Where to begin
by Phyxx · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 01/01/2009 (12:52 am) · 1 replies
I have a good deal of experience with number of 3D engines like Ogre, Irrlicht etc, but I decided that Torque would be a good option to create a game. Unfortunately I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how the whole system works.
My experience with 3D engines has been that you start with a minimum application that basically just opens a window and you work from there adding models, loading levels etc. I can't see any such tutorials or documentation with TGEA. It seems like you start with a project created with the SetupNewProject.exe application, but from there I'm not so sure.
So what is the process for getting started with TGEA? Is the base project setup with SetupNewProject.exe a good point to start from, or are you better to ignore this and try to build up the scripts from the ground up? There seems to be very little in the way of explanation as to how you go about customizing the base project, and even less on how to start a project from scratch.
My experience with 3D engines has been that you start with a minimum application that basically just opens a window and you work from there adding models, loading levels etc. I can't see any such tutorials or documentation with TGEA. It seems like you start with a project created with the SetupNewProject.exe application, but from there I'm not so sure.
So what is the process for getting started with TGEA? Is the base project setup with SetupNewProject.exe a good point to start from, or are you better to ignore this and try to build up the scripts from the ground up? There seems to be very little in the way of explanation as to how you go about customizing the base project, and even less on how to start a project from scratch.
Torque 3D Owner Chris Cain
Torque, on the other hand, is complete. You don't "start with a blank slate" ... The backbone is ready, so all you do is shape it to what you need it to do.
If you're looking to controlling what happens, you want to look at the script files (denoted by .cs extensions)... they are compiled at run-time. They are the things that actually tell the engine "what to do". The internals (such as the C++ files) describe "how" something is done. (ex. "how" the player's camera should act). Of course, you can define "how" some things are done in script code, but you generally want that sort of stuff in the C++ files.
I would highly recommend checking out the "documentation" link in the bar above... Torque Development Network is pretty good.
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Beginner/Torque_Intro
That's a good place to start, for instance.
Mostly, I'd familiarize myself with how Torque does it from the "SetupNewProject" template, then I'd go and work on changing stuff around how I want.