files that contain the only thing your clients need to execute their side of the game.
#5
I followed the steps described in "removing/hiding dos window at game start" and I modified my project so that it no longer builds TorqueDemo.exe...this was as easy as paint-by-numbers.
And in the future I will use the search function before asking...
Chris
09/07/2005 (12:03 am)
Thanks a lot for your really quick answers. I followed the steps described in "removing/hiding dos window at game start" and I modified my project so that it no longer builds TorqueDemo.exe...this was as easy as paint-by-numbers.
And in the future I will use the search function before asking...
Chris
Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards
2) There are resources available that show you how to package your source files (the .cs, not the C++ obviously) into something like Zip files. You can choose to encrypt them or not. You sould distribute your EXE with the scripts in one of these containers and that would make it so your friends cannot see the script source nor modify it. If you don't want them creating new missions, don't distribute the Creator MOD (you'll undersand all this by the time you're ready to distribute. Don't worry if you don't understand it right now)
3) Yes... there's a setting in the project to target a Windows EXE instead of a Console. Alternatively, the shortcut that starts the application can make the application start as hidden. There's also some code that forcibly displays the console window so you'll have to comment that out... I don't remember exactly how to do all three of these things, but there are resources that help. Use the Search function of this web-site. As you get used to it, the web site has a huge array of resources available. Use it, because 9 times out of 10, if you think of something you want to implement, someone has already done it and posted it as a resource. Maybe it's not 100% what you want, but it'll get you close enough to let you understand what else needs to be done to get what you want.
The only stupid questions are those which aren't asked... don't worry about it. But, remember to use the Search feature and try not to ask questions which have already been answered :p