Blog for Tim Gift at GarageGames.com

Friday Jan 14 19:03

Tim Gift — 2005-01-14T19:03:44+00:00

This is just a quick note to say that I did eventually return from that vacation I mentioned in my last plan (posted back in dec 2003), and that I'm still working here at GarageGames. I've never been much of a blogger, so I probably won't update this one again for a while...

Saturday Oct 13 16:03

Tim Gift — 2001-10-13T16:03:24+00:00

This has been a busy week resolving last minute CVS server issues and making sure there are no major problems with our 1.1 release... I've made this plan "public", so people outside of the GarageGames community will be able to see this. I usually keep my plans local the GG site, but I thought I'd announce the fact that our CVS server is now running, and developers who have purchased the Torque SDK can now access the latest and greatest as it's checked in :) (Not actually recommended, since the head revision can be unstable, but still cool :) )

The CVS also contains are first developement checkpoint: Release 1.1, this is not our demo release, that's coming up, but it does include all our work on the demo, bug fixes, etc. It's been almost three months since release 1.0, so there are quite a few changes. With the CVS now running, distribution of future release should be a little different, considering everyone will have up-to-the-minute access to our development source :)

Mark Frohnmayer's is now fully onboard and cranking out code, it's nice to him up to speed. With the three of us (Mark, Rick and I) plugging away, the engine is getting whipped into shape in a hurry.

My changelog since my last plan:

- Fixed profile problem with the mission editor object creator dialog
- Set playerlist to not activate the cursor
- Fixed bug with player list not getting updated when a client exits
- Release 1.1.0
- Update VC6 ide to reference the nasm in cvs
- Added nasm to the cvs
- Fixed/added comments to some of the fps/server scripts
- Fixed escape disconnect message to reflect local or server connection
- Removed last bounce snap from rifle bullet casings
- Moved health bar display from ShapeNameHud to the CrossHairHud
- Checked in a new footprint
- Fixed default client connection message to use the torque name
- Updated VC6 install doco
- Added new very basic cross-hair hud (I have plans for this one)
- Renamed vc++ directory to vc6
- Added new VC6 single unified workspace (torque/vc++/Torque SDK.dsw) for the SDK. Glu2d3d & opengl2d3d dlls now work correctly when built with the new projects.
- First pass at updating the install and tool docs to use the Torque name.
- Changed rifle smoke trail to match explosion
- Removed references to player.h from shapeBase.cc and vehicle.cc
- Moved all the game fx related objects into the new game/fx dir
- Moved all the game net objects into a new game/net dir.
- Moved vehicle code into game/vehicles
- Fixed mission editor mode button (was broken recently)
- Cleaned up and added some comments to fps/server/defaults.cs
- Global rename "V12 Engine" -> "Torque Game Engine" in *.cc, *.h, *.cs, *.gui
- Added two new very basic stand-alone hud controls: GuiHealthHud & GuiClockHud.
- Renamed the ShapeNameHud to GuiShapeNameHud.
- Temporarily removed HUD example dir (need to find a place for it).
- Moved AIConnection & AIPlayer (which doesn't compile) into game
- Changed createCanvas to take the window title as an argument
- Renamed WorldCraft v12.fgd file to torque.fgd
- Renamed V12 to Torque in the tools (map2dif, maxExporter, etc).
- Remove v12.rc
- v12Game.h and related class changed to demoGame
- CVS repository renamed to torque
- Added new ShapeNameHud which display name & damage level ubove shapes
- Added particles to rifle explosion (still needs work)
- Added get/set shapeName to ShapeBase. The name is converted to a tag and is transmitted to the clients.
- Cleaned up more ShapeBase and Player code.

Rick has a first pass at the new sounds system in and running. There still some work to be done on it, and we haven't put a lot of sounds into our test app yet, but it's nice to have it going. I was getting tired of the silent treatment.

We'll be spending the next few days making sure CVS is holding up, and there aren't any major issues with this 1.1 release. After that we'll be full steam on the demo code, more bug fixes, engine cleanup, and of course, new features. Being able to distribute updates almost instantly with CVS should have a big effect on our development community, this is going to be fun :)

Wednesday Aug 15 1:37

Tim Gift — 2001-08-15T01:37:59+00:00

Well, the V12 engine has been released, and so far things seem to be going very well. Developers seem pretty excited about it, and we've already got a few mods going :) It's been a long haul though, over 2 years since we started the ball rolling, and over a year since Rick and I left Dynamix. Jeff left about a year and half ago, and Mark Frohnmayer... about 3 months :) It's been a lot of work. Not much of it has really been on the engine itself though, we've spent most of time on the site, e-commerce, servers, etc. Been interesting :)

Our current plan now is to support the growing V12 community. This includes documentation, examples scripts, objects, etc. This is going to keep us busy for a while, but will be critical in getting some momentum going. Once the ball is seriously rolling on development we'll start concentrating on the player site. There are still a number of issue to resolve there.

Overall I'd say I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. There is certainly a fair amount of code in the engine that I'm not happy with, but when I jump into a multi-player session with a couple other guys... it's just fun :) There's a lot of stuff there... and it won't take much to turn it into any number of games. Certainly way easier than starting over, or writing my own...

Wednesday Jul 25 15:32

Tim Gift — 2001-07-25T15:32:18+00:00

Boy, this has been a busy past few weeks. Rick and I have been working hard on the e-commerce side of the site. Ever since Sierra approved the V12, the pressure has been on to get it all wrapped up so we can release the engine. Rick's been working on the server: putting in SSL, download metering and a few other things. I've been working on putting in the purchasing pages, database tables and our verisign transaction stuff. A little different from my usual game programming :) It's not hard stuff, but lot's of little details and certainly a lot more work than I had originally anticipated. It's also not the sort of thing you want to goof up.

I uploaded all my current changes to the server yesterday, which included the new "My Garage" tab. The new tab has the developer home page and will also include all the "private" sections that a developer has access to (if you purchase the V12 SDK, you get access to a private V12 area). The purchasing pages are not open to the public yet. I still have a few more changes to make, then we need to do some serious testing with our beta guys. Getting close though (seems like I've been saying that for a while now). Even though it's been a year since I left Dynamix, it's only been four months since we received our first "T2 final" code drop. Feels a lot longer than that.

I've fallen behind on the forums, I'll try to do some catch-up over the next few days...

Friday Jun 29 3:36

Tim Gift — 2001-06-29T03:36:56+00:00

A little update... I'm heading out tomorrow (Friday 28th) on a short trip up to Seattle, and won't be back until the 4th. Visiting my girlfriend's family up there as well as some R&R.

Things are looking pretty good on the V12 side. Rick and I along with our associates and beta team have been making good progress. David Chait has a Mac server and client running. Win32 can connect to Mac client and vice versa :) Very cool :) Ryan Parker has been working on the linux port and has the linux dedicated server running :) Also very cool :) The rest of us continue to work on cleaning up the code, getting the shell for our test app together, networking, etc. We've already released one beta, today we've released the second. The networking code is all working in this beta, so we'll be doing some multi-player testing with the beta guys :)

The V12 is basically ready to be released. Long term there is still lots of work to do, especially documentation, but the core features are there, and it runs :) Our major hold up is getting final approval from Sierra. They get to look at our build to verify that we've removed all the Tribes 2 intellectual property. We gave them a build two weeks ago and received a reply Tuesday. We've addressed the issues they brought up and are going to give them a new build tomorrow morning. Hopefully this one will go through :)

Rick and I have a few things to work out on the site before the launch. We were going to do those this week but then received the mail from Sierra. That got us side tracked. Rick will probably start on it this weekend, and I'll get on it when I return.

For those of you monitoring our site (www.garagegames.com) this is probably all old news :) ... Getting close, once we get approval from Sierra we'll be on a short countdown :)

Wednesday May 16 20:29

Tim Gift — 2001-05-16T20:29:38+00:00

Well, not a whole lot to report, except that my back pain is almost all gone! Started doing some back exercises last week, and that's basically cleared it up :) I've started putting in full work days, and with Rick and I both working full time, things should move a little faster. We are currently preparing an "alpha" release which will go out to our associates. Almost all the proprietary code is out now, and they are going to help us whip the rest into shape :)

Tuesday May 8 16:30

Tim Gift — 2001-05-08T16:30:34+00:00

Well, things aren't going all that well here. I posted last time that I pulled a muscle in my lower back... For a while it was getting better, but now something else is going on and my back is getting worst. I finally made an appointment to visit my Dr. which I was reluctant to do while I thought it was just a pulled muscle. I see him tomorrow morning, and hopefully I'll find out what's going on. The bad part is that I'm not getting any work done at all. I just can't seem to find a sitting position which doesn't hurt like hell after a few minutes.

As it stands Rick is really the only one working on the V12 engine, which is going to cause some delay. We had originally quoted the "end of April" as the release date, but we did that before we had a real chance to review all the code and scripts source. This was also before I had my injury. Instead of trying to estimate another fixed date, we're going to post weekly progress reports which should be a little more informative. Rick posted one last week on in the V12 tech forum, but we'll put together a status page or something so that they are easier to find.

I can't tell you how frustrating this back problem is getting. I could deal with it at first... catch up on some reading and movies etc., but now I'm getting really tired of it. This is almost the longest stretch of time in which I haven't done any programming.

Saturday Apr 14 21:47

Tim Gift — 2001-04-14T21:47:51+00:00

Well, after posting in my last plan about starting to feel better, I got worst. I was sick for a few more days with the flu (fever, coughing, etc.), and once I started recovering from that I pulled a muscle in my lower back (on Wed). Now I can hardly move and I can't sit at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. These past few weeks have not been very productive. Hopefully by Monday I should be feeling well enough to catch up on the forums and resume working on the v12. Rick should be back tomorrow, it will be good to have him back in town :)

Thursday Apr 5 19:44

Tim Gift — 2001-04-05T19:44:00+00:00

Well, back from Rick's wedding. That went pretty well :) Rick is now off to one of the Hawaiian islands on his honeymoon and won't be back for a few weeks. So it's just Jeff and I to man the fort. I got back Tuesday, but haven't been feeling well. Spent most of yesterday in bed, but I'm doing better today and I'll start catching up on my email and with the activity on the site. I should be back working on the engine tomorrow.

Wednesday Mar 28 23:41

Tim Gift — 2001-03-28T23:41:31+00:00

A little GDC recap, let see... drove down with Rick and Jeff Wednesday, and then back on Saturday afternoon. A lot of driving, but well worth it. Since we were booked with meetings pretty much the whole time, we only got floor passes which worked out fine. (I did buy a copy of the proceedings, which I always get more out of than the sessions anyway.)

Met with a number of independent developers interested in the v12. These all went very well, there seems to be quite a bit of excitement about the whole thing. We even got stopped just walking around the floor as developers recognized the GG logo on our sporty shirts :) Did a few interviews, and spent quite a bit of time talking with our hardware and vender contacts.

Met with Microsoft DirectX guys to talk a little about DX9. Talked to AMD about new hardware, including the new x86-64 technology. Met with ATI, we didn't get a chance to go over their new accelerator, but they're going to make a trip down to Eugene later to discuss it. Should be interesting :) Met with NVidia to talk about the GForce 3 and see some of the demos. Missed Matrox at the show, but I just exchanged email with our contact there and he's faxing over a new NDA so we can see what they're up too. Talked to Creative about new sound technology and OpenAL, we'll be getting that back up and running with the V12. Looks like there is lots of interesting stuff on the horizon :)

Also met with Discreet about making the GMax available for the V12, but that doesn't look very promising. Their license is product based and quite expensive. They seem vaguely interested in the idea of GG licensing GMax for all V12 developers, but it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

We had a number of other meetings with developers such as NaN, WildTangent and GameSpy. Most of these we're just to get an idea of what other people are up too and exploring options.

So far this week I've been catching up on emails, following up on GDC meetings, etc. Started working again on the V12 as well, but I'll only get a few days work in on it. Rick Overman is getting married this weekend in SF and I'm driving back down there. I'll be leaving Friday and back on Tuesday. After that it should be the V12 release or bust!