iTGB / iTGE
by Julien LANGE · in General Discussion · 04/16/2009 (12:35 pm) · 9 replies
I am french and very sorry for my poor english (some ideas are perhaps not well expained...). I am currently analysing iTGB / iTGE in order to start a new subsidiarie in a near futur.
After Reading forums and technical specification for iTGB, I have here some questions :
1) I am an iMAC user so i should buy a licence for iTGB (TGB 250$ + 500$) right ?
2) How can we compile thegame/torquescript code with XCode ?
3) Is there any very good and updated utility like Torsion IDE for MAC (including debugger en Code sensor) ? Or can we use Parallel with Windows to install Torsion on it (but TGB on MAC) ?
4) Does The Game Engine allow video playback / multiplayer gaming for iPhone ?
5) In case we plan to port the game for X360 or Wii what should be the cost including Wii or Xbox SDK licensing ? Is it right easy to port the game from TGB to iTGB or T360 TWii ?
6) Can we use Database and/or can we use Game Server (to transfer hiscore for example ?) with the engine ?
7) What are your estimation of costs to develop a simple 2D Game (casual game) with good design with only 2 guys (1 designer / 1 programmer) (including idea / Design / development / Test) ?
Thanks people that can help me with my investigations.
After Reading forums and technical specification for iTGB, I have here some questions :
1) I am an iMAC user so i should buy a licence for iTGB (TGB 250$ + 500$) right ?
2) How can we compile thegame/torquescript code with XCode ?
3) Is there any very good and updated utility like Torsion IDE for MAC (including debugger en Code sensor) ? Or can we use Parallel with Windows to install Torsion on it (but TGB on MAC) ?
4) Does The Game Engine allow video playback / multiplayer gaming for iPhone ?
5) In case we plan to port the game for X360 or Wii what should be the cost including Wii or Xbox SDK licensing ? Is it right easy to port the game from TGB to iTGB or T360 TWii ?
6) Can we use Database and/or can we use Game Server (to transfer hiscore for example ?) with the engine ?
7) What are your estimation of costs to develop a simple 2D Game (casual game) with good design with only 2 guys (1 designer / 1 programmer) (including idea / Design / development / Test) ?
Thanks people that can help me with my investigations.
#2
04/22/2009 (11:32 am)
Quote:1) I am an iMAC user so i should buy a licence for iTGB (TGB 250$ + 500$) right ?Yes. This is what you would need to purchase to develop 2D games on the iPhone with iTGB.
Quote:2) How can we compile thegame/torquescript code with XCode ?TorqueScript is compiled by the engine. You compile the source to the engine and game in XCode like any other project. This is one reason that we provide the source code: you can debug, profile, and optimize using Apple's approved development products.
Quote:3) Is there any very good and updated utility like Torsion IDE for MAC (including debugger en Code sensor) ? Or can we use Parallel with Windows to install Torsion on it (but TGB on MAC) ?You can use any text editor for the Mac with TGB/iTGB. They will not have the debugging features, but you are not limited by your editor choices.
Quote:4) Does The Game Engine allow video playback / multiplayer gaming for iPhone ?You will need to use the video-playback functionality in the iPhone SDK, I believe. You can find more information at the Apple DevCenter on video playback.
Quote:5) In case we plan to port the game for X360 or Wii what should be the cost including Wii or Xbox SDK licensing ? Is it right easy to port the game from TGB to iTGB or T360 TWii ?Once you are a licensed with Nintendo or Microsoft for the consoles, we can discuss licensing our engines for those consoles. Porting anything to a console can be a challenge and you will have to definitely know the console's devkit workflow. Much of it depends on how much custom code you have, the particulars of the console, etc.
Quote:6) Can we use Database and/or can we use Game Server (to transfer hiscore for example ?) with the engine ?I believe you can use the network communication of TCPObject and HTTPObject. You should be able to add in your own custom database code as well, though I do not know about the seriousness of that project or any hooks that might cause problems during development.
Quote:7) What are your estimation of costs to develop a simple 2D Game (casual game) with good design with only 2 guys (1 designer / 1 programmer) (including idea / Design / development / Test) ?There is no way to provide an accurate cost outlay for this. It depends on your team, their experience, any contractors you have to hire, how long it takes your team to learn the tools, etc. There are too many variables.
#3
1) Does iTGE run in iPhone emulator (which comes with iPhone SDK)?
2) Does iTGE allow run-time resources push to the device to be able to make changes in the iTGE World Editor on Mac and see the change directly on the device (Unity allows this, but did not find any info for iTGE)
Thanks !
05/29/2009 (2:26 pm)
I'd like to revive this thread to add few more pre-sale questions (I'm considering iTGE and Unity3D iPhone, both mature, both have quirks).1) Does iTGE run in iPhone emulator (which comes with iPhone SDK)?
2) Does iTGE allow run-time resources push to the device to be able to make changes in the iTGE World Editor on Mac and see the change directly on the device (Unity allows this, but did not find any info for iTGE)
Thanks !
#4
2. You will need to package the product for the device with XCode. Are you talking about their remote control functionality or did they integrate live asset updating into the process? I believe you still must utilize XCode for major project changes and deployment to the device for the actual project. You can test it with the iPhone as a remote controller for the engine on the Mac, though, I believe.
05/29/2009 (2:45 pm)
1. Yes.2. You will need to package the product for the device with XCode. Are you talking about their remote control functionality or did they integrate live asset updating into the process? I believe you still must utilize XCode for major project changes and deployment to the device for the actual project. You can test it with the iPhone as a remote controller for the engine on the Mac, though, I believe.
#5
So how do they do that fancy footwork in their promo video? They fake it. Rather than execute any application either on the device or in the emulator, they execute it on the much more powerful dev machine hardware with input streamed from the device and video frames streamed from the dev machine to the device. It's not a bad technique for testing gameplay, but it assumes that you don't have any performance issues on the device, and that's a BIG assumption.
If there were enough demand for this feature in iTorque, we could certainly add it in, but my impression in talking with most developers was that this was of limited dev utility. It does make for a nice video though :)
05/29/2009 (2:52 pm)
@Tua: Quote:1) Does iTGE run in iPhone emulator (which comes with iPhone SDK)?Of course =)
Quote:2) Does iTGE allow run-time resources push to the device to be able to make changes in the iTGE World Editor on Mac and see the change directly on the device (Unity allows this, but did not find any info for iTGE)No, and neither does Unity. What's executed on the device must be compiled code or script, so making changes to either without doing a new build doesn't really work. The same is true of the emulator provided with the iPhone SDK.
So how do they do that fancy footwork in their promo video? They fake it. Rather than execute any application either on the device or in the emulator, they execute it on the much more powerful dev machine hardware with input streamed from the device and video frames streamed from the dev machine to the device. It's not a bad technique for testing gameplay, but it assumes that you don't have any performance issues on the device, and that's a BIG assumption.
If there were enough demand for this feature in iTorque, we could certainly add it in, but my impression in talking with most developers was that this was of limited dev utility. It does make for a nice video though :)
#6
05/29/2009 (2:53 pm)
@DMB: You are fast!
#7
05/29/2009 (3:00 pm)
But you're precise!
#8
I saw that iTGE is built on the TGE 1.5.x branch and I have few questions:
1) I own only TGE 1.4.x and down - can I buy iTGE without upgrading to TGE 1.5.x?
2) TGE 1.5.x is known to be slower then 1.4.x due to the Lighting Kit implemented in the core and few other changes (new features that weight it down) - is it improved in iTGE?
05/30/2009 (6:02 am)
@Brett and David: thank you, guys for the detailed info, much appreciated! It does look like a neat feature to check how the immediate change looks on the device, but if you say that it does not reflect the actual performance, I have mixed feelings now :)I saw that iTGE is built on the TGE 1.5.x branch and I have few questions:
1) I own only TGE 1.4.x and down - can I buy iTGE without upgrading to TGE 1.5.x?
2) TGE 1.5.x is known to be slower then 1.4.x due to the Lighting Kit implemented in the core and few other changes (new features that weight it down) - is it improved in iTGE?
#9
2. You will not want to be using dynamic lighting in your scene, so any extremely marginal slowdown between 1.4.2 and 1.5.2 should be negligible. But you really do not want the device to be calculating lighting on the fly.
05/30/2009 (7:53 am)
1. iTGE is built on top of 1.5.2, so that is the license that you would need.2. You will not want to be using dynamic lighting in your scene, so any extremely marginal slowdown between 1.4.2 and 1.5.2 should be negligible. But you really do not want the device to be calculating lighting on the fly.
Torque Owner Julien LANGE