Recommended Reading
by William Baker · in Torque Game Engine · 04/20/2006 (10:35 am) · 6 replies
Hello,
Please let me introduce myself to the community. My name is William and of middle age. I have very limited to no programming skills and desire to learn how to create a FPS game using the Torque Engine. It would be of great help if the community could recommend what book I should purchase to get me up and running. I have purchased a license of Torque and completed the tutorial provided with the install. I and really looking for a book like Torque for dummies. Step by Step. Thank you for all your help
Please let me introduce myself to the community. My name is William and of middle age. I have very limited to no programming skills and desire to learn how to create a FPS game using the Torque Engine. It would be of great help if the community could recommend what book I should purchase to get me up and running. I have purchased a license of Torque and completed the tutorial provided with the install. I and really looking for a book like Torque for dummies. Step by Step. Thank you for all your help
About the author
#2
Thank you for a quick reply. I had noticed the three books you had listed and ran into the problem of which book to buy first. Recommendations would be greatly welcome. Thank you for your help.
04/20/2006 (10:53 am)
Joseph,Thank you for a quick reply. I had noticed the three books you had listed and ran into the problem of which book to buy first. Recommendations would be greatly welcome. Thank you for your help.
#3
I would buy those two books first. I have not seen the Advanced 3D game book yet, but I am going to hold off until I read those above mentioned materials.
04/20/2006 (11:13 am)
I recommend the 3D Programming All in One book. It covers a lot of the process and tools needed to work with Torque. I just got the GPGT the other day and it is very directed on the game engine itself.I would buy those two books first. I have not seen the Advanced 3D game book yet, but I am going to hold off until I read those above mentioned materials.
#4
Pros - definatly will give you most of the basics. Explains basic concepts needed for making a game with the demo. Being as the engine is already precompiled using 1.2 your gonna be limited. It does touch, UV mapping, scripting, basic weather, making sky boxes, basic modeling in milkshape and some internet server stuff (didn't work for me).
Cons - Felt old..very outdated. Some minor scripting stuff was skipped and provided for you in reference to save time. Doesn't touch compiling or anything else...just focus's on the 1.2 demo engine provided gives you a huge reference section. The world editor section was rather confusing but after going through the GG demo with the Indie I ahve a better understanding.
I suggest if you have zero expirence like me it's a good start but it will leave you wanting more. My biggest handy cap is zero C expirence as I want to recompile, start from scratch and build from bottom up.
The Advanced book going into AI, intergrating with apache, mysql, and more interesting thing I wish were in the first book. This book is about 100 pages and pretty short. It builds on the first book so it's a must read in order type of thing. This book includes a demo of the 1.3 engine.
04/20/2006 (4:01 pm)
The advanced book does just what it says. However, the 3D programming All in One book is nice. It leaves a lot to be desired. I'm an utter newbie to these sort of things and it left me with more questions than answers. It briefly covers topic's like modeling stuff and leaves a lot of stuff up to the user. It does not touch base on the actual engine nor does it use the current engine with the updates.Pros - definatly will give you most of the basics. Explains basic concepts needed for making a game with the demo. Being as the engine is already precompiled using 1.2 your gonna be limited. It does touch, UV mapping, scripting, basic weather, making sky boxes, basic modeling in milkshape and some internet server stuff (didn't work for me).
Cons - Felt old..very outdated. Some minor scripting stuff was skipped and provided for you in reference to save time. Doesn't touch compiling or anything else...just focus's on the 1.2 demo engine provided gives you a huge reference section. The world editor section was rather confusing but after going through the GG demo with the Indie I ahve a better understanding.
I suggest if you have zero expirence like me it's a good start but it will leave you wanting more. My biggest handy cap is zero C expirence as I want to recompile, start from scratch and build from bottom up.
The Advanced book going into AI, intergrating with apache, mysql, and more interesting thing I wish were in the first book. This book is about 100 pages and pretty short. It builds on the first book so it's a must read in order type of thing. This book includes a demo of the 1.3 engine.
#5
"3D Game Programming All in One" uses TGE 1.2
"Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One" uses TGE 1.3 and builds of book one above.
"The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque: Under the Hood of the Torque Game Engine" uses TGE 1.4
All three books focus mainly on Torque script. Another suggestion is to get some content packs. They are great working examples to learn from. Here is a blog "New guy playing with Torque, initial thoughts." which might also help you with some basic things to get you started.
edit:
04/20/2006 (4:03 pm)
I highly recommend the book "The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque: Under the Hood of the Torque Game Engine" first. One reason is it explains the features of TGE 1.4 in depth. The next book would be "3D Game Programming All in One" because it shows how to make basic dts and dif models. All three books together make a great library for the beginner Torque user. One word to note on the books: "3D Game Programming All in One" uses TGE 1.2
"Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One" uses TGE 1.3 and builds of book one above.
"The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque: Under the Hood of the Torque Game Engine" uses TGE 1.4
All three books focus mainly on Torque script. Another suggestion is to get some content packs. They are great working examples to learn from. Here is a blog "New guy playing with Torque, initial thoughts." which might also help you with some basic things to get you started.
edit:
Quote:Myself and a friend of mine started here the same way... and of middle age. A book that I found useful to start out with c++ was "Beginning C++ Game Programming" by Michael Dawson. I found it very helpful to read this book before I started to learn Torque script. This book teaches the fundamentals of C++.
of middle age. I have very limited to no programming skills and desire to learn how to create a FPS game using the Torque Engine.
#6
Thank you for all the help. I have gone ahead bought 3D Game Programming All in One. My plan is to start with this first and move on to the rest.
@ Mark Barner,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I will look into your recommened reading. I thought I might have to travel that road aswell. Thank you
Have a great day. Anymore thoughts would be great. Thank you for helping a new community member!
William
04/21/2006 (6:21 am)
Hello,Thank you for all the help. I have gone ahead bought 3D Game Programming All in One. My plan is to start with this first and move on to the rest.
@ Mark Barner,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I will look into your recommened reading. I thought I might have to travel that road aswell. Thank you
Have a great day. Anymore thoughts would be great. Thank you for helping a new community member!
William
Associate Joseph Euan
Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One
The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque: Under the Hood of the Torque Game Engine