Does it worth to licence V12?
by Funky Diver · in Torque Game Engine · 09/26/2002 (5:14 am) · 13 replies
Hello!
I'm new to V12 engine, but look forward to work with it. Before I will purshace it, I would like to know some answers to my questions. If someone expirienced with the engine will be so kind to send me the answers, I will appreciate it very much!
My poll:
1) Is the script language powerful enough to support AI scripting?
2) Is it possible to create modules written in C++ (e.g. in DLL) and add them as modules accessable by the V12 script?
3) Is it possible to create world objects (monsters, particles, etc.) by the script on-fly?
4) Does V12 have any database support to store objects states?
5) Does V12 have physic engine?
6) Does anybody use V12 as graphic front-end? If so, is it possible to manipulate the scene by the script without writing base code in C++ (for instance, using V12 as graphic server?)?
7) Why does the sky look smoother in D3D than in OpenGL even in 32 bpp mode in the Torque game demo (Realm Wars)? (in other demos it looks better in OpenGL on my computer...)
8) Does the engine has full OpenGL support?
9) Any possibilities to use other script languages like Python to manipulate the engine objects?
Thank you in advance!
I'm new to V12 engine, but look forward to work with it. Before I will purshace it, I would like to know some answers to my questions. If someone expirienced with the engine will be so kind to send me the answers, I will appreciate it very much!
My poll:
1) Is the script language powerful enough to support AI scripting?
2) Is it possible to create modules written in C++ (e.g. in DLL) and add them as modules accessable by the V12 script?
3) Is it possible to create world objects (monsters, particles, etc.) by the script on-fly?
4) Does V12 have any database support to store objects states?
5) Does V12 have physic engine?
6) Does anybody use V12 as graphic front-end? If so, is it possible to manipulate the scene by the script without writing base code in C++ (for instance, using V12 as graphic server?)?
7) Why does the sky look smoother in D3D than in OpenGL even in 32 bpp mode in the Torque game demo (Realm Wars)? (in other demos it looks better in OpenGL on my computer...)
8) Does the engine has full OpenGL support?
9) Any possibilities to use other script languages like Python to manipulate the engine objects?
Thank you in advance!
#2
09/26/2002 (6:09 am)
Shoot. I love the engine and I'm still a newbie to C++. Sure I know enough to code/change/fix something in the engine to make it work and implement code to make the engine better by reading great code articles on this site, but I'm no game engine developer really. But the scripting part is what I really love about the engine. The scripting is very simular to PHP except with a better way to control local and global variables which is another very nice feature of the scripting engine. Torque has the best GUI setup I have ever seen in such a game engine and I have messed around with a lot of game engines in my time.
#3
I don't know why I've called it V12 :) I'm watching its progress for a long period.
About the Torque demo.
I have P4/GeForce2 MX/128 RIMM computer.
1) When I run demo in OpenGL (16/32 bpp), the sky looks like 8 bpp bitmap - no smooth gradient in it... When I switch to D3D the sky looks much better. I have the last Detonator drivers for my GeForce2 and DirectX 8.1. All other games work properly! What can it be?
2) When I switch to the free camera mode in the demo to fly around the level, I can see some strange artifacts. For instance, when I look down to a water object from a quite high point, the water object become like ^^^^^^^^ (triangle style edge like teeth) on edge when it "touches" the land object. Is it a result of optimizing distant objects? Is it configurable? That's a big question for me, because I will need to have 3D isometric view with camera over the land with variable but limited distance from the terrain.
Everything else looks pretty good so far I can see.
09/26/2002 (7:06 am)
First of all, thank you, guys, for the reply!I don't know why I've called it V12 :) I'm watching its progress for a long period.
About the Torque demo.
I have P4/GeForce2 MX/128 RIMM computer.
1) When I run demo in OpenGL (16/32 bpp), the sky looks like 8 bpp bitmap - no smooth gradient in it... When I switch to D3D the sky looks much better. I have the last Detonator drivers for my GeForce2 and DirectX 8.1. All other games work properly! What can it be?
2) When I switch to the free camera mode in the demo to fly around the level, I can see some strange artifacts. For instance, when I look down to a water object from a quite high point, the water object become like ^^^^^^^^ (triangle style edge like teeth) on edge when it "touches" the land object. Is it a result of optimizing distant objects? Is it configurable? That's a big question for me, because I will need to have 3D isometric view with camera over the land with variable but limited distance from the terrain.
Everything else looks pretty good so far I can see.
#4
$pref::OpenGL::force16BitTexture
in the scripts (example folder) and see if it is set to "1" somewhere... if it is, change it to "0"...
other than that, I don't know... normally it should look the same as in D3D, at least it does for me...
and if you want totally smooth and beautiful water, you can add Melv May's wonderful water engine to Torque, then your water looks more like that: tork.zenkel.com/gallery/latest_fluid01.jpg or that www.ancient-arena.com/screens1.html...
09/26/2002 (7:16 am)
Well, this "edgy" water is a sign that the app *doesn't* run in 32 bit mode... try to search for $pref::OpenGL::force16BitTexture
in the scripts (example folder) and see if it is set to "1" somewhere... if it is, change it to "0"...
other than that, I don't know... normally it should look the same as in D3D, at least it does for me...
and if you want totally smooth and beautiful water, you can add Melv May's wonderful water engine to Torque, then your water looks more like that: tork.zenkel.com/gallery/latest_fluid01.jpg or that www.ancient-arena.com/screens1.html...
#5
09/26/2002 (7:16 am)
Alexander, I think you only get the jagged effect on the water's edge when you run the game in 16 bit mode. I get tha t on my PC as well. Try it in 32bit mode and it *should* work ok.
#6
BTW, where I can find some good articles for dummies :)about Torque script programming? Just to get the point of Torque script philosophy.
09/26/2002 (8:06 am)
I will take some screenshots tomorrow to show what's the artifact I've watched.BTW, where I can find some good articles for dummies :)about Torque script programming? Just to get the point of Torque script philosophy.
#7
Eric
09/26/2002 (8:08 am)
Force 16-bit textures is also the cause for worse looking skies (but with a performance increase). Even using the better 32-bit, my Radeon 7200 runs 10x better in OpenGL than DX8.Eric
#8
Look at the fmod resource, it's letting you use the fmod dll from script ;)
09/26/2002 (9:33 am)
Beffy: Number 2 is not strictly true.Look at the fmod resource, it's letting you use the fmod dll from script ;)
#9
09/26/2002 (12:05 pm)
Oh, that's true, Ed! Never thought about that... Thx for the tip! :)
#10
09/26/2002 (12:29 pm)
Alexander: the problem could be that the bit depth doesn't really change if you don't change the resolution at the same time... open the options dialog, try to go to fullscreen (checkbox), choose a higher resolution then AND change the bit depth to 32 at the same time...
#11
09/26/2002 (3:13 pm)
Alexander have you updated your motherboard drivers recently?
#12
D3D:
creality.50megs.com/Demos/sky-d3d.jpg
OpenGL:
creality.50megs.com/Demos/sky-ogl.jpg
All the drivers were updated.
Does it happen only with me? I don't bug Torque engine :) but just want to know if it's only my problem
09/27/2002 (2:53 am)
Here the screenshots for 16 bpp(with changing the resolution at the same time) on my computer:D3D:
creality.50megs.com/Demos/sky-d3d.jpg
OpenGL:
creality.50megs.com/Demos/sky-ogl.jpg
All the drivers were updated.
Does it happen only with me? I don't bug Torque engine :) but just want to know if it's only my problem
#13
09/27/2002 (3:06 pm)
Try bumping up the res to 32 bit rather then 16 bit.
Associate Stefan Beffy Moises
But to answer some of your questions:
1) yes :)
2) no dll's, but you can always add your source files to the engine and recompile it - but no dynamic module loading or something...
3) yes!
4) yes, there is a generic ODBC and a mySQL resource available adding that!
5) well, not an "engine", but pretty good physics, yes - especially the wheeled vehicle physics are very good! And there are physics for other vehicles, projectiles, the player, etc. But nothing like HAVOC or anything with highly dynamic interactions, rag-doll physics and the like...
6) no idea
7) does it?
8) yes, it is mainly a OpenGL engine (the OGL functions/calls are "converted" to d3d and therefore slower) - but not all the OGL extensions are implemented/used, if your asking for that...
9) yes, there is a Python extension/resource available!
Hope that helps a bit...
Oh, and yeah: "Is it worth licensing?"
YES, OF COURSE!! It's a great deal, even if you don't make a game with it... you get lots of insights how such a huge cross-platform engine is designed, implemented and coded...
but you should be pretty familiar with C++ to use/understand it...