ForceFields & T3D Pack

So, last week I spilled the information on a few pieces of work that were coming down the pipe from me. Now, I've got some announcements to make for everyone. So here we go!

Force Field
First off, is the announcement of the completion of our final T3D Micro Addon (For Now), which is a re-imagination of the Tribes 2 ForceField object. In Tribes 2, this was a rendered block that would either be set to deny or allow player objects through the field. This new field was created with customization in mind, and can allow players, vehicles, and non-sticky items through, or block them with a simple editor mouse-click. I have to give thanks to Dan Buckmaster and Richard Ranft for pointing me in the correct direction for getting the collision working on the Field. So, since I know you guys love my little animated gifs, here's one of the ForceField in action.


So, I'll explain what's going on in the GIF. The Green field is a team 1 field (My player is team 1), and it has the team-pass option turned on. The Red field is a team 2 field with the same options, hence, it blocks my player. The White field is a team 0 (neutral) field with All Pass Players turned on, so any player object can pass through, but other objects would be blocked.

So, if you guys are exclusively interested in the Force Field. You can grab that here for $7.99. I say Exclusively, because of item #2.

PGD Torque Pack
A while back, I introduced a sale bundle when I got to releasing my second and third packs, that would give you guys a nice sale price to grab all of the items on the pack list. That was a special time only offer that expired and returned based on the time of year, and if I felt like doing a sale.

Well, those days are now long over. Enter the PGD Torque Pack. A large collection of all of the packs & addons that were made for Torque 3D, including: MAP, DWP, AFPSK, and all of those little Micro Addons, and you can grab all of those for $60, which saves you ~$43 from buying them separately. And as my little page also specifies, any future packs we make are guaranteed to you free of charge once you buy that pack. So for example, the soon to be released "Ultimate Guide to Torque 3D" guide I'm writing, will be given to you free of charge on the day it's released if you buy that pack today.

The $60 may seem a little high to some, but it's a reflection of the overall work that was done to get these features and addons to you. So with each future content pack we make and release as part of that overall addon, the price will reflect it. Hence why my last blog said the best time to get it is sooner rather than later because it will go up when the Guide is released.

The Ultimate Guide
So, speaking of the guide, I left plenty of you guys hanging around last time about this, so it's time to clarify the points of the guide.

This is basically a massive (almost book-like) resource with information that is pointed at both the absolute beginner and even the seasoned veteran of the engine. I talk about the World & GUI editors right away in the guide and walk you through how to use them, and how to start making worlds and guis with the tools you have. Then I take you on a guided tour of the engine itself with a full tutorial style guide to Torque Script, teaching even an absolute beginner of computer programming how to get into it, and how to be successful at it.

And if that wasn't enough, I then walk you through something even more complex, C++. The guide has a full C++ resource in there to help the absolute beginner learn how to program in the language, and how to take that knowledge and bring it into Torque, by teaching how the important functions of the engine work, and even how to create new object types and the such.

It should be a wonderful resource for beginners and veterans alike, as it has some very useful insights and tips to help you along to learn the engine, and to hopefully serve as a way to break the notion of others that Torque is too hard to learn.

Anyways, I'm shooting for a late September release of this resource, and it will be $20, and that will include the guide as well as code samples from the guide and all of the resources used by the guide.

Remarks
So, this is pretty much my current direction of work. The whole concept of the micro-addons started as a little side-project for one of my fellow developers, and now it's become this final result. As the engine continues to grow and earn new community members and features, I will be more and more inclined to keep some cool new content coming down the pipeline for you guys to get your hands on. So hopefully that clears some things up, and I hope you enjoy these latest toys to play with!