Torque 2 Tranparent Development

#1 It's not happened yet.

One of the key features of being able to communicate much more successfully with a development community is an infrastructure designed to allow for easy management of both the community and the information, and we are working on a system of community and information management capabilities that will allow us to accomplish the tasks efficiently.

It's a big task, and given the priority for other web oriented projects (not IA--I'm speaking of the web services here at the GG.com site) we as a company have, we're working on the TD infrastructure at a lower priority for a set of limited resources than those other projects. Once they are completed and rolled out, we'll be able to more quickly implement and test the infrastructure we hope to achieve.

#2 Your skill in Corporate BS has increased!(132)

#3 Heh..taking that as a compliment, I think.

The short version is: it's next on the major web dev task list. Other stuff needed to be done quicker.

#4 Thanks for the reply Stephen. I'm looking forward to more information.

Did I hear that we can be an EA for Torque 2?

#5

Quote:
...we're working on the TD infrastructure at a lower priority for a set of limited resources than those other projects.

You make it sound as if the web development is holding up the "transparent" portion of "transparent development" Does that mean developers are actually working on (as their top priority) the Torque 2 Engine and that from day one there will be something. Or is the development "waiting" for the web?

#6 It's holding up the TD portion--they've been working solidly on the engine since before we announced it in October.

#7 Thanks Stephen. Glad to hear the engine is moving forward. :-)

#8 Hehe...I can imagine it would be hard to motivate to do something that absolutely no one really, really wants to do. I mean, would you want to have someone looking over your shoulder all the time when you're developing? Heck no.

If there's one thing I know about software development, it's that everything--E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G--is hard. And takes a really, really long time. To do it right. Or even really finish it.

What sounds like a quick little web widget you could crank out in a day, you start to really look into the details of how you're actually going to do it...and you realize sh*t, this is a large project. It'll take a whole person several months to do it, when I could have them working on the actual thing it is we are building and always seems oh-so-close to being ready.

Well, it's not a contest. There will be no TD for Torque2 people--I'm calling it now. And I think that's just fine. I'd rather have a Torque2 than a TD and half a Torque2 any day of the week. I think what GG (and many other companies) is guilty of is just getting little carried away with ideas and mouthing off about it prematurely. Honestly, I don't really hold it against them--I've been there, baby.

I mean, there's a lot of pressure to put something out there all the time.

#9 I remember reading somewhere that Torque 2 would be modular and allow us to put in our own scripting system. Does anyone know if TorqueScript will still be in Torque 2? Also, will there be any enhancements to the language?

#10 I recall that TS will be the scripting language of T2.

#11 I'd be happy for just more blog posts like Matt Fairfax's.

Though, I do understand how much time is involved in writing those.

#12 I believe T2 will include TS. I would love a great interface for adding our own scripting language binding into the engine. I would especially like Tamarin as I quite enjoy it.

#13 I actually like TorqueScript. I like the C/C++ like interface. I wish that they would just update the language and make a TorqueScript 2.

#14 I'm fairly certain that you'll see a TorqueScript 2 and the ability to plugin different languages.

#15 "Whatever happened to Torque 2's transparent development? Or has it just not happened yet?"

It's so transparent, you are looking right through it..


Kidding.

#16 I'm not trying to be an ass here, but what exactly are the reasons for not already documenting T2 development? Was the answer that everyone is spread too thin to be able to do that, or am I mis-perceiving that?

#17 Two primary reasons:

--the engine took slightly longer to leave the destructive phase than originally scoped. That basically means that there hasn't been much to document that wouldn't have been changed radically in the future.

--to properly set up the entire transparent process, we need better communications capability than these forums provide. We have an external company working on crafting an interleaved set of communications tools, but they are also working on another critical project that is of higher priority to both GG and you guys (the community)--upgrading most of our web infrastructure that's out of date for gg.com. That project has much higher priority than the TD infrastructure.

#18 From some of the original posts about Torque 2, it was scheduled to be released towards the end of 2008. With no transparent development yet, does Torque 2 really have chance at completion this year? Or perhaps transparent development just won't make it in time.

#19 Well when it comes down to the brass tax, I'm more worried about a good Torque 2 release. Stable and cutting edge. Or at least more so than the current generation. If that means no transparency, that is fine with me. While it would be cool, and it is the new thing... Well, not really new I guess. Every time I roll through the In-N-Out drive-thru, I see the same premise being put to use. Anyways... I would at least hope we get some sort of updates now and then, and some eye candy as well. At the least. Outside of that, I say have fun working on T2 and make it clean...

I can imagine you guys have already said more than once "Can't wait til we see their reaction to this feature...", and hopefully it's not just my imagination.

#20 Any updates on transparent development?