GarageGames: Developer Community Blogs

Kai Ludwig : April 2008: TalentRaspel publishes Open Source system for development of MMORPG - systems

Kai Ludwig — 2008-05-17T13:00:01+00:00

As at this time only free of charge available production proven and professionally supported system to develop massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) a completely revised version of the Torque MMO Kit has been introduced in April 2008 by the German company TalentRaspel. With this software the possibility of fast development and stable operating of professional 3D multi user gaming worlds has been enabled for smaller and middle MMORPG projects with medium-sized budgeting.

The complete press release can be downloaded here: www.vr-talentraspel.com/downloads/news_en.pdf
For the german version please use this link: www.vr-talentraspel.com/downloads/news_de.pdf

Guy Allard : Blue Marble - (warning - pictures)

Guy Allard — 2008-05-17T09:05:44+00:00

Having recently purchased TGEA, I thought I'd try and get to grips with shaders and materials. I stumbled across the blue planet demo during a random google search, and thought I'd have a go at producing something similar.

The result:

To model the earth, I used three spheres, one for the earths surface, a second sphere scaled up slightly for the cloud layer, and a third sphere scaled up again for the atmosphere.

The Surface of the earth is rendered by a custom shader using three textures
- a diffuse map with a specular map in the alpha channel, which limits the specular reflection to the oceans.
- a normal map that gives height to the mountains and valleys
- an emission map which illuminates the cities at night time.
The shader that renders the planet restricts the emission map to the dark side of the planet, so cities only glow at night time.

The cloud layer is a standard material which is rendered translucent, and is also bump mapped so that the clouds have depth.

For the atmosphere, I managed to port the shader from the the blue planet demo. The color of the atmosphere can be specified in the material definition.

The sun is a simple fxSunlight, and the moon is a single textured and bump-mapped sphere.
I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. As always, there's still plenty of tweaking to be done.

Anyway, I'll leave you with a few more gratuitous screenshots.

Earthrise

Europe at night

Sunset of West Coast USA

Chris Jorgensen : Xeno Sola Full-Featured Beta!

Chris Jorgensen — 2008-05-16T16:40:30+00:00

Hey there GG'ers.

I've got a beta available for my Carcassonne-style game, Xeno Sola. I'd love it if you could check it out and tell me what you think!

Any feedback would be great. Abstract bugs? Ideas for features? Or perhaps you know of a publisher who likes this sort of game? Please let me know. :)

Download here: www.xenoclone.com/downloads/XenoSola_Beta.zip

It's set to expire on May 31st.

Syllus : Loving TGEA 1.7 (Screens)

Syllus — 2008-05-16T04:54:39+00:00

Although I have been a member of the Torque community for a long time I do believe that this is my first blog post... ever. :) I'm not one to spout off with nothing to say but this time it deserved a post. The enhancements to TGEA 1.7 are incredible. It is not finished... but this is definately the best TGEA has ever been.

I wanted to post a few pictures of the project we are currently working on here at Black Skull Studios. I cannot as of yet divulge any information on it, but I am loving the way it is turning out in TGEA 1.7 so much that I wanted to at least drop a few screenies out here.

Once again, thanks GG for all the dedication and effort!

And without further adieu...

Phillip OShea : Torque: Gui Updates v0.1

Phillip OShea — 2008-05-16T04:11:21+00:00

Check out my last blog if you haven't already: Torque: Gui Updates.

Thanks to the support from the GG community, I have been slowly playing around with the TGEA level editor I displayed earlier. I now have incorporated all of the features that the current TGEA level editor supports and a few small tweaks here or there to have it all running nicely.

There is a bug with Torque where you can't remove tabs very easily, making my life a little harder. I had to modify the source in order to get it to work, but switching between editors now displays dedicated tabs. These tabs are just like normal, but only display under certain conditions. This is a feature that I need to expand upon before release, however.

The main reason I post this blog is to try to gauge what the community want from the GUI updates? There was enough support from you all to warrant me continuing with this project, but I would like to make it as friendly for everyone as I can.

I would also like someone from the community to provide me with some icons that I can use in the editor. There is a large array of icons that I require, but all I can offer you is including your name in the credits.

The two main ideas on my agenda are to allow users to add their own tabs and forms from the editor and to support dockable windows. These should enable you guys to configure the mission editor the way you want it, getting the most out of your time with the editor.

I am also thinking about moving some of the object manipulation elements to a context menu (reset transform, drop at location, etc). Let me know what you think. (Note: A context menu is a right-click menu dropdown)

Please post comments and ideas (don't ask me to rewrite the whole thing, just small features that make life easier) and I will do my best to incorporate them into this project.

Here are a few more screenshots:

Andy Hawkins : BRAVE Base Camp

Andy Hawkins — 2008-05-15T23:12:49+00:00

I've been trying to get some sort of physics solution into the game so when the aliens start blowing stuff up (like buildings) they do so realistically. At the moment I'm having trouble getting the physics objects to collide with the terrain or each other using the existing resources. A couple of members in the community have been really helping me out - thanks especially to Gary, Ron, Scott, Sam and mb. I think I've almost found what I need but I've been spending way too long on this tech and went back into world building last night and generated the base camp seen below.

What this represents is the army you start with in Mission 1 that you need to protect. I wont spoil the surprises that come during the game, but the basic idea is to protect as many of these guys as you can while blowing up aliens to maintain a support infrastructure. At the end of each level (sub-mission) you get a tally of whose left and a bonus for them - exactly like the human tally in Defender. As you progress through the mission you will lose more and more of them, with no immediate reinforcements (see below) so it makes winning the mission that much harder.

I've left the game design open-ended so in a sandbox situation you could let all your army die and try take on the aliens all by yourself. It's up to you! YOU determine the fate of the world.

I should have a public demo soon. Oh yeah, last pic is my atrocious player model (which will be replaced) but I'm using it as proof of concept for the clothing pipeline my sister is helping me with. I will have two base humans (male and female) with a myriad of skins and accessories to represent the remaining human race who wander around looking for protection. Pick one up and they become a soldier for the cause! If they survive a level they upgrade their skill to a profession - infantry, pilot, gunnery, engineer etc - so they can use vehicles and weapons left by previously killed humans.

Sounds like fun? I hope so.

Jeff Tunnell : An Itch That Can't Be Scratched

Jeff Tunnell — 2008-05-15T16:59:05+00:00

Being a serial entrepreneurial is almost an addiction. It is the thrill of starting new things that are nothing but promise, have no baggage, and cannot yet be fully quantified. Once the vision is mostly realized, however, the itch comes back, and the cycle starts all over again. For me, the time has come to start the cycle over again. GarageGames has mostly fulfilled it vision, and I will be leaving on 6/2/2008 to start a new company with another vision and a new set of promises.

GarageGames via Instant Action has become the publisher that I always wanted to work with, so that is one of the thing that I will be doing. As I was pulling together teams and helping decide which games were going to go on IA, it was literally killing me to not be in a more creative, game development position. Every day I was helping people do what I wanted to do, so finally I decided to find out how I could get back into start up mode. Josh Williams and IAC have been very gracious in working with me to create this new win/win situation.

I thought about writing a sappy post about how the GG vision changed the landscape of indie gaming, and took a sentimental trip back though my old .plans (blogs) to support a bunch of thank yous and milestone reviews. It was fun reading, but I'm not going to put you through that. But I do reserve the right to do so in the future on my www.makeitbigingames.com blog that I will continue to maintain and grow :)

Meeting all of the people in this community in real life and in virtual space has been the biggest reward of being involved in GarageGames. I don' think any of us will ever recreate the feelings of friendship and camaraderie we built during late nights at IndieGamesCon, GDC, and other ad hoc indie game developer meetings. Rubbing two sticks together to make a fire in the rain, as Jay Moore and I always put it, was thrilling, dangerous, and had so much meaning. Jay, thanks brother.

I won't be leaving this community, in fact, I still check in every day, and I will continue to do so in the future. Instant Action is going to be a hit, and I still want to help get it there, just in a different way. Stay tuned for more information about my new company. In the meantime, feel free to check out my personal blog at jefftunnell.wordpress.com or jefftunnell.tumblr.com or www.twitter.com/jefftunn . Mostly, you will read about Colleen and I's 200 acre sustainable farm, but more game stuff is on the way. Oh yeah, my email address is jeff.tunnell at gmail dot com.

See you all in the community...

-Jeff Tunnell, Co-Founder GarageGames

Michael Perry : What do you think about Documentation?

Michael Perry — 2008-05-15T14:10:25+00:00

***Greetings all!***

Let me get it out of the way right now:

This is a NO frills .plan. I wish I had some pretty pictures or wicked exciting news, but this blog exists purely for informative reasons. I'm tired, I just got back from an hour long dentist appointment, and I can't have my morning coffee because it keeps spilling out of my completely numb mouth. So, please forgive me if I can't scour the internet for LOLCat pics to post here =)

DOCUMENTATION
A dreaded word....Everyone WANTS it, a lot of people hate writing it, and the writing process will NEVER be finished since new versions of the engines are being released all the time. Thankfully, there is a group of people who still want to do the work, and even one insane person who actually LOVES writing documentation...ahem...

TGEA Started It All
During the TGEA 1.7 beta, I created a thread in the private forums: TGE 1.7 Documentation Feedback. The purpose of the thread was to provide a central location for TGEA users to post their feedback, criticisms, and suggestions for the new docs. The response was overwhelmingly positive, constructive, and key to getting new docs and fixes to the user for the release.

So, it's time to show the same attention to the users of the other awesome Torque engines. Stephen Zepp has created a thread in the TGB area, and every other engine has its own as well. Going a step further, the new threads are posted in the PUBLIC area, just to show some love to the people who have yet to purchase a SDK. Every opinion counts, and your feedback will help out in more ways than one. =)

TGEA Documentation Feedback
TGE Documentation Feedback
TGB Documentation Feedback
TorqueX (TX) Documentation Feedback
TorqueX Builder (TXB) Documentation Feedback

In each thread, there is an explanation, purpose, and suggestions on what we are looking for. Each thread will be monitored carefully, so let's get this rock rollin'

Edits: OK, I had to sneak in images. The plan was just too boring =)

Matt Vitelli : Day and Night System

Matt Vitelli — 2008-05-15T01:17:42+00:00

For the past few months, I've been actively pursuing terrain and skybox code to allow dynamic day and night cycles. Day and night cycles are important, especially in sandbox games. Currently, I've been getting some impressive results that are fairly inexpensive. Currently the code requires the use of a specific art pipeline. In time I plan on making the system completely automatic so developers are able to drop levels in and automatically generate the necessary media for the level. In the future, I also plan on having a per-surface detail mapping system allowing users to add as much detail as necessary to the scene. It would also be spiffy to implement a layers system similar to Id's tech 5.

Adam Beer has been extremely helpful in his testing, feedback, ideas, and thoughts. Below is a video he created using the new terrain and sky updates:

www.box.net/shared/xa4pvflcsc

Here is a YouTube video demonstrating the skybox system.

Here is a YouTube video demonstrating the terrain shadowing updates.

Stephen Zepp : TGB 1.7.3 released for PC and Mac!

Stephen Zepp — 2008-05-15T00:05:08+00:00

UPDATE: The Mac versions of TGB 1.7.3 are now available in your My Account link!

It's fun, it's super-charged, and most of all, it's a free upgrade...GarageGames is pleased to announce that Torque Game Builder 1.7.3 is released for PC!

Curse of the Pharoah--made with TGB

So what's new?

The 1.7.3 release is a combination of three major areas:

Physics enhancements, optimizations, and fixes

TGB's built in physics system has received a lot of love over the last couple of months, with super star Melv May leading the way to the most powerful TGB physics available. Here's just a quick list of the enhancements and updates:

*Added tick-physics smooth object rotation.

*Added tick-physics smooth particle interpolation.

*Added per-tick scene callback.

*Added "t2dSceneObject::getRenderPosition".

*Fixed tick-physics mounting issues.

*Fixed physics interpenetration issues.

*Fixed physics collision response issues.

*Fixed collision callback reporting issues.

*Fixed position-target system issue.

*Fixed mounting bug in t2dTextObject.

*Improved circle/poly circle/circle collision detection code.

*Improved t2dTrigger performance

*Improved contact-history renderer.

And a couple of quick videos if you missed them in the 1.7.3 beta announcement:

Integrated aStar Pathfinding
aStar Pathfinding has been available for TGB source code owners for quite a while now, but for the first time 1.7.3 makes this powerful capability available to binary owners with a fully integrated C++ algorithm built into the core engine.

Here's a small sample of some of the cool new things you can do with both binary and source licenses:

*Tile Map based weight grids to represent your world

*TorqueScript interface to path creation, following, and obstacle avoidance

*Real time modification of the weight grid with easy script calls

*High performance C++ implementation

New Game Demos and Enhanced Documentation
Through extensive effort from GG employees, interns and external consultants, we've greatly improved the reference documentation available with extended details on objects, method calls, and even game genres through the new Solitaire, Blackjack, Reactor, and BehaviorShooter demos.

We're excited about providing these new documentation and learning tools, and are looking forward to continuing to provide the information you want to make the games you love!

Community rocks!

Quite a few community members made this release what it is, and it wouldn't have happened without the users helping make TGB all it can be. Here are a few shining examples of community members that contributed their projects, effort, and ideas:

Fueling Melv's bug stomping machine with high calorie input:
Benjamin L. Grauer, Ken Pajala, Bruno Campolo, Patrick Shaw, Thomas Bang, Kevin James, and Wenceslao Villanueva Jr. -- by submitting their entire projects directly to Melv during the development of this release, we were able to cover just about every possible case where physics bugs could cause problems for developers. Thanks again guys!

Discussion is the spice of life!
Our products become better every time you, the users, let us know what you like, what you want more information on, and how you would like things to work differently--and here's just a short list of some of the folks giving us high quality feedback for this beta:

Mike Lilligreen, James Ford, Rodney Rindels, Marc Shaerer, Phillip O'Shea, and one of our most recent new TGB developers, Ola Falck Sprauten represented the community by asking questions about aStar, pointing out bugs and issues, and otherwise interacting directly with the developers of 1.7.3. Thanks!

Apologies in advance if I've missed anyone--everyone's posts, questions and suggestions are very beneficial!

"Thanks Mom, I couldn't have done it without you!"

Ok, so she didn't have a lot to do with this release, but there were a lot of folks behind the scenes that made this release possible!

Matt Langley -- From the documentation system assistance, to managing the external portions of this release, all the way to helping track down those hard to find bugs, Matt helped a ton with getting this release out the door.

Derek Bronson -- Derek was a fundamental driver in making sure this release became all it is--thanks for seeing the value in a part time prototype that set the stage for getting aStar into TGB!

Deborah Marshall -- some people think herding cats is hard, but it's trivial compared to wrangling developers--thanks for keeping an eye on things and making sure 1.7.3 went well!

Ken Holst -- the only guy I know who can even find bugs on Mother's Day--much respect man, much respect!

Paul Scott -- Mac users rejoice--without Paul's help, the Mac version of 1.7.3 wouldn't be released. Send this guy a beer, or at least an email if you can't fit a bottle through your network card!

Carribbean Hideaway--fun to the power of Torque!