Really thinking about torque - Convince me

#1 Rundown of Torque

To be honest, you really have to answer this question yourself. What you have to do is look at the engine and compare what it can do with what you want your game to do, and then ask yourself if it's close enough for you. If you have any deal-breakers (such as not wanting to pay for Autodesk apps), then you need to factor that in as well.

Going into detail about an engine's capabilities as compared to a game idea you have that you haven't described is nigh impossible. Review the docs, and if you have questions, do a search on the site to see how those problems have been addressed (questions have been asked and answered a hundred times over, and you can get way more detail by searching for them than by asking the community to write them down again).

In the end, the engine choice isn't about the engine/community convincing you, but about you picking the one best suited to your needs. Hope that helps!

#2 I recently abandoned Blender in favor of Max. Blender, like linux, is only free if your time is worth nothing...

I would really encourage you to rethink your modeler decision. Its a bit like you are and old school craftsman who insists on using his handsaws, and he can do a suitable job with those tools, but the rest of the world has moved onto cnc machines...

And however good you think you are at Blender... You only face a brutal 2 week learning curve. After that you will be wondering, as I do now, why you were so insistent on sticking with Blender.

#3 @ Greg - You make a good point there. BUT Autodesk tools are expensive especially for an student artist like me. I really cannot afford full commercial versions of their software. Which is why I use Blender. I know about the Student versions that run for about 400 USD (about) as well as the Autodesk Student/Community Website.

@ Ted - Yeah It helps :)

#4 I use an older version of Blender which has a DTS exporter (Torque's propriety format) as well as exporting to DAE depending on what I'm using it for (mainly import/export into Purelight add-on). I also use GIMP, again like Blender, you don't get cheaper than free. All works fine for me.

I'd suggest you read the docs and play around with the time-limited demo to decide whether you think it's suitable for what you want.

#5 Blender is great for use in Torque. I use two versions of Blender though: an older version that uses the old DTS exporter for when specifically require animations, and sometimes I use a newer version that has better collada export for simpler unanimated shapes -- simply because I haven't jumped on the collada bandwagon.

If you ask some specific questions about what/if/can Torque do "this", then we would be better able to give you a rundown about what you face with Torque given your expectations. Like everyone else I would suggest previewing the docs and experimenting with the demo. Having some hands on time with Torque will enable you to ask those questions.

#6 Ben,

All I am saying is... Don't let your modeler dictate what game engine you want to use.

Blender is going to add drastically to your "fiddle with it" time over something like Max.

Also the student, unemployed or displaced worker version of Max (and everything else Autodesk has) is totally free.

#7 Keep in mind that student versions of whatever software generally cannot be used commercially.

#8 While it can not be used commercially, can the models created in this "free" version of 3dsMax still be imported into other software, ie T3D? Will they be watermarked or otherwise crippled in some way? Can models created with this free version later on be turned into licensed, legal, commercial models? I have heard a lot of (perhaps erroneus) horror stories about Autodesk "free" versions once they get their "claws" into your system.

#9 There are no visible watermarks as far as I can tell. I was expecting the rendering output at least to have a watermark, I imagine they are marked as student versions down in the metadata.

But then the code is in there to borrow a commercial license... Apparently commercial licenses are transferable?

I had all sorts of misconceptions about Autodesk software as well. For example I thought Max would be a lot harder than Blender for some reason. Boy was I wrong about that... I would say after about three years of tinkering with Blender, just getting past the initial learning curve on Max brought my work to the next level.

I can tell you, it felt like being a child on Christmas morning when I got access to the student website and saw all that software there free for the taking.

My thought is, once I get a gig, either my own, or a paying gig, I will get legal as far as commercial software is concerned.

As far as software getting its claws into my system... Im sure the DRM stuff is there, but its not as bad as Chrome, and all the toolbar nonsense that I thought had gone away after I quit using IE6...

#10 As a programmer who used to have trouble just modeling a box with the various free/cheap tools out there, I have to agree that Autodesk products have been a delight to work with as I've learned some real modeling over the last couple of years. If you can come up with the money, they are well worth the investment. If you can't come up with the money, there's really not much you can do about it, though. If you can cut expenses in some other area (except for food, rent and tuition) in order to afford them, it could be worth it, particularly if you expect to commercialize your efforts.

As far as Torque3D goes... there are really 2 major advantages to most of the other options:

1) If you release a game and sell a reasonable amount of copies, it will come out a lot cheaper in the long run.

2) You get the source code, which means there's no limit to what you can do with it. From what I've seen UDK is pretty flexible for a non-source engine, but nothing beats having the source code for flexibility.


Also if you don't require anything too advanced in your toolset, you will find the Torque tools a lot easier to work with, saving you a lot of time down the stretch. Unreal tools have always been very powerful, but that power results in a big hit in complexity, which you may or may not need.

In Torque your indoor environments will basically need to be modeled entirely in a modeling package like Max. While you can import meshes, move them around, drop objects here and there with the World Editor, there is no brush-based level editing tool like Unreal. Constructor is out there somewhere, but it's kinda mickey mouse.

For outdoor environments, the Torque tools are among the best on the market. Terrains, foliage, roads, trees, rivers, all relatively easy to create and manage in Torque with many great features.