Torque Networking and Other Related Issues
by Caglar Arslan · in Technical Issues · 11/19/2005 (4:16 am) · 4 replies
We are planning to develop a Massively Multiplayer Online Game using
Torque Game Engine system. We got a couple of requirements related to our
project. We wonder that whether the Torque Game Engine and Torque
Networking Library can overcome the following issues.
The issues are;
1) Can the Torque Engine communicate with the serial devices through
COM ports or USB port?
2) Can the Torque Engine communicate and exchange data with another
server through a specified port number?
3) Can the Torque Engine grab data from the Internet or from a
database and display the grabbed data in the game?
4) Can the textures in the game captured and uploaded from our
database? (By doing so, we will try to provide dynamically changing
content within the game.)
5) Is it possible to write our own content packages for our game? (
Such as, updating packages, additional modules concerning the
functionality of our game(like extra mission pack and mods) )
Also is it possible to open a special type of Internet browser within
the game's GUI that exchanges data with an dynamic Internet page or
updates the contents of a database (like MySQL)?
Also note that, our project is a senior engineering project in Bilkent
University. Which license system(indie or commercial) is the most
appropriate one for our project?
Torque Game Engine system. We got a couple of requirements related to our
project. We wonder that whether the Torque Game Engine and Torque
Networking Library can overcome the following issues.
The issues are;
1) Can the Torque Engine communicate with the serial devices through
COM ports or USB port?
2) Can the Torque Engine communicate and exchange data with another
server through a specified port number?
3) Can the Torque Engine grab data from the Internet or from a
database and display the grabbed data in the game?
4) Can the textures in the game captured and uploaded from our
database? (By doing so, we will try to provide dynamically changing
content within the game.)
5) Is it possible to write our own content packages for our game? (
Such as, updating packages, additional modules concerning the
functionality of our game(like extra mission pack and mods) )
Also is it possible to open a special type of Internet browser within
the game's GUI that exchanges data with an dynamic Internet page or
updates the contents of a database (like MySQL)?
Also note that, our project is a senior engineering project in Bilkent
University. Which license system(indie or commercial) is the most
appropriate one for our project?
About the author
#2
Our first question is again about the use of "controlling COM ports"(transmitting and receiving any kind of data by using the COM port) (This issue is very important for our project). Are the libraries of Torque ready for this kind of task? Are there any previous tutorials regarding this problem?
Our second question: Can we create a buildboard in
our game to display ads that we download from the internet or from the database? Again, are there any tutorials related to this task? Also can we create a dynamic billboard where clients can change the content of this billboard in real time?
11/20/2005 (1:21 am)
At this step, we got two more problems that need to be clarified.Our first question is again about the use of "controlling COM ports"(transmitting and receiving any kind of data by using the COM port) (This issue is very important for our project). Are the libraries of Torque ready for this kind of task? Are there any previous tutorials regarding this problem?
Our second question: Can we create a buildboard in
our game to display ads that we download from the internet or from the database? Again, are there any tutorials related to this task? Also can we create a dynamic billboard where clients can change the content of this billboard in real time?
#3
2) I think you mean billboard, and you could easily use the new Theora control in TGE 1.4 (out -very- soon) to display streaming movies, much less still images.
11/20/2005 (7:34 am)
1) Two things: Torque is not a set of libraries, it's an integrated simulation. BIG difference. Also, as I said before, if your team knows what data is coming out of the com port, and how to access the com port in C++, you can do so. Torque does not out of the box read from a com port, but then again neither do most game engines...2) I think you mean billboard, and you could easily use the new Theora control in TGE 1.4 (out -very- soon) to display streaming movies, much less still images.
#4
03/13/2006 (10:09 am)
@Cognito: Torque doesn't have any builtin Serial I/O code. However, it is multithreaded, and is event driven. So, you can certainly do your own serial I/O in your own thread and patch it into the rest of the system. You can even expose interfaces to your serial I/O code to the scripting layer. 
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
2) Absolutely. Look at TCPObject for starters. There are other (more complex) options as well.
3) Absolutely. Multiple resources exist here in the forums (for licensed TGE owners) demonstrating the concept.
4) Question needs more details to answer absolutely, but yes you can read in textures (or anything else) as part of your server boot sequence, as well as more advanced techniques during server runtime.
5) see 1) above.
6) I think that your question might not be well stated--you don't need to "open up a special type of Internet browser" to communicate with an external dynamic web page or database. Torque does not have a library to open up a browser as a gui, but it can certainly communicate with any application (web or otherwise) you like.
You should probably contact Davey Jackson, The Torque in Education Sales Director, for additional information. It is possible but by no means probable that you may qualify for an Educational discount.
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