Newbie Question: Which Torque?
by Daniel Bauman · in General Discussion · 06/12/2007 (2:04 pm) · 2 replies
Hi all.
I'm about to start on my first attempt at a Torque based project, and am trying to sort out the differences between the available Torque tools. I was hoping someone with more knowledge might be able to help me make a more informed decision here.
For practical purposes, this is a solo development effort. Maybe that changes, but I can't assume that.
For reference, the game planned is an adventure game/rpg. It doesn't necessarily need to involve 3d, but my 3d art skills are much better than my 2d art skills. In other words, I would much prefer using a tool that would give me the flexibility of leveraging 3d content, but it isn't an absolute requirement... As far as the playing perspective, the game would be top down/isometric. Fixed perspective camera.
So I see TGE, TGB, TGEA, and TorqueX as being potential solutions here.
TGEA I can dismiss from the start, I think - my impression is that if I ever need TGEA functionality, I can migrate to it.
I'm a bit confused as to the differences between TGE and TGB. My current impression is that TGB is a 2D toolkit that likely leverages TGE, but I'm quite confused as to the overlap between the two kits. Does TGB simply allow more rapid development of TGE content (ie. is everything you produce essentially a TGE product?) Does a project have to be either TGE or TGB and not both? Do you need TGE already in order to use TGB?
TorqueX doesn't seem like the best fit for someone completely new to the platform at the moment (simply given the beta state), so I may as well disregard it for now as well. (Plus, I'd like to retain the ability to develop for OSX, and XNA does not fit that bill.) Of course, if I'm totally missing something and it would be easier to start out trying to develop for TorqueX, I'd like to understand why.
So for an overhead perspective Adventure/RPG (with a developer who hasn't done this before), should I be using TGB or TGE - or are they fully compatible, and I should be using both?
Thanks for any help,
Dan
I'm about to start on my first attempt at a Torque based project, and am trying to sort out the differences between the available Torque tools. I was hoping someone with more knowledge might be able to help me make a more informed decision here.
For practical purposes, this is a solo development effort. Maybe that changes, but I can't assume that.
For reference, the game planned is an adventure game/rpg. It doesn't necessarily need to involve 3d, but my 3d art skills are much better than my 2d art skills. In other words, I would much prefer using a tool that would give me the flexibility of leveraging 3d content, but it isn't an absolute requirement... As far as the playing perspective, the game would be top down/isometric. Fixed perspective camera.
So I see TGE, TGB, TGEA, and TorqueX as being potential solutions here.
TGEA I can dismiss from the start, I think - my impression is that if I ever need TGEA functionality, I can migrate to it.
I'm a bit confused as to the differences between TGE and TGB. My current impression is that TGB is a 2D toolkit that likely leverages TGE, but I'm quite confused as to the overlap between the two kits. Does TGB simply allow more rapid development of TGE content (ie. is everything you produce essentially a TGE product?) Does a project have to be either TGE or TGB and not both? Do you need TGE already in order to use TGB?
TorqueX doesn't seem like the best fit for someone completely new to the platform at the moment (simply given the beta state), so I may as well disregard it for now as well. (Plus, I'd like to retain the ability to develop for OSX, and XNA does not fit that bill.) Of course, if I'm totally missing something and it would be easier to start out trying to develop for TorqueX, I'd like to understand why.
So for an overhead perspective Adventure/RPG (with a developer who hasn't done this before), should I be using TGB or TGE - or are they fully compatible, and I should be using both?
Thanks for any help,
Dan
#2
It definitely seems that TGB is the proper starting point - all I really want to leverage 3D for is for some rendering/character animations - 3D interaction is pretty much irrelevant to the (current) concept.
Helped more than just a bit :-)
Thanks!
06/12/2007 (3:35 pm)
Thanks a lot - that was pretty much exactly the sort of answer I was looking for (especially the description of how TGE and TGB both relate to the underlying tech).It definitely seems that TGB is the proper starting point - all I really want to leverage 3D for is for some rendering/character animations - 3D interaction is pretty much irrelevant to the (current) concept.
Helped more than just a bit :-)
Thanks!
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
"Torque" is a core set of technologies and systems that include Object Management, Simulation Management, a fully developed scripting language, resource, memory, and file system handling, and dozens of other engine functionalities. The core is written in c++, with some assembly optimizations, and the scripting language is TorqueScript.
TGB is a set of tools, scene management, 2D (and basic 3D, although it's a minimal functionality) rendering, specalized and optimized 2D physics, and dozens of other 2D specific capabilities and systems, designed for a 2 dimensional game that may use a bit of 3D art simply for rendering if you so choose, but it is a 2D world you are making. TGB is built on top of the core Torque technologies.
TGE is parallel to TGB in that it adds many systems to the core, but is focused on a 3D world.
TGE and TGB can be combined in a couple of different ways for hybrid genre games (think of an FPS/RPG game but when you go to pick a lock, it brings up a little mini-puzzle game for you to solve to open the lock. The mini-game might be in 2D, and use TGB as an interface to the user, all part of the combined game), but this is pretty advanced, and probably not something you want to jump right into.
Finally, Torque X is a completely new engine written in C# to work seamlessly with Microsoft's XNA/GSE endeavor. It cannot be combined with any of the above, and is for a completely different target platform and market.
Hope this helps a bit :)
Oh, given what you are talking about, I'd start with TGB, and especially the Adventure Kit that is available--TGB is simpler, and you sound as if you want a fundamentally 2D world. As I mentioned above, you can use some 3D rendering art, but realize that they are not truly "3D" in how they interact with the world--just how they render and animate.