Blog for Ty Newton at GarageGames.com

2. Doco for the Community

Ty Newton — 2008-08-03T06:54:17+00:00

I'm half way through transferring the Torque X user guide to the TDN wiki. I decided I've done enough to publish it in the more accessible area. Check it out and start updating/enhancing it:

- go to the Torque X section using the left navigation link
- select the Torque X Tutorials icon
I've added a section for reference guides and included a link to the user guide.

I'm pretty sure I'll get the time to add the Guides section this week and the Tutorials section next week.

Enjoy

Doco for the community

Ty Newton — 2008-07-30T12:55:45+00:00

Hi,

If you're following my ramblings then you'll already know I've got a gripe about the lack of community maintained documentation for TorqueX. So I thought I'd go ahead and do something about it.

I've begun transcribing the TorqueX user guide from the installation package to the TDN. It's just the beginning; but have a look and let me know if it's something worthwhile:

http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/User:Ty_Newton/Scratch

This is my first time messing with a Wiki so the layout is pretty basic. I expect that the content should end up inside the TorqueX section of TDN; but I'm a bit shy about adding it into that part of the site just yet - I haven't really got much of a clue about what I am doing.

Naturally, the idea is for the community to start (when I move it all into the correct spot) updating/enhancing the doco.

2. Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more

Ty Newton — 2008-07-29T22:04:24+00:00

I'm back again to follow-up on my experiences getting started (again) with TorqueX.

Last time I ran into an installation hick-up when all the templates didn't appear in my Visual Studio. I spent a while looking for answers and when none were found I decided to investigate further.

Getting Started #2
------------------------
I built a fresh PC and installed Visual C# Express (VC#E), XNA v2, TorqueX v2 pro and to my surprise the templates did not magically materialise. It seems that either the documentation is out of date or the installation program is buggered. Either way, my plans to mess about with a couple of the starter projects is buggered...

If you read my last blog you'll remember that I also have the Platformer Kit. I decided to try and get it installed. Wow, this turned out to be a pain in the neck. Here are the gory details:

I tried to run the installer on my Visual Studio 2005 pro (VS2k5p) PC and it flat-out refused. It told me I didn't have VC#E installed so it wouldn't install. I looked around the forums and found that this is a well known problem - but, you guessed it, no fix is available for it.

Every time I find myself bitching about actually paying hard earned cash for this stuff I remind myself that I'm trying to get the software up and running in a 'no-so-supported' configuration; and I calm down a little.

Here's a tip if you have the time and inclination: it worked for me but I can't guarantee it would work for you.

If you have access to an installation of the Platformer kit; or know someone who can give you the files; try this:

copy the GarageGames_Demo_Template_bin.zip and GarageGames_Starter_Template_bin.zip files from a machine the VSC#E installation. You can find the files in your VSC#E installation directory: Common7/IDE/VCSExpress/ProjectTemplates copy them into your VS2k5p installation in these 2 directories: Common7/IDE/ProjectTemplates/CSharp/XNA Game Studio 2.0/ and Common7/IDE/ProjectTemplatesCache/CSharp/XNA Game Studio 2.0/

Open a Visual Studio command prompt (make sure you do this 'as administrator') and run this command: devenv /installvstemplates

The next time you open VS2k5p you should have the platformer kit demo and starter projects. I also copied the installation directory of the platformer kit and created some links to the files so I could get to the doco easily.

I think I have all the software installed now. Now it's time to try and get these starter projects up and running on the XBox360. Hopefully things will go more smoothly than the installation. I'll let you know.

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more

Ty Newton — 2008-07-26T05:13:13+00:00

It's time, yet again, to brush off the cobwebs and give the GarageGames kit another go.

I must admit I haven't had a great deal of success in the past and at first glance it doesn't really look like much has changed. I'm still finding it difficult to work out exactly what needs to be done to install and setup an environment for Torque development; and the doco still seems pretty sketchy.

This time I'm going to embrace the open information age and prepare some information that may help others to follow the path I am now taking. I really hope this could be a catalyst for some new content on this website:

I've purchased a few of the GarageGames products over the years but I'm going to focus on getting a TorqueX Pro, TorqueX Builder and Platformer Starter Kit environment up and running. Running some code on my XBox360 seems like a pretty sweet thing to do.

This is my experience.

Getting Started
--------------------

From the GarageGames home page to the TorqueX pages all I found is a link to XNA, Visual Studio and the XNA creators club in the system requirements section. I was a bit lost/directionless. In turns out that the XNA creators club has the best information that I found.

- follow the link to the XNA creators club website (http://creators.xna.com/) and select the 'create' icon on the left side (you can also get to this through the home menu, then the quick start guide, then create).
- follow the instructions to download XNA, Visual Studio and the service pack.
- I found it best to login as a user with administrator privileges before doing any of these installations
- install Visual Studio
- install the service pack (and then Vista update, if necessary)
- install XNA v2
- install TorqueX v2

If you are using Vista, like me, then there are a few things to be careful about. I am using Visual Studio 2005 Pro; I'm not sure if this happens with the express edition. During the Visual Studio install Vista will tell you that Visual Studio has compatibility problems. Download the Vista update from the link that is provided.

When you finish installing Visual Studio go ahead and install the service pack. Make sure you run the installation program 'as administrator'. When that is installed then you need to install the Vista update. Once again make sure you run the installation program 'as administrator'. Finally run Windows Update to pickup any security updates. I had another 2 that needed to be installed.

I installed TorqueX v2 Pro; I'm not sure if this happens in the other versions. When the installation finished and I started Visual Studio my fist show stopper hit me. Only 2 game templates are installed: starter game 2d and starter game 3d.

This is definitely going to slow me down. I've checked the forums and the problem seems to be known by a lot of people but I haven't found any solutions. I've posted a couple messages to see if someone knows how to solve this problem. Hopefully I'll be able to continue my 'getting started' blog soon - cross your fingers; but don't hold your breath...

TorqueX platformer kit

Ty Newton — 2007-07-18T04:35:00+00:00

Well it's been a while in between drinks. I've been messing around with a local educational institution doing their game programming course. My core development skills need the cobwebs removed.

It's time to get back into TorqueX and the platformer SDK seems to be the perfect thing for a few ideas I've had for a while.

Also just heard the news about the Torque for the Wii. This is superb and just might be the incentive I need to give Torque another try. I never quite got the hang of Torque 1.4. Hopefully this time will be different.

Wish me luck.

Making StarterGame 2 player

Ty Newton — 2007-01-21T09:20:54+00:00

Now I've had an interesting time modifying the StarterGame example so it supports 2 players on the keyboard. Here's the short story:

I'll apologize in advance for using programmer speak in this. sorry, but I can't help it.

Open VC#E and create a new project from the StarterGame example. You'll notice the MovementComponent.cs file in the project. Open it and you'll see this is where the keyboard events are bound (_SetupInputMap() method). _SetupInputMap() binds the owner of MovementComponent to the arrow and WASD keys. The owner of MovementComponent is the object that you attached it to in TGBX.

It's important to understand that a MovementComponent object is instantiated for each object that you attach it to in TGBX. ie. if you create 2 sprites (1 for each player) and then attach a MovementComponent to both of them; then 2 MovementComponent objects will be instantiated (1 for each sprite) when you run your game.

How do you know which, of the many, MovementComponents you are when in your code?

The PlayerNumber property can be used to differentiate between the different instantiations of MovementComponent. e.g. if (PlayerNumber == 0) then ... You set the player number in TGBX when you attach MovementComponent to your object.

You can also use the _owner object that is stored by the _InitComponent() method. _owner is a T2DSceneObject and it has a Name property. If you set the Name property in TGBX (script section when in edit mode) you can do a comparison in your code e.g. if (_owner.Name.equals("player1")) then ...

Having many MovementComponents instantiated makes it pretty easy to add 2 player support to StarterGame. Simply modify _SetupInputMap() so the arrow keys are bound to player 0 and WASD are bound to player 1. e.g. starting at line 79.

[code]
// keyboard controls
int keyboardId = InputManager.Instance.FindDevice(keyboard);
if (keyboardId >= 0)
{
switch (playerIndex)
{
case 0:
// arrow keys
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.Right, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalRight, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.Left, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalLeft, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.Up, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalUp, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.Down, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalDown, 0);
break;
case 1:
// WASD
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.D, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalRight, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.A, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalLeft, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.W, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalUp, 0);
inputMap.BindMove(keyboardId, (int)Keys.S, MoveMapTypes.StickDigitalDown, 0);
break;
default:
break;
}
}
[\code]

This uses playerIndex to differentiate between the different instantiations of MovementComponent. If you look at the _InitComponent() method you'll see that playerIndex is actually PlayerNumber.

Now you have a MovementComponent class that can properly handle 2 players. All you have to do is create 2 objects in TGBX, attach MovementComponent to both of them and set the PlayerNumber (in TGBX) to 0 and 1 respectively.

Thanks to Thomas Buscaglia for setting me straight on this stuff (I went around in circles for a little while) and providing the code above.

Adding multiplayer

Ty Newton — 2007-01-13T06:28:24+00:00

Well I've run into my next challenge: adding multiplayer to my very basic pong game. I've been modifying the StarterGame project and thought I was doing pretty well. I use a tilemap for the level design and two bat sprites and a ball sprite. For some reason the bat sprites don't collide with the tilemap tiles that make up the sides of the game play area - I'll have to look into that further. But my real concern is trying to get 1 bat to be controlled with the arrow keys and the other bat controlled with the WASD keys.

I added the MovementComponent to both bat sprites. I assumed that TX would instantiate 2 MovementComponent objects and I would have to setup the code so it could work out which bat its owner was. This doesn't work; even though the owner object that is passed into the MovementComponent class allows it to determine which bat is its owner. It seems my assumption was wrong and TX only instantiates 1 MovementComponent object. I'll double check this in the forums.

BTW my last blog post seems to have disapeared. I wonder what happened to it...

Not so easy :-(

Ty Newton — 2007-01-11T04:24:31+00:00

Well this (TorqueX) isn't as easy as I had thought it might be. There seems to be something missing - I know; it's my lack of understanding of how (process wise) I am meant to write games with this stuff. Time to annoy some people on the forum with my noob questions...

TorqueX here I come

Ty Newton — 2007-01-09T11:35:41+00:00

It's about time I had a good look at Torque. I messed about with TGE and then TGB but never put enough effort into them to achieve anything much. I love the idea of running my own stuff on an XBox360 so TorqueX is the bomb...

I think I'll start real slow and see where I get. My lover-girl has asked for her own version of Pong so I'd better not disappoint her.

I've managed to get XNA, the TX freebie and the TGBX up and running. It seems pretty simple to play with stuff in TGBX. I'm a bit shakey on how to set the screen size for the game and I'll have to get some world limits in their too - small steps...