Torque
Okay, well this is a tricky call to make, since Torque annoyingly no longer provides the whole ‘free if you render a Torque logo in the corner all the time’ licence, so I can’t actually download the source code to see how it looks. However, I have tried out Crystal Space, and while its free, I must say I’ve not been impressed by the layout or demos. In addition, Torque has pedigree so to speak, and while the demos all look and feel to me like Tribes (understandably so), thats not necessarily a bad thing. The netcode design seems pretty sound (and actually not hugely far away from my original model); so it should suffice for a demo, and hopefully be easy to refactor later into the production model.
So, I’m going to fork up the cash and buy and indie licence for Torque for 100 USD and see how that goes. Thank goodness for the crappy US exchange rate just now, eh?
On an unrelated note, I’m tempted to try and find a copy of my original fourth year Uni report, as its got quite a lot of relevant stuff, and maybe host it here for all to read (rather than it just languishing in some room in the J.C.M.B. untouched for the rest of time).
May 4th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I have a copy of the book “3D Game Programming All In One” which is based entirely on the torque engine. It includes a CD with the demo on it. The book has a fairly complete coverage of it, although with only ~800 pages it doesnt go into a great deal of depth. – just checking whats on the cd – damn no electronic copy of the book.
If you want I could get you a copy of the demo and/or list of contents in the book if its any help.
May 4th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Thanks for the offer, but I’ve sprung for the licence already, so I’ve got the source code for the demo. Its pretty hard to navigate, but I think I’ll be starting there. I don’t tend to get along well with books that skim over the surface anyway – I prefer a big reference tome with good contents and index that I can wade right into.
May 4th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
OK good luck with it and keep us updated. I was wondering about producing a demo in this myself, but came to the conclusion it was more useful to demonstrate ideas than skills.
Are you intending to use this for a full game or just to show the concept?
May 4th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Well now that depends on how useful it turns out to be. If it can deliver what we need in terms of basic rendering and simulation, then we may revise the implementation plan (which currently has us writing most of the engine from scratch)
June 10th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
Hi,
Torque…..interesting, I just got the Indie license myself. Good, good.
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A leader of Brave man
June 10th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Ack! I know what you’re after, you want free tech support for it, don’t ya. 😉 Code advice and help has to be paid for in kind with free textures/modelling 😀
As far as I can tell, you can make Torque look very attractive and polished, its just a shame that all of the demos they give away with it all look like Tribes 2, with their cheap heightfield terrains, and uninspiring lighting
June 12th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
I’m up for that, on the quiet like 😉
I’m also looking at QuArK or Worldcraft for interior spaces. Any prefrences?
June 24th, 2005 at 8:06 am
Sorry I didn’t reply before, Dundee commute sucks not only my will to live, but also my memory. I had a go at making things with QuArK (but to be honest couldn’t get the hang of it), but didn’t know about Worldcraft. Since we haven’t done anything other than test maps, both seem equally serviceable. 🙂