Torque 3D Development - Beta is UP!
by Brett Seyler · 04/30/2009 (7:03 pm) · 184 comments
We're here! Beta! BETA!We're definitely allowing ourselves a *little* celebrating here, but while I wish we could sit back, drink some cervezas, and take in some particularly nice Oregon weather, today is when the real work begins. In this job though, it's also when the fun really starts. All these disparate, complex pieces are starting to come together, and we need your help to get to the finish line. We need your feedback. First things first...
Download from your Account
If you've been holding out for today to upgrade or purchase Torque 3D, you can still get your $200 OFF pre-order discount right now. If you're already a Torque 3D owner, congrats! The next few months are going to be really fun. Working with Torque is now very different. We're going to conduct this beta testing process with fast cycles for iteration, and if pre-orders are any indication, with your full engagement =)
What's in this beta?
Web Deployment from the Torque Toolbox (Windows only) - You can now deploy any project you choose to be embedded in a web page.
Material Editor *** blog describing features and use is forthcoming
Decal Road Editor (see previous blog)
River Editor (see previous blog)
World Editor Documentation (offline docs are included)
Advanced Lighting
Basic Lighting - this is very similar to TGEA lighting, but we have some suprises here too. You'll see a first glimpse of what's possible with an unnanounced new static lighting option as well in the FPS Genre Kit. This *very* high-end baked lighting option is a 3rd party add-on to Torque 3D, and not included in the core, but Basic Lighting (similar to TGEA) is included.
PhysX Demo - See the physics from South Pacific in action here.
For PhysX, don't forget to...
1. Get the PhysX Software and install it in the default location.
2. Get the PhysX SDK and install it in its default location as well.
PostFX (SSAO, DoF, Edge AA)
New Cubemap Skybox *** more details coming on this
Live Asset Updating - Update your content in a 3rd party app, save, and watch it update in Torque 3D real-time. Definitely will see a blog on this soon, but it's all hooked up right now!
What's next?
You can post your feedback in the Torque 3D Private Forums, and submit bugs to the dedicated thread.
Our next Beta build is scheduled for roughly 2 weeks from now. The plan is to include:
Mesh Road Editor Decal Editor Datablock Editor Performance Optimizations to Advanced Lighting, adding Spotlights and Mounting Terrain Improvements, adding LOD and Normalmapping, PostFX Improvements, adding Soft Particles MANY Usability Improvements for the World EditorAlright game developers...have at it!!!
Remember, this is a beta, and there are bound to be many rough edges. We're nowhere near satisfied with this yet, and we'll be working hard on usability, polish, and performance for many weeks to come. Your help is crucial to us identifying and prioritizing the most important issues. We have a roadmap, but we're not finished until we're happy and hopefully, you're happy too =)
More development blogs to come. This is post #18.
Torque 3D development blogs:
- Post #1 - Kickoff
- Post #2 - Apparatus and Warrior Camp
- Post #3 - Luma's racing kit
- Post #4 - Josh Engebretson and Web Publishing
- Post #5 - Pricing and Licensing
- Post #6 - Pricing and Licensing CONTINUED
- Post #7 - Wetness & Precipitation
- Post #8 - Screeen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)
- Post #9 - Matt Langley and the Torque Launcher
- Post #10 - Chris Robertson and Collada
- Post #11 - Depth of Field
- Post #12 - Advanced Lighting
- Post #13 - Soft Particles
- Post #14 - World Editor
- Post #15 - Pricing and Licensing ANNOUNCED!
- Post #16 - GDC Live Edition
- Post #17 - River & Road Editors
- Post #18 - Beta is UP!
- Post #19 - Light Rays, Undercity, Material Editor
- Post #20 - Mass Market Hardware
- Post #21 - Beta: Part Deux
- Post #22 - Marching Towards Beta 3
- Post #23 - pureLIGHT
- Post #24 - Lighting, Terrain, and Cloth
- Post #25 - Beta 3!
- Post #26 - Coming Soon!
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#2
04/30/2009 (7:07 pm)
sweet Brett! Nice 
#3
04/30/2009 (7:11 pm)
The FPS kit room looks familiar ... only last time I saw it, it was orange (untextured). Looks like Basic Lighting has had a clean up! 
#5
04/30/2009 (7:12 pm)
Glad to see this out, now I don't have to refrain so hard from speaking up about how truly awesome and great it is ;) From the outside looking in I've seen an amazing amount of work and talent poured into Torque 3d. Congratulations all! 
#7
04/30/2009 (7:24 pm)
What a great way to end a terrible day! Thanks again GG! 
#8
04/30/2009 (7:27 pm)
Downloading... awesome work guys! So is the Physx stuff only compatible with Nvidia cards?? 
#10
PARTY HARD!!!
Great job to all the devs and artists involved. This past week has been an amazing experience seeing it all come together so smoothly. I'm proud to be a part of this project!
OK...back to work...
04/30/2009 (7:36 pm)
WOOOOOOOO! BETA 1!!!!PARTY HARD!!!
Great job to all the devs and artists involved. This past week has been an amazing experience seeing it all come together so smoothly. I'm proud to be a part of this project!
OK...back to work...
#11
Nvidia cards will help in the calculations PhysX does. With an ATI card, PhysX should run in 'software' mode. Awesome work guys.
04/30/2009 (7:37 pm)
Ryan,Nvidia cards will help in the calculations PhysX does. With an ATI card, PhysX should run in 'software' mode. Awesome work guys.
#12
04/30/2009 (7:38 pm)
Physx being Nvidia only would be cursing it to fail. I never even thought to ask that question. 
#13
04/30/2009 (7:43 pm)
SWEET! Already download! Question, I'm getting X3DAudio1_6.dll missing error. I have 1.5. 
#16
04/30/2009 (7:57 pm)
Quote:So is the Physx stuff only compatible with Nvidia cards??Its set by default to do multicore software simulation... so it will work regardless of your video card.
#17
DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer
04/30/2009 (7:57 pm)
You can update your directx runtimes from this location:DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer
#18
04/30/2009 (7:58 pm)
Heh, beat to the punch. 
#19
Update your DirectX drivers. You're running a very old version of DX. That dll is not part of the redist package so we cannot provide it.
04/30/2009 (7:58 pm)
@Tek0Update your DirectX drivers. You're running a very old version of DX. That dll is not part of the redist package so we cannot provide it.
#20
Crap! And I didn't scroll up far enough to see that it was the wily Dave that answered it first.
I'm such a tool.
04/30/2009 (7:59 pm)
HOLY HELL SPILMAN! Throw Ken and I a bone!Crap! And I didn't scroll up far enough to see that it was the wily Dave that answered it first.
I'm such a tool.
Torque 3D Owner Brett Seyler
Default Studio Name