Game Development Community

Torque X capabilities vs straight XNA

by Dennis Harrington · in Torque X 2D · 06/30/2008 (10:41 am) · 2 replies

I've been really delving into XNA over the past few weeks in preparation for the Dream-Build-Play contest (I'm making a rhythm-based 2D shooter) when I realized that I have access to TXB since I'm an owner of TGB. So I downloaded Torque X and TXB this weekend and started going through the tutorials. I think TXB is great as it's a familiar interface for me but outside of the advantages of having a visual editor, it seems as if Torque X just adds a lot of complexity for very little functional gain over pure XNA.

Am I missing something here? Granted, I just started exploring Torque X this past weekend so my knowledge of it is minimal but it doesn't seem to add much considering there are many collision/physics engines freely available for XNA that are easier to integrate. Plus, it adds a totally different philosophy that seems to run counter to the approach of the XNA framework. (I could be wrong here but that's my initial impression.)

I guess I'm just wondering if someone can enlighten me as to what the main benefits of using Torque X/TXB are and if it's worth the additional time and learning curve on top of XNA considering I have less than three months to get my game together. I'm also wondering, how easily the XNA classes can be used with the Torque X classes? Stuff like the XACT audio tool and XNA audio engine, for example.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Dennis
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Torque Owner David Everhart
#1
07/01/2008 (7:07 am)
When I was starting off with MDX, I looked around for something a little easier to swallow. I looked at Visual 3d.NET , SlimDX, and TorqueX. I found threads like this one below, that kind of encompass the type of thought that anyone has when considering TorqueX and XNA.

XNA versus TorqueX debate

I eventually chose TorqueX, and when I was making my game in 2D, it was a snap to use. I am now delving into the 3d aspects, and once we get the 3d builder, it will just be that more solid.

Torque Owner Dennis Harrington
#2
07/01/2008 (10:49 am)
@David: Thanks for link. I share the view of a number of the posters in that thread so it was very helpful. It sounds like I should devote a couple of days to exploring Torque X before deciding to go with a pure XNA solution. I just want to use the fastest approach possible since I have so little time to finish my entry and it sounds like it's at least possible that Torque X could be a better/more efficient approach.

Thanks again and any other feedback is welcome!