Some questions about Torque

#1

Quote:1. Does Torque come with any media of any kind like textures, sound, models, weapons? And if it does what kind?

It comes with quite a bit of media. I'm not sure how much is included in the demo, but there are some pieces of the FPS Environment pack, the Tim Aste content packs, etc. See the product page for more details and then look at the individual packs.

Quote:2. How hard is Torque to use? I know its not drag-and-drop but Is it similar to GTK radiant? (I have lots of experience with that).

Constructor is closer to Radiant. Torque is a game engine, not a level editor. Constructor, however, is a level editor and was recently released for free (so you can create your own content for the demo to get an idea of the workflow). Torque is like Quake in that it is an engine. Constructor (or 3D World Studio or Quark) are used to create "interior" levels and a 3D application like 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave, Milkshape, or Blender are used to create detail models.

I would strongly recommend teaming with a licensee who knows C++ well, though.

Quote:3. Are the media packs worth it? Like the tank or FPS one.

Both packs are great. But a media pack is only as good as how closely it fits your game (or how you can modify it to fit). I love the FPS Environment Pack.

Quote:[4. How glitchy is it overall?

It depends on what you mean by glitchy. Engines have bugs and they get squashed. New ones get introduced and some escape detection. I'm not sure what you mean by glitchy.

Quote:5. How good is the physics system?

It's adequate, but nothing spectacular. It's not Havok ala Half-Life 2, if that's what you're asking. But for a number of gametypes, it easily gets the job done.

#2 OK thanks man:) by glitchy I meant any glitches kind of a big subject hey? Thanks, Oh yeah and how good is the particle system?
Slayer_2

#3 1. What you see in the demo is what you get basically. The Textures, Crossbow, not much sound, one player model 'Kork'.

2. Depends on your experience level. Very hard to answer that without knowing. As far as GTK Radient goes - "Constructor" is free to download for anyone to use so download it and see it's much better :D
Constructor is used for making stuff like buildings (interiors .dif files), it can import .map files among other things. You would use another modeling program to make detailed objects like players, weapons, animated stuff, and other things like that 3ds max, lightwave, maya, blender, etc... Then you need to learn Torque Script. Theres good books to buy to learn that or you can try and wing it from the docs (which is difficult) buy the books/book. I recommend Game Programmers Guide To Torque. Next is the engine which is written in C++. You will probably at some time want to change something in the engine (theres lots of resources that step you through how do certain things... like adding new stuff to the engine, so you will want to learn C++ if you ever want new stuff in the engine (and you will).

3. Depends on what you mean by "worth it". If you have no experience in say 'modeling' or 3d animation, or stuff like that it may be worth it. If you know nothing about scripting vehicles it may help you learn that also. Really depends.

4. Download the demo, its what you get when you buy it. Play with it. You can press F11 in-game to mess with the world editor, gui editor, etc... and you can play with the .cs files which are the torque script files. TGE is very stable as far as I can tell. Download some games/demos made with TGE and see.

5. The physics built-in are fairly simple. Its not the havok engine. But you can, and people have written resources on using ODE & physX in torque (again you would need to know a little c++ to add these into the engine and compile).

#4 Calling Constructor a level editor is stretching it a bit I think. It's more like a full on modeling program than a level editor. The actual mission editor, as in placing objects into the world an moving them around, is built into Torque.

#5 David you type faster than me. :)

Also the particle system is really nice and can amazing things, although the GUI for the particle system is lacking. You basically need to code the particles, at least from my perspective. Check out the effects pack:

here Its awesome and shows what is possible (if you have the skills).

#6 OK thanks for all your help everyone:) I'm confused though so constructor is like a modeler for buildings and interiors? Sweet a crossbow. I know SOME modeling but nothing fancy like animation or characters.
Slayer_2

#7 Constructor: Download it, its free. Its like GTK radient in a sense but like Scott said it's much more than that. Constructor

#8 OK thanks but I already have it bookmarked:D Thanks again for everybody's help and for pointing a newb in the right direction.
Slayer_2

#9 I have more questions. I know, I know your all thinking "what a noob" lol.

1. can enemy's use vehicles if scripted? Like the walk up and enter the vehicle.

2. This is kind of a dumb question but can you make turrets?

3. Can scripts be made with notepad and if so what file extension type should they be called? (example .fpi)

4. Does EVERYTHING require coding or can you do some stuff without coding?

5. I admit my first and still newest game engine I have bought is FPSC which uses .fpi scripts, is the coding language in Torque similar?

There is my next wave of questions',
Slayer_2

#10

Quote:1. can enemy's use vehicles if scripted? Like the walk up and enter the vehicle.

Yes. You will have to add the AI code, and script the enemies accordingly to make use of the vehicle mounts.

Quote:2. This is kind of a dumb question but can you make turrets?

There is a turret resource that adds various turret handling functionality.

Quote:3. Can scripts be made with notepad and if so what file extension type should they be called? (example .fpi)

Yes, but I would recommend Torsion or Codeweaver. Both have some excellent features. Torsion's debugger alone is worth the price of admission! The extension for torquescript is .cs. No, it's not C-Sharp.

Quote:4. Does EVERYTHING require coding or can you do some stuff without coding?

While you can place objects and such in the world builder, you will definitely need to code up your datablocks and such. And you will definitely need coding for AI and such!

Quote:5. I admit my first and still newest game engine I have bought is FPSC which uses .fpi scripts, is the coding language in Torque similar?

TorqueScript is more complex than the scripting language with FPSC. It is also abstracted more so that the commands are not as "FPS-natural language" Download the demo and take a look at the scripts.

#11 Oh ok thanks I will download it today, can't wait.
Slayer_2

#12 Actually guys, if you have the 1.5 it includes a whole mess of models, enviroment textures, and not just Kork, it comes with the elf as well, it comes with the Enviroment 1 sampler, there is several improvements like soem new particle editor features, as well as the intergrated Torque Lighting Kit (TKL). its well worth the money when you split it up.

#13 OK does anybody know how to start it up on linux it dosn't work for me when i click on the start torque icon:(

#14 Linux is no longer supported out of the box. There is a community project to keep TGE on linux, but it is not officially supported.

#15 Can you give me a link please? also why does it stil have the penguin pic on the homepage?

#16 Because the previous version worked and the community has kept 1.5 up, AFAIK. Otherwise, I don't know. I do know that we have a few linux only dev's here.

Oh, and I do not believe there is a Linux demo available.

#17 There is for v1.4

#18 There is for v1.4

#19 Please don't push refresh. It will repost.

#20 Whoops