Hello

So I have been tossing up the idea of whether or not to use Torque X to Develop our Games or Not. I have a read few posts on the subject but they were from a while back so i would like to get peoples opinions on the current Version.

So Here's what i found with it after testing it for a week. (Torque X 2D)

The Good
-The GUI makes it easy to apply sprites and collisions.
-Physics is also easily set on sprites.
-Setting low level programming Stuff can be done quickly like layers

The Bad
-Documentation. The amount of times i was like huh? what does this do and have no help on what it was.
-Forums Did not respond. I posted 3 times and did not get any replies. Maybe people just don't like me. lol
-The Torque book was about 70 dollars AUD and well it was lacking. Most of the stuff in there was things i worked out on my own or didn't actually explain what it was doing or what that piece of code actually did.

So that's my take, the main reason i ask for your opinions is because I haven't programmed in the last 4 years and have never used C# before but I hear its not to different from C++. Do you think we would be better off doing it souly in C# or continue with torque.

thanks!

My feeling is "no" -- in fact, that's the feeling I've gotten for anything I've tried from Garage Games, for some reason. (including TGE and TGEA for PC)

Hi,

beside any personal opinion about Garage Games the point is: first learn XNA using C# and get a good level of knowledge and independence on your own, then you can properly evaluate what any engine will give you as a plus. Every engine has goods and bads, so if that will be good for you it's something only you can properly evaluate.

In the long run you'll need an engine if you don't want to write your own (and I don't see the point in doing that beside learning more), so be sure to evaluate by yourself ;) Just like "It is better Maya or 3DS Max?" ... if you ask me I'll answer Maya, but you'll find a lot of people advicing 3DS Max, so you need to be able to evaluate by yourself (in the Maya case it's all about the workflow you like the most).

Cheers,
Pino

jwatte:

My feeling is "no" -- in fact, that's the feeling I've gotten for anything I've tried from Garage Games, for some reason. (including TGE and TGEA for PC)

That's pretty much how I feel too. I've given GG a couple of chances and they don't see to be that worried about TorqueX which makes me wonder why I should care about it.

PinoEire:

In the long run you'll need an engine if you don't want to write your own (and I don't see the point in doing that beside learning more)

While I agree in general with your post, I have to disagree with this particular statement. You can easily make a game without creating an engine. Most people who set out to create an engine first, not only never make a game, they seldom finish their engine, either. Many people who decide to use a third-party engine do fine until the one time they want to do something the engine designers didn't think of. No engine can provide for every possibility, so there is a high likelyhood that any game will run into this situation. Development shops with plenty of resources can deal with these situations fairly easily. Small (or one-man) indie shops often can't.

As to the OP's question, I tend to agree with jwatte. I found the GUI components and WYSIWYG layout tools to be nice, but beyond that the thing fell flat. However, it wouldn't hurt to work with Torque X and make a prototype of the game you have in mind. If you find that it meets your needs, then there's no reason not to use it. If you run into too many hurdles, then it's clearly not for you.

I think the Garage Games guys' biggest strength (well, before the founders all left after IAC bought it) has always been networking. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to reproduce the code in the TGE from scratch... that being said, you're pretty limited in what kind of networking is possible on the XBox anyway. So much of the stuff is done for you that I didn't see a lot of value in Torque X (I also have the book). The first prototypes I did of Filler used my own adaptation of APE (actionscript physics engine). As a test, I rebuild the prototype in TorqueX after I got the book and found the performance to be an order of magnitude worse (then again, it's a more complex polygonal collision system).

Thanks for your post's.

I would say no.

I have TGE, TGEA and TX3D. TGEA is probably the best in it's current incarnation, but TX3D has stuff all docs, the book actually cost me AU$115 (I got it from a store in Brisbane) and while it's relevant to the latest version, it was written before they were finished. Granted, John is about the only real help you will get on the forums as well, and he has better things to do. The whole TorqueX project has felt dead since the day they released the first version. There is apparently 1 programmer at GG working on it, but I have never seen them post. All the love is going into their new expensive baby Torque3D. I should have learnt my lesson after TGE but I didn't. I thought I'd get more docs with TX than were available with the demo, but I'm afraid that's all you're gonna get. The docs aren't even for the new version.

Documentation has been GG's weak point since the beginning. They're working on it, but at nowhere near the rate that is needed.

I could go on and on and on, but I think you've made the right choice.

David Hunt:

PinoEire:

In the long run you'll need an engine if you don't want to write your own (and I don't see the point in doing that beside learning more)

While I agree in general with your post, I have to disagree with this particular statement. You can easily make a game without creating an engine. Most people who set out to create an engine first, not only never make a game, they seldom finish their engine, either. Many people who decide to use a third-party engine do fine until the one time they want to do something the engine designers didn't think of. No engine can provide for every possibility, so there is a high likelyhood that any game will run into this situation. Development shops with plenty of resources can deal with these situations fairly easily. Small (or one-man) indie shops often can't.

Hi David,

I do agree that nobody will ever write a complete  engine on his own. Actually while posting I'd in mind not small engines like Torque X but the Autodesk middleware engines or the Id Tech 4 engine. If one is serious writing games and through XLIG actually can start going up, being approved for XBLA adn making some real money then there is no point in wasting time avoiding good and well established game engines to get more serious in the biz. Just my point of view ;)

Cheers,
Pino