Where can I find **working** Night vision + Compass + Decals?
by Rui Barbosa · in Technical Issues · 08/17/2008 (3:18 pm) · 6 replies
I bought TGEA a couple of weeks ago, and started studying it.
I am loving it, so far.
I plan on learning how to use the engine, at the C++ level.
I have made good progress with scripting.
I can tell you that TorqueScript is great.
It is a pitty I can not program Flash in TorqueScript, instead of Actionscript :)
I would also love to switch from PHP to TorqueScript.
Anyway...
Despite my progress with TorqueScript, C++ is kind of off limits to me at the moment, due to time constraints.
So, I was wondering if anyone out there has a few things that would greatly help me develop my first little game.
I am specialy interested in a NightVision thing that could be easily turned on/off in TorqueScript.
Also, a compass would be of great help.
Last, but not least, decals would be a cool touch, so that when I fire at walls, I could see the bullet holes.
I understand that a good programmer would study hard and learn how to do these.
But, right now I don't have the time to dive into that :(.
Also, right now I am more interested in getting used to game developing at the scripting level, I am not at all ready to do that much programming in C++.
The reason I ask for that kind of help is that having these features would be so cool.
I have found several resources that I could use in order to achieve those goals, but none of them is specific to TGEA 1.7.1.
The closest I got was the night vision system, which ended up resulting in lots of error messages.
Is there anyone who could help me?
Maybe not giving me the things I ask for, but pointing me in the right direction.
I have spent some time looking for these, but everytime I find something it is either not targetted at TGEA or is for TGEA 1.0 only, etc...
I am so excited about TorqueScript and would love to be able to actualy create a fine little game.
I believe other people would also appreciate such cool resources targetted at TGEA 1.7.1.
I mean, TScript is soo cool I can't believe these features are not "native" :)
Thanks,
Rui
I am loving it, so far.
I plan on learning how to use the engine, at the C++ level.
I have made good progress with scripting.
I can tell you that TorqueScript is great.
It is a pitty I can not program Flash in TorqueScript, instead of Actionscript :)
I would also love to switch from PHP to TorqueScript.
Anyway...
Despite my progress with TorqueScript, C++ is kind of off limits to me at the moment, due to time constraints.
So, I was wondering if anyone out there has a few things that would greatly help me develop my first little game.
I am specialy interested in a NightVision thing that could be easily turned on/off in TorqueScript.
Also, a compass would be of great help.
Last, but not least, decals would be a cool touch, so that when I fire at walls, I could see the bullet holes.
I understand that a good programmer would study hard and learn how to do these.
But, right now I don't have the time to dive into that :(.
Also, right now I am more interested in getting used to game developing at the scripting level, I am not at all ready to do that much programming in C++.
The reason I ask for that kind of help is that having these features would be so cool.
I have found several resources that I could use in order to achieve those goals, but none of them is specific to TGEA 1.7.1.
The closest I got was the night vision system, which ended up resulting in lots of error messages.
Is there anyone who could help me?
Maybe not giving me the things I ask for, but pointing me in the right direction.
I have spent some time looking for these, but everytime I find something it is either not targetted at TGEA or is for TGEA 1.0 only, etc...
I am so excited about TorqueScript and would love to be able to actualy create a fine little game.
I believe other people would also appreciate such cool resources targetted at TGEA 1.7.1.
I mean, TScript is soo cool I can't believe these features are not "native" :)
Thanks,
Rui
#2
Decals for bullet holes and footprints:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15160
(and get the companion piece - the footpuffs and vehicle dust:)
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15200
Night vision: You could implement a night-vision sort of thing with this (shading everything green or whatever):
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15254
Not sure of a good working drop in compass, hadn't had a use for that myself yet.
08/17/2008 (6:20 pm)
Hi Rui - There are a couple of recent resources that touch on a couple of these:Decals for bullet holes and footprints:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15160
(and get the companion piece - the footpuffs and vehicle dust:)
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15200
Night vision: You could implement a night-vision sort of thing with this (shading everything green or whatever):
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=15254
Not sure of a good working drop in compass, hadn't had a use for that myself yet.
#4
08/19/2008 (12:44 pm)
@Rui - Could you elaborate on what parts of TorqueScript you like better than ActionScript?
#5
1. ActionScript 2.0 doesn't help the programmer to avoid errors.
If you try to call a function on a movieclip that doesn't exist, Flash simply ignores that call.
This could be even a good thing, because it allow one to implement fake interfaces.
This could be good, if it was not bad programming.
2. Actionscript's IDE is awful.
Despite all the awsomeness of the Flash IDE, the actual scripting portion of it is really poor.
Compare that to Torsion. We have a winer.
3. Actionscript 2.0 is pretty slow - really pretty damn slow.
One can argue that it does a lot of stuff behind the scene, but still, it is pretty slow.
4. Actionscript debugger? Riiiiight...
trace() is prettty much all you have.
You can add debugging movieclips on top of that, but then again, it's all on the programmer.
5. Actionscript 2.0 is pretty asymetrical.
Some properties are read-only, and can be read by just using their names, while others are real only but a different set of names are used for the reading (x vs. _x).
6. Actionscript's event model despite being very elegant, is not very responsive.
Sometimes one has to use on(press), because on(release) doesn't work right.
This is more critical while loading frames.
7. Global variable (_level0) are a pain.
Easy to use, but all those _parent._parent... ou _root...
8. Importing external actionscript files may seem easy, but the lack of nesteed imports is really annoying.
There IS Actionscript 3.0, which is really good.
But it is has changed radicaly, compared to 2.0.
It runs 10 times faster, guaranteed.
In fact, it is so much faster, that applying pixel-level filters in code is as fast as using Actionscript 2.0's native filters.
The problem with Actionscript 3.0 - to me - is that its canvas and sprite archytecture is to confusing.
The fact is that, since most Flash projects depend on the artists, we have not been using too much 3.0.
So, 2.0 is all we got, down here.
Now, about TorqueScript...
I have been workin with it for a coouple of weeks.
And, after getting used to the % and the $ - and a little bit of Datablocks - I have nothing to complain about it.
1. Errors are logged on the console, so you know when you call functions that don't exist or was mispelled.
2. The IDE is cool - Torsion.
3. It is so fast that I can't believe it is scripting.
4. Debugging applications is really easy.
5. So far, TS is as symerical as one would expect from any professional programming language.
6. TS event model is very cool, and very responsive - not to mention there are tons of events.
7. I like the way global vars are identified. That probably is the thing I ike the most, so far. You can define it anywhere and TS knows how to deal with it.
8. The exec() command is very cool. Powerful and easy.
Cheers,
Rui
P.S.: I reall don't like having to use the "%" sign for local variable names. But I am getting used to it.
So, in the end, AS scores one point :)
08/19/2008 (3:17 pm)
@Tom - 1. ActionScript 2.0 doesn't help the programmer to avoid errors.
If you try to call a function on a movieclip that doesn't exist, Flash simply ignores that call.
This could be even a good thing, because it allow one to implement fake interfaces.
This could be good, if it was not bad programming.
2. Actionscript's IDE is awful.
Despite all the awsomeness of the Flash IDE, the actual scripting portion of it is really poor.
Compare that to Torsion. We have a winer.
3. Actionscript 2.0 is pretty slow - really pretty damn slow.
One can argue that it does a lot of stuff behind the scene, but still, it is pretty slow.
4. Actionscript debugger? Riiiiight...
trace() is prettty much all you have.
You can add debugging movieclips on top of that, but then again, it's all on the programmer.
5. Actionscript 2.0 is pretty asymetrical.
Some properties are read-only, and can be read by just using their names, while others are real only but a different set of names are used for the reading (x vs. _x).
6. Actionscript's event model despite being very elegant, is not very responsive.
Sometimes one has to use on(press), because on(release) doesn't work right.
This is more critical while loading frames.
7. Global variable (_level0) are a pain.
Easy to use, but all those _parent._parent... ou _root...
8. Importing external actionscript files may seem easy, but the lack of nesteed imports is really annoying.
There IS Actionscript 3.0, which is really good.
But it is has changed radicaly, compared to 2.0.
It runs 10 times faster, guaranteed.
In fact, it is so much faster, that applying pixel-level filters in code is as fast as using Actionscript 2.0's native filters.
The problem with Actionscript 3.0 - to me - is that its canvas and sprite archytecture is to confusing.
The fact is that, since most Flash projects depend on the artists, we have not been using too much 3.0.
So, 2.0 is all we got, down here.
Now, about TorqueScript...
I have been workin with it for a coouple of weeks.
And, after getting used to the % and the $ - and a little bit of Datablocks - I have nothing to complain about it.
1. Errors are logged on the console, so you know when you call functions that don't exist or was mispelled.
2. The IDE is cool - Torsion.
3. It is so fast that I can't believe it is scripting.
4. Debugging applications is really easy.
5. So far, TS is as symerical as one would expect from any professional programming language.
6. TS event model is very cool, and very responsive - not to mention there are tons of events.
7. I like the way global vars are identified. That probably is the thing I ike the most, so far. You can define it anywhere and TS knows how to deal with it.
8. The exec() command is very cool. Powerful and easy.
Cheers,
Rui
P.S.: I reall don't like having to use the "%" sign for local variable names. But I am getting used to it.
So, in the end, AS scores one point :)
#6
08/19/2008 (6:14 pm)
@Rui - Thanks for all that feedback... its very useful we delve into possible future improvements.
Torque Owner Bryce
Toy Story 2 was O.K.