GarageGames: Employee Blogs

Davey Jackson : Where's Davey?

Davey Jackson — 2008-05-07T07:38:45+00:00

Where's Davey?

Hello again. It's been a great couple of months here at the Tech'N Tools group (TNT). We've seen the release of two great TGB and TGEA updates as well as the launch of the new 3d Torque X 2.0. Spirits are high here at the Garage and with our associates and remote developers abroad as well. 2008 is getting off to a uber start and we have plenty more lined up with Torque X Builder 3d, and TGB 1.7.3 releases just around the corner.

With a great session of updates and development completed, it's time for me to hit the road again. Here are a few upcoming events I'll be presenting at where I would love to meet you:

North West Youth Career Festival

May 8th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland OR.
www.nwyouthcareersexpo.org/index.htm

IEEE Technology Summit

May 13th in Las Vegas NV
www2.computer.org/portal/web/techsummit2008/egandid

Game Education Summit
June 10-11 at SMU in Dallas TX
www.gameeducationsummit.com/index.php

I would like to put in particularly strong encouragement for teachers to attend the Game Education Summit. This is a first year conference aimed specifically at teachers interested in starting or improving Game Art, Game Design and/or Game Programming courses. In just a few short months the organizers have pulled together some of the most active contributors to game development education. The speakers are a healthy mix of experienced game instructors, and respected industry leaders including Warren Spector, Dr. Peter Raad and Don Marinelli. You are unlikely to find another group of presenters who are as dedicated to the advancement of game education as this group away from GDC (and at GDC there is too much going on for presenters and attendees to retain a whole lot). Additionally, the Game Education Summit is almost a THIRD of the price of the lowest session ticket prices at GDC. I'll be there, Mike Blenden will be there, Stephen Jacobs, Peter Brinson, Tom Carbone and several other GarageGames comunity members and educators will all be there as well. It's gonna to be awesome! Early registration closes on May 15th, so visit www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=155562 and register fast!

Stephen Zepp : Announcing TGB 1.7.3 Open Beta!

Stephen Zepp — 2008-04-29T00:07:03+00:00

GarageGames is excited to announce the TGB 1.7.3 Open Beta!

Remember all that talk about community participation and transparent development? We're doing it again. We've done a lot of work (probably way more than the point update would indicate) on TGB 1.7.3 and we want your help to make sure it's really solid before it goes out the door with the official GG stamp of quality on it. If you currently own TGB (Binary or Source), you're invited to participate in the next stage of TGB development!

Ice Wolf -- a TGB game used to help test the new physics changes

If you want to jump right in before reading the rest of this update and already own a license to TGB, you can head on over to your My Account page and get started downloading the TGB 1.7.3 beta installer.

Note: Our Mac installer is going to be slightly delayed, so unfortunately this beta is only for PC users. The Mac build is in the works, so rest assured that we'll have a Mac compliant version of 1.7.3 very soon!

What's in Store for TGB 1.7.3

This update is pretty impressive--from bug fixes to the physics system to quite a few performance optimizations to enhanced documentation and new features, we've got a lot to talk about, so settle down and get ready!

Physics System Updates

Melv May, coding monster that he is, has been hard at work for the last month on optimizing the physics system for TGB, working with many of you to resolve issues by utilizing your real world projects to discover and correct many of the problems the community has discovered while using TGB. He's made a number of optimizations of the underlying code to provide a leaner, meaner, faster than before physics system. Here's a non-exhaustive list of things that have been addressed for this update:

*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.

Some of this stuff is tough to "get" just reading the bullets, so Melv did a few video captures to show some of the bigger differences between the ways 1.7.2 handles collisions and physics in general to the new, much more accurate and efficient TGB 1.7.3. Check 'em out below:

Click any image to watch the movies

Physics System Theory Documentation
One of the things Melv discovered during his interaction with the community was that in some cases, the theory and best practices for optimizing the performance of a game wasn't clear enough to allow developers to properly use the systems the way they were intended. To help inform TGB developers of the best practices and underlying concepts of the TGB physics system, he's provided another of his amazingly detailed discussions to help illuminate the sometimes confusing details of TGB collision and physics. Here is just a sample:

Quote:

To explain collision contact and collision normal further let's bring back our objects "A" and "B". Imagine that
object "B" is stationary and cannot be moved no matter what; it's immovable. Now imagine that object "A" is moving right and hits object "B". When it hits it hits at the collision point (the collision contact) and that
collision has a collision normal as shown here:

New Game Demos and Documentation

The community has asked for new examples of how TGB can be used to make a variety of game types, and we've responded! Thanks to the hard work of Tom Eastman , Matt Langley and a member of our intern team, Robert Potter, we bring you some new game examples:

Reactor

Solitaire

As well as a Behavior based version of the Shooter Demo, Blackjack, and an enhanced Checkers Demo!

All of the new Game Demos come with full TorqueScript, images, and can serve as starting points for an even larger variety of game types for the new user.

In addition to the four new Demos, we've also greatly increased the reference level documentation of TGB's user API, providing even more detailed information on hundreds of TGB classes and their methods. Here's an example:

castCollision(float elapsedTime)
Description: Returns collision details for object over elapsed-time.
Params:
  elapsedTime: The number of seconds into the future to check for collisions. If this number is
 0.0, the collision will be done based on the current position of all objects. If it is greater
 than 0.0, the engine will perform the collision detection across a simulated time period of 
 length time and return the first collision detected.
Return:
  space separated list: If no collision occurs, the return value is an empty string. 
  Otherwise,  the list is in the form 'object time contactX contactY normalX normalY'. 'object' 
  is the object collided with, 'time' is the number of seconds in the future the collision took 
  place as a float (this number will always be less than the time parameter), 'contact' is 
  the position the objects collided at as a  vector, and 'normal' is the normal of the 
  collision as a vector.

Example(s):

// time - time to check for collision using current object setup.
// This function allows you to check to see if the object, usings its current setup, will 
// collide over a specified period of time. 

%obj.castCollision( 1.0 );

New Functionality: Built in A-Star Pathfinding

We always love to see users enhancing Torque to accomplish cool things, and it's even better when they decide to give back to the community the results of their hard work as a resource or asset for the community to use. Sometimes, the contribution is so nice to have that we decide it should become a core feature of future products.

One perfect example is the amazing work done by Phil Shenk on his resource A-Star Pathfinding Extension for T2D -- a C++ implementation of a very popular and powerful path finding algorithm used in hundreds if not thousands of 2D and 3D games.

Based extensively on Phil's resource, we're proud to announce that Torque Game Builder 1.7.3 now provides integrated A-Star Pathfinding for any TGB object. We've taken Phil's resource and provided a TorqueScript interface that allows even binary only TGB owners to use real time path finding within their game, including dynamic modifications of the world affecting current and future paths.

We've also written a new tutorial to teach the basics of the TGB aStar API, Attack of the Mutant Butterflies!

You have Become Better at Transparent Development (100)!

As I mentioned above, we've been very impressed with the community participation we've received so far during our Transparent Development strategy, and we're ready to take it to the next step: interactive development.

For the TGB 1.7.3 update, this will take place in two different ways:

Enhancement of the aStar Pathfinding feature for future releases

The aStar implementation provided with this update has some interesting features, but there's always room for improvement! Over the course of both the 1.7.3 open beta period, and in the following months we will be looking for active feedback and contributions to make the feature even more powerful for you, the community. We hope to see both developers brand new to TGB and power developers that have been with us since the beginning work together to further enhance the aStar capabilities built in to TGB.

A soon to be announced interactive project between GarageGames and the Community

I'll save the details for a .plan in the very near future, but we will be sponsoring an interactive development project for the community based on the aStar functionality. Stay tuned for further announcements, but I'll leave you with this teaser:

TGB 1.7.3 Beta Discussion/Reporting

Here are a couple of posts that should be used when discussing this beta, as well as directions for how to submit bugs:

TGB aStar General Discussion
How to submit bugs for TGB 1.7.3 beta
TGB 1.7.3 Installation/general questions

Full change list

Known Issues with TGB 1.7.3 beta 1

Kenneth Holst : Associates Program Exposed

Kenneth Holst — 2008-04-25T00:48:19+00:00

Hey everyone! Let's talk about the Associate Program here at GarageGames. You've probably come across Associates here and there as you visit different parts of the site. But let's take a moment to really ponder a deep and complex issue: what is an Associate?

To many, the process of becoming an Associate is shrouded in mystery and legend. What are the benefits and responsibilities of being one? How do I become an Associate?

Do I have to go through brutal training to be an Associate?

Most of the time, an Associate is simply found directly in the community by doing some kick ass stuff. Some things that jump out at us are:

An active forum presence. The way in which a person interacts with users of differing skill levels and the ability to be professional and respectful in sometimes-heated threads says a lot about their character.
Michael Perry has been a very active person in the forums as many of you know, and does a great job of this.
Knowledge of Torque and related technologies. Some amazing contributions to Torque have come from Associates! Jeff Faust and his AFX Packs, John Kanalakis and his TorqueX 3D work, and Josh Engebretson and his work on MegaTerrains for example.
Working with Betas and new tech. Submitting bugs and participating in discussions regarding the direction of current and future Torque products is part of the process of making Torque rock! John Kabus fixed lots of bugs and Joseph Greenawalt logged lots of bugs during the TGEA 1.7 betas.

An Associate wrestles with TGEA

So that's what Associates do for us. Here's a little of what we give back:

An increased level of communication. We take Associate feedback very seriously and communicate often with them regarding product roadmaps and the direction in which current and future products will be heading.
Early access. Everything from completely new projects, to major updates to current projects, and everything in-between are given to Associates before the rest of the community.
Work possibilities. We often have contractual jobs available for Associates to take on. Some have even directly led to full-time GG employment! David Blake has been working contractually with us and doing an awesome job as a forum moderator. Many of the people working here today at GarageGames have come from previously working with us as Associates.

In short, we try to take care of our Associates in any way we can and provide them with lots of interesting opportunities!

I would like at this point to extend a warm welcome to three new Associates and show you some of their latest kick-assery:

Rene Damm. Rene has spent a lot of time working on improving and fixing up Atlas, as you can see in the forums. From compiling fixes and bugs, to actually doing the grunt work and fixing them, Rene has been very interested in helping to make Atlas better for everyone.
Jaimi McEntire. Jaimi has made many, many contributions towards the improvement of Torque Constructor! Torque Constructor 1.0.4 is something he took upon himself, and the reaction to it has been great!
Chris Robertson. His Houdini Exporter Beta work and Milkshape Exporter speak for themselves. He also has a nifty resource for Multiple skins on a single model.

Can you spot Rene, Chris, and Jaimi in this picture?

So, what's next for the Associates Program? Well, one of my jobs is to run the program and make sure it runs in a way that makes both the Associates and GarageGames happy. I'll be investing a lot of thought into making the process more clear to the community as well.

We currently have about 75 Associates, some of whom are very active, and some who have moved onto other things. In the near future, I will be talking to the Associates to figure out what they want to get out of the program. We plan to make this program much more robust than it has been in the past. Ultimately I would like to see a smaller, more core group of individuals, working together to help make the GarageGames community great.

Thanks for reading, and congrats again Rene, Jaimi, and Chris!

Deborah Marshall : Survey Says ... TGEA 1.7

Deborah Marshall — 2008-04-18T23:40:28+00:00

Collecting information can be a tricky thing, especially with a community this large and diverse, but with your help and these fancy interwebs, we can try to learn all that's necessary to make smarter decisions. I don't want to imagine how I'd get this kind of info without it. Southpark painted a scary picture for me though. Back when I was a kid, I remember my father and me paying $3.95 per minute on the Sierra phone hotline to solve a particularly challenging puzzle in Conquests of Camelot. Now, if my sister tells me a ridiculous story about an elephant being able to paint pictures, I can verify her story pretty quickly.

With the TGEA 1.7 release we asked you guys for some help and suggestions. We've received a lot of information in the form of blog discussions and other on-line posts. We also asked you to take a survey about your thoughts on TGEA and 3D game engines in general. This is really important to us because we want to provide you with solid technology to make awesome games.

While we're already hard at work on our next release, there are plenty of open questions and we have a lot of ideas of what to do with TGEA, thanks to your feedback. In the interest of keeping the dialogue open, I want to share some preliminary survey results, as of April 18, 2008. All the charts are shown with the percentage response as well as the number of people who replied in that category. Of course, we know the survey has bias and is not the end-all of where we want TGEA to go, but it's good to get a little feedback on the feedback we received from y'all! ^_^

What do you want in a 3D game engine?

This is what you guys said want in a 3D game engine. As you can see, source code available, easy-to-use editors, smooth art pipeline, and extensive documentation were the most valued by users who participated in the survey. People are torn on whether they want to create games for the Mac, with almost a 50/50 split between caring a lot about Mac games and not caring at all. People seem to care least about actual development on a Mac. Some other things that people cared about not mentioned on this list were an affordable price, frequent updates, starter kits, and a good physics system.

How do you feel about TGEA?

After knowing how people felt about game engines in general, we wanted to know how TGEA ranked. The above chart shows all the responses we received, regardless of TGEA version number. TGEA's main strengths lie mainly in the community, which is no surprise to us. TGEA also scored high on PolySoup Collision, MegaTerrains, and multiplayer support. We scored just "all right" on our art pipeline and support, as well as the newly released Forge demo. We also received a flood of comments about TGEA, so here's a small subset I'd like to share, completely unedited in original form:

"The docs were nice but it didn't go into detail about mega-terrains. I would like to see a better physics implementation with a nice user friendly gui some day and same for particles."
"I used TGEA for a prototype. I think that there were many things that may be improved like importing custom shaders and how easy to use they were. I see that many features have been solved in TGEA 1.7 but havent tested them yet."
"It can be difficult for newcomers to the engine to pick up. Tutorials would be of immense benefit."
"TSE was a huge disappointment. The lack of OpenGL, and the poor performance of the engine made me consider it unusable, so I stayed with TGE. TGEA1.7 is the first release that I've seriously considered using for development again. I'm hoping that this trend continues."

How do you think the TGEA 1.7 betas went?

Of all the data gathered, nothing is quite as clear as the chart above. You guys obviously loved the TGEA 1.7 beta process and we loved it too because your input helped us make a more solid release. Some other comments you made on the beta process:

"I thought it was the best release of a Torque product. Just the smashing of the nasty bugs that put a bad taste in buyers mouths when the final is released and they are still there, was a great feeling. Having the community involved was really nice, because you were able to see the process of what was going wrong, and everyone actively fixing the bugs, rather than you wondering if a bug was actively being worked on (getting fixed)."
"The open development, fast communication and updates make this an example of how it should be done. Great job."
"For a short while there, it felt like we were back in 2002-3 when the GG community was really active. In my opinion, that community is 50% of the engine(s)."

So what does this all mean?

We're still figuring that question out. We know some of the directions you guys want us to go:

"I hope you guys continue to make GAMES, and not just develop tools, because I think that is the best asset for making a good engine. When Marble Blast Ultra was the only GG game running on TGEA progress was slow, but just having you guys working on Legions helped us as a community know that problems we might run into making a FPS game would be addressed because you guys would run into it first in testing. So I guess I'm saying whenever you are going to make a new big release for an engine, it would be nice to work on a demo of something, internally, that would really push the engine in the way that buyers would want to (like FPS, RTS, RPGs, the norms)."
"I want some kind of editor to make 3d games with 2d gameplay (for example, placing "3d tiles" in an editor and having them automatically aligned, having an isometric view camera, having optimized organization and rendering for that)."
"TDN Docs should be compiled together and made available offline. Spidering software for offline archiving does not work well with the TDN."
"I think you guys do great stuff. Since we need mac support we stuck with tge 1.52 and now could not change even if we wanted, too much custom code. I'd just love it if the new tgea terrain or at least its texture size would be ported to tge, thats the only thing sorely in need of a better look."

We have our own ideas about TGEA, ranging from improved documentation to specific features. I'm hoping in the comments that follow, you can expand on some of these results and keep giving your two cents. So type away. We are listening. We want to keep an open dialogue. We'll struggle some if we try to please everyone, but the more feedback we get from you, the better decisions we can make for the future of Torque engines.

And for you slackers out there, if you haven't already, take the survey. We have 160 responses so far, but I would be thrilled to have 1,600. Let you voice be heard and we'll do our best to keep Torque rockin'. ^_^

Kenneth Holst : TGEA Beta wrap up - thoughts and thanks

Kenneth Holst — 2008-04-07T23:36:18+00:00

Hello everyone. As you all know, we recently released TGEA 1.7.0 and have been very happy to hear some of the positive things people have had to say about it! We hope as you spend some quality time with this release that you let us know your thoughts via the handy survey link provided within the documentation, to help us better understand your needs and concerns as the end-users of this product.

One of the things we wanted to bring about with this release was to try to really include the community more in helping us track down bugs and submit feedback regarding the documentation as well as the various beta releases as they were handed off for you to bang away on. We got some great feedback and some really nasty bugs were found and squashed.

This Bombardier beetle represents a nasty bug quite nicely, no?

As Matt has stated previously in his own blog, you guys really came through in spades and we could not have done it without you! People submitted bugs in a well written, easy to reproduce format, and it paid off considerably when it came to adding them to our bug tracker and going through and fixing them. We are definitely going to continue working on improving this process of communication, sharing and collecting bug reports from you, and releasing regular betas and updates. I look forward to future betas and working again with all of you!

*Simulated GarageGames community member pointing out a couple of bugs.

I mentioned a while back that I would be coming up with some prizes and other goodies to give back to certain members of the community as a way of saying 'thank you!' for helping us to track down and squash bugs among other things. Initially, I had planned to come up with some metric or method of determining who specifically gets what. Well, that didn't happen this time. Due to time constraints I was pretty heads down working on getting this release into your hands as quickly as possible.

So, how did we decide who gets what? It was a pretty non-scientific process, involving talking between Matt and myself, going over submitted bugs, reading some tea leaves, and rolling some 12-sided die's I dug out my Dungeons and Dragons stuff in my parent's basement. In the future, I'm guessing we will have a little more time to dedicate to making the process a little more 'transparent' to the community.

So, this time around, we have decided to award to Rene Damm one commercial upgrade to TGEA (an $1195.00 USD value)

...and to Mike Rowley a cool $100.00 USD worth of merchandise of his choosing from the GarageGames store. Congrats guys, and thanks for the help with the TGEA beta!

Lastly, I want to reiterate once again what a big help all of you were in helping us to release this version of TGEA. Thank you!

Matt Fairfax : TGEA 1.7 is Officially Released!

Matt Fairfax — 2008-04-05T04:18:10+00:00

TGEA 1.7 is Officially Released!

After an extremely successful beta test (Beta 1 and Beta 2, TGEA 1.7.0 has been officially launched!

We absolutely could not have done it on our own and owe a huge thanks to our community and to some individuals who have helped us immensely: Tom Spilman, Michael Perry, John Kabus, Jeff Faust, Rene Damm, Joseph Greenawalt, Kirk Longendyke, Stephan Goebels.

I also have to give a huge thanks to Clark Fagot, Joe Maruschak, Brian Richardson, Andy Maloney, Pat Wilson, Robert Blanchet, Justin DuJardin, Dave Wyand, and John Quigley. They are the giants whose shoulders we stand on to bring you TGEA 1.7.0.

Lastly, I want to say a very special thank you to Brett Seyler, Deborah Marshall, Eric Fritz, Derek Bronson, Matt Langley, Ken Holst and Josh Engebretson. Ken and Josh in particular have been living and breathing TGEA 1.7.0 alongside me for the last few months. They have been there through the good, the bad, the ugly, and The Awesome and it has been an honor for me to work with them.

Cool New Features!

This FREE update to TGEA includes a ton of updates and new features. It is easier than ever for game developers to get up and running with the latest and greatest technology.

TGEA 1.7.0 brings:

1) GFX Power - TGEA 1.7.0's rendering is faster and more powerful than ever offering huge speed increases, full screen anti-aliasing, and support for non-shadered video cards. You can deploy your games to a much wider audience and trust that it will "just work."

"Gears of Torque" Video
2) MegaTerrains - The new MegaTerrain system includes all the amazing real-time terrain editing features of the original Terrain system along with the larger size that the forward thinking game developer demands.

MegaTerrain Flythrough Video
3) Polysoup Collision - We've taken Ben Garney's OPCODE Polysoup Collision implementation and extended it to better integrate with the environment and lighting. Quickly drop in your mesh objects and levels and get up and running with them in no time.
4) SFX Sound System - The brand new sound system provides proper abstraction and tools for using sound in games including a robust FMOD implementation.
5) New Content - There is a ton of new content in TGEA 1.7.0 including the jaw dropping Forge Demo and three new Player characters!

Forge Demo Video
6) Torque Build System - The new Project Generator automates generating up-to-date projects files. This powerful, modular system makes maintaining new code and staying in sync with your team a snap.
7) Getting Started - A primary focus of this new release is making sure that new users can get up and running on TGEA as quickly as possible. We have done this by making sure that TGEA owners have top notch docs available to help them hit the ground running. We are also providing a great selection of game examples to show tried and tested implementations of the most common problems you will encounter when building your game.

Hit the ground running! Get it? =P

Awesome Support

I touched on it above but I will reiterate: we could not have done this without the amazing GarageGames community. Your support for our Beta program was overwhelming. We really appreciate how professional and thorough your bug reports and bugfixes were. Moving forward we are going to continue to work closely with our customers, community, and Associates.

Your encouragement was so inspiring to us that I simply have to share a few of the comments that most warmed my heart:

Quote:

"I just got that "lump in my throat", "feel like I'm gonna burst" sensation that you get after getting out of an engineering final that you thought was going to be super hard, but you feel like you did really well, and now you're leaving the building with this joy and relief welling up inside that makes you want to scream and dance in the middle of campus, but you can't 'cause you might scare the other students. Yeah, that's kinda what it's like. :) I'm at work, so no screaming or dancing allowed."

- Ryan Mounts

"I have to say, even though I am at work right now I have gone through the new documentation and it is amazing how much difference a well organized set of docs can make. It looks great guys! Thank you and Congrats again!"

- Syllus

"Matt, Michael, Stephen, Jeff and the rest of you guys!
You simply make this place worth lingering in, totally great and awesome work (brushes off nose).
Im so pleased that I found, and choosed to use your engine -keep it up folks!"

- Christian S

"I just recently bought TGEA and was having a bid of an headache going through all the tutorials in TGEA. Then trying to convert some of the sample demos from TGE to TGEA. This new update is extremely helpful. Just wanted to say Thank You!
The documentation is great a help to new comers like me! :-)"

- Lathieeshe Thillainathan

"Now THIS is what I'm talking about! Kudos to the TGEA dev team, this is absolutely amazing!
This beta release of TGEA is what I've been needing for a long time wrapped up in one little neat package.
This is definitly a milestone for GG as a whole, and gives some great insight on what to expect in the future."

- Trenton Shaffer

Did you know that the Penny Arcade Adventures are being made with a version of TGEA?

What's Next?

GarageGames is committed to producing quality products. We will continue to work long and hard to improve our engines and our tools. You are going to start seeing far more frequent releases and bug fixes being pushed out to our customers. But we need your help! Keep offering us professional bug reports, keep giving useful feedback, keep pitching in to make things better for all of us. In that spirit, we would love to get to know you and your needs better and ask that you take a few minutes to fill out a quick survey for us:

Survey

* I know those of you who have been paying attention have seen some of the same features highlighted in my previous blogs =). Since we are putting some major effort into marketing TGEA 1.7.0, this blog is going to be reaching a much wider audience and we felt it was important that they get to see all of the cool things that are in TGEA 1.7.0.

Matt Fairfax : Torque Game Engine Advanced Open Beta 2

Matt Fairfax — 2008-03-29T02:09:34+00:00

Full of Awesome!

What an amazing community! It has been just over a week since we released the TGEA 1.7 Open Beta 1 and it is hard to believe how much you guys have pitched in and helped!

We've been working hard to address your bugs and to roll further improvements into TGEA 1.7 and I am proud to share that with you as the TGEA 1.7 Open Beta 2!

You can go grab it from the TGEA download link on your My Account page. Quickly! Go get it!

What am I getting myself into to?

We've managed to pack in a ton of fixes into this release!

I could not have done it without the amazing help of Josh Engebretson, Tom Spilman, Michael Perry, John Kabus, Jeff Faust, and Stephen Zepp. These guys have really pitched in to help, going above and beyond the call of duty!

You can see a list of all of the changes we've rolled into the release here:

Sound files (.ogg) are now being properly included in the installer (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73290)
fxShapeReplicator should now clean up properly when applying changes (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73281)
The lighting system now correctly samples the lightmaps underneath the Player for its ambient lighting (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73224)
Changed to TGE message boxes to work correctly in fullscreen (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73287)
Fixed the mipmap wrapping related terrain edge seam (fixed function and shader) (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73224)
Added some code to GuiCanvas::setVideoMode() to handle 0 sizes for the resolution dimensions (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73259)
Fixed a typo in the configureCanvas() script code that was causing the resolution width to be blank when having to fallback from a resolution too large in windowed mode
Fixed a comparison in configureCanvas() that was causing it to falsely think fullscreen was windowed (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73289)
Applied fix for when Player SplashEmitter is not present (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73340)
Fixed some of the incompatibility issues with integrated Intel video cards (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73350)
Fixed problems with ganerating a new mission (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73304)
Fixed dynamic field rename and deletion in the Inspector (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73245)
Now validating TerrainBlock clipMapSizeLog2 and texelsPerMeter settings (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73473)
Terrain Texture Editor now properly handles multiple TerrainBlock's (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73465)
Made it so that you can't walk up walls on polysoup collision TSStatic's (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73244)
Fixed all of the references to #include "game/<file.h>" (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73510)
The WheeledVehicle wheels render again (with shadow) (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73352)
Removed the unused buildresults.html (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73226)
Fixed weapon push back and aim being affected by Trigger's (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73348)
Fixed multiple Atlas issues (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73515)
Shadows no longer project through polysoup TSStatic's (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73243)
- The TerrainBlock rendering code will skip the detail texture pass if no detail texture is specified (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73325)
Fonts now correctly generate themselves on non-US English versions of Windows (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73257)
PrimBuilder::end() now takes an optional argument which can be used to override its default behavior of calling setupGenericShaders(), (which calls disableShaders())
Fixed translucent material handling to work correctly when 'mMaterial->translucent' is set, but 'mMaterial->translucentBlendOp' is set to None. This enables pure alpha test materials without any blending.
Fixed mMaterial->alphaTest and mMaterial->alphaRef to be set on CustomMaterial.
Fixed an incorrect use of IF in the compile.bat files
Added game/shaders to include path for relative imports
Clean up InteriorSimpleMesh's on Interior deletion
Fix the incorrect network packing of mConeOutsideVolume
Added a fix for getting the client side SFXDescription
The Weapon Picker in T3D is now functional
Fixed the mounting code in GuiObjectView
Fixed off center text in the loading bar
Majorly sped up mission loading for singleplayer and hosting servers
Datablocks were not being sorted correctly before transmission
Debris was not rendering correctly
Fixed dynamic lighting attenuation for non-normal mapped materials
Added better Inspector fields validation
Fixed some uninitialized data on the TerrainBlock that could cause a crash on in the WheeledVehicle
Added the buggy data and scripts to T3D (have to add it in the Mission Editor or spawn as it)
Improved the Terrain Painter functionality: left-click to select active block for painting. This avoids the Terrain Painter from going crazy as you mouse over terrain.
Fixed dynamic lights bug with CustomMaterials
Beefed up the GFX device creation code to handle falling back from incompatible settings and attempt to find something that works
Added toggle to allow you to enable DRL as long as FSAA isn't turned on
Cleaned up the version numbers and versioning scheme in the engine and application
Fixed stack overflow in Mission Editor selection (deselection via script was disabled)
Container::castRay() was not properly filling in the distance parameter
Did a nice polish pass on the Documentation
The TerrainBlock's will now send position changes across the network (like when applied in the Inspector)
The Inspector datablock fields should properly filter according to datablock type
Applying a new datablock in the Inspector now works properly

A little goodie for you!

One of the most exciting things that this release brings, is a solid version of the Forge Demo that we are happy to be able to share with all of the people who have yet to purchase the TGEA SDK (shame on you ;).

Click here to download the Forge Demo

What's next?

One of the coolest things that Brett hit on in his recent blog about the whole IAC deal is that we finally have the resources to properly follow through on our releases and to continue development. We no longer have to immediately move on to something totally unrelated in order to keep the company afloat. This means that you are going to be seeing a lot more frequent updates to our products (measured in weeks and months rather than in years).

Our bug list for the TGEA 1.7 Release is getting pretty short and Beta 2 is very nearly a release candidate. Assuming no show stopping bugs pop up (*knocks on wood*) we will be launching TGEA 1.7.0 really soon! But don't worry if your particular issue hasn't been fully addressed. We are going to continue active development on TGEA and you will be seeing the fruits of that labor much sooner rather than later.

Final Stretch

With all of that in mind, I want to further encourage people to help us find bugs and to continue to offer feedback. You have our ear and our attention...now it is up to you to put it good use!

Joshua Dallman : Download Shelled Online to Review

Joshua Dallman — 2008-03-28T19:57:42+00:00

Shelled! Online is ready for its first public playtesting. I'd appreciate the time that anyone takes to download and playtest this game. The new version works with an X-Box 360 controller, so if you've got one, plug it in and get shelling.

VIEW THE README
http://www.redthumbgames.com/shelledonline/shelledonline_rc1_readme.pdf

DOWNLOAD THE GAME
http://www.redthumbgames.com/shelledonline/shelledonline_rc1_standalonepc.exe

RATE AND GIVE FEEDBACK
http://www.redthumbgames.com/shelledonline/gamefeedback.php

Shelled! Online is a realtime multiplayer 3D artillery combat game made with the Torque Game Engine. Up to 8 people can play together in an online game. Survey your radar to find the best target, turn to face your target, set your angle and shot power, then fire! Watch the result from the air and detonate your shot at any time. If you shoot too high or too low, adjust your angle or shot power accordingly and keep trying until you land your shot. When your jets are recharged, you may fly to a better position for either offensive or defensive purposes. You can also fire shots while flying. All shots you fire deform and change the landscape. Use terrain defensively or against your opponents. Shelled! Online is a Red Thumb Games production and is copyright (c) 2008 Red Thumb Games / Joshua Dallman.

No dedicated servers are yet online to host games, so you'll have to host your own (see readme). However you can still customize your tank avatar now for future online play. Email me or post here with your favorite tank creations!

Note that some game text such as informational text in the tutorials or mission design may be updated and other minor graphical changes, bugfixes, and play balancing and timing may yet still occur before the final release version. However, please still report all bugs you encounter.

Thanks for the feedback and have fun!
(remember to use the feedback form above though you can still post here)

Josh

Brett Seyler : Torque's 2D and 3D Future

Brett Seyler — 2008-03-26T22:08:34+00:00

There have been a lot of hints and rumors about what GarageGames has planned for Torque in recent months and with this post I am ready to reveal much if not all, so prepare for a window into GG like you guys haven't seen in quite a while. This post will focus on our development process for Torque products at GG and our plan for some future releases in 2008 and beyond.

The Process

We've done a pretty poor job communicating this stuff in the past. We use a lot of internal references publicly that get misunderstood and Torque users start asking questions like: "When will Juggernaut get released?" or "Will Torque 2 support DX10?" etc. These are totally fair questions because, again, we've been less than clear. I'm approaching this post with the goal of making all such terms, especially "Juggernaut" and "Torque 2" plain and clear. I'll silently cross my fingers and hope for a temporary blessing of better writing skills than I generally have :)

OK...first up, let's clarify some terms. Juggernaut. What is Juggernaut? Joe Maruschak and a few others from GG have explained this in forum posts and comments, but I don't know if it's ever really been put in the big picture context. Juggernaut started out of necessity and has since become an instrumental part of our Torque development process.

Juggernaut began because we had 3 separate game engine codebases that all shared roughly the same fundamental pieces, but didn't share a core code repository. This was a big pain in the butt. Soon it became clear that merging these code bases was a necessary part of continuing to support the Torque line of products. Merging all these things, taking all the fixes from every game we'd ever worked on and every engine repository we had, and coming out the other side with a better, tighter, more stable engine would be no small task, as you can imagine. Nevertheless, developer magic prevailed and today Juggernaut is quite a machine.

Juggernaut's features at present still lag behind some of our current products. The performance is better but TGB 1.7.2 is overall a better product than the version of TGB in Juggernaut. There are more current features in TGB 1.7.2, but moving TGB 1.7.2 to a version on the Juggernaut code base with the same features would be a great improvement.

In the case of TGEA, version 1.7 actually takes the best of what's in Juggernaut and adds functionality to that (like multiple terrain tiles). The end-run goal here is keep all our products up to date on the same code base. We're moving very quickly toward that goal. TGEA 1.7 is the first step. It would be reasonable to expect similar updates to TGE and TGB to move those products (still on the older, incompatible code bases) to the new unified code base.

A unified code base has obvious benefits to both GG staff and to Torque users. For us, it's much easier to maintain and update Torque products. For you guys, there are more frequent and cross-product updates in addition to project portability. This means we can also do really cool stuff like share TGEA features with TGB. Want Torque X style shaders in your 2D game? Yes. We will be able to do this. Networking? Shouldn't be too much of an issue. There are a number of feature combinations that we can present in TGE, TGEA, or TGB, all of which add value across the board.

So this is all great right...Juggernaut is where all the the features of Torque live and play happily together. But there's more. Juggernaut is what our internal game teams use to create cutting edge games like Legions, and what external teams use to create games like Penny Arcade Adventures, Cyclomite, Metal Drift, etc. This means that code is constantly battle-tested in the most demanding conditions possible. It's basically used only by professionals *very* familiar with Torque who can operate with largely undocumented code, command line or very user-unfriendly tools, and the occasional quirk or instability.

We watch the use of features in Juggernaut very closely and gather feedback from the pros using it to improve performance and stability. Only when features have been through this process of shipping games do we gather together the fixes and features necessary for an update to TGE, TGEA, or TGB.

What about "Torque 2" ?

Speaking of poor communication...what does "Torque 2" mean? Is it a new engine? A collection of features being developed in Juggernaut to eventually be released in Torque? We have not done a good job talking about what this meant for Torque owners and I want to really help clear this up from both a process standpoint and a product standpoint. Here goes...

"Torque 2" does not mean Torque 2.0, TGEA 2.0, or any other version number of a Torque product. It's another case of an internal reference (like Juggernaut) being used publicly in a way that's been confusing. We talk about "Torque 2" internally to refer to our R&D repo. This is where new features are created and large refactors are done. When a change is too big or too low level to go straight into Juggernaut, it's handled in a separate R&D repo. One of things we do when brainstorming what sort of work should be done in R&D is say to ourselves, "OK, what do *we* need to make the kinds of games we want to make on the PC, OSX, Xbox, Wii, PS3 and InstantAction?" We take a broad look at the pieces of the engine we're least happy with and decide what can we do to improve it both for us and for Torque users. There are no sacred cows in this repo... things get shredded in the name of greater efficiency and feature sets.

A great example of a shortcoming that can only be addressed in the R&D repo is Torque's long-chain class hierarchy. It can be a big pain to work with and the consensus pretty much industry wide is that components are better. Moving from a fat class hierarchy to components is *not* a move that could happen in small steps and keep the engine stable and useful for us or for 3rd party developers who want to use our tech (i.e. Juggernaut). It's a long process, but big steps have been taken in R&D to swap our hierarchy for components. When this feature is stable enough to be useful for professional development, it will be put to use by our internal teams and 3rd party developers.

Another great example of a massive R&D change that happened in the "Torque 2" repo was Juggernaught itself... when we were first getting that started, it was a massive, fairly destructive R&D project and it's been built back up to stability over time. After the technology in "Torque 2" stabilizes, we move it to "Juggernaught", which is our pre-release repository and proving ground. From there, it gets used by us and other teams who aren't afraid of the lack of tools, documentation, and rough features in games, in order to smooth out the rough edges, fix bugs, tune performance, and all that good stuff. After putting a Juggernaught version though the rigors of shipping commercial titles, we go through the arduous process of creating tools, improving usability, and writing documentation for it. These are the final pieces necessary for a Torque product release.

So the process is this...

You'll note that there are lots of pieces from R&D that have gone to full production and there's much more in the works. This is a process that really works and ensures that you're working with the same technology that builds all Torque's best games. There's a lot to be excited about for future updates to Torque products. Speaking of which, let's pull the covers off our plans for 2008!

Opening up Development

From now on, with every opportunity we can, we're going to do beta releases on products so that we can get your feedback during development. This is just the first step toward a transparent development process that we talked about months ago. The TGEA 1.7 beta is the first time we've done this in a while, but not only do we want to do this every time we have a big release, we also want to find ways to get more of you involved. Right now, the open beta for TGEA is open, but before that, we also did releases closed to GG Associates. Associates are basically GG community superstars, but there are many of you out there who can help just as much and we want your input too. We're in the midst of building a web interface to support this kind of community development and feedback. If it goes well, you all will be able to use this system to host, track, and communicate about your own projects as well.

The impetus to open up development has been driven by another key component to Torque's success. You. There are tens of thousands of Torque licensees in the GarageGames community. A large percentage of you have been *incredibly* generous in helping us improve the technology. Whether it's guys like Jeff Faust, John Kabus, Melv May, John Kanalakis and Tom Spilman who create incredible products that extend Torque's capabilities or make it easier to use, or superstars like Josh Engebretson (of Minions of Mirth fame) who selflessly contribute improvements and bug fixes, all because they want the community to benefit from a better Torque. They aren't employees, but they're part of what keeps Torque such a strong technology and they deserve *massive* credit for helping GG deliver a game development better experience to you. So, to all those mentioned and all the rest of you that have contributed to our codebase over the years, thank you!

Torque Products

The TGEA 1.7 open beta here is going really well and we're looking at squashing 90% of the bugs that have been reported by full release. This is the best Torque engine that's been released to date and it's all FREE for current TGEA owners.

TGEA 1.7 is bound to ship in April and it's our best Torque engine to date. Just as TGEA has moved to Juggernaut codebase, so will TGE and TGB. That move will ensure greater stability and vastly improved performance. As new R&D is merged into Juggernaut daily, we'll be looking at new features to bring to TGE and TGB as well. There are some really exciting possibilities! On top of that, documentation and learning resources on all Torque products should improve dramatically. This means more updates to all the current Torque products before the year is over.

We've been listening and we know what you're looking for. There are exciting projects in the works here including porting Torque to new consoles, supporting new platforms, enabling new publishing options, and of course, lots more great games to inspire and motivate development. We're all going to keep working overtime to make Torque as great as the community that uses it. Again, *huge* thanks to all who've been exceptional, selfless contributors to the community over the years. You're the ones who make Torque great.

Finally, A Pre-emptive Q&A (with myself)
Q. Can I Buy Juggernaut?
A. You wouldn't want to. Working with Juggernaut as is can be very difficult and as of this moment, TGEA 1.7 is everything Juggernaut is. If you really want SVN access and to sign a crazy tightass EULA and NDA (because there's lots of stuff in there that can't be public...e.g. the Torque 360 code is in there and that contains proprietary MS info), then yes, maybe. It's a PITA for us and it would be expensive for you so nine times out of ten the answer will be no. If you become a GG Associate, you will have SVN access to our current Torque projects in development though and can participate in closed betas.

Q. Which of the releases for current products will GG charge for?
A. Not TGEA 1.7. Beyond that, we can't say. I would prefer if we established a more set time line for paid updates. TGE went years without GG charging for updates. TGB has been over 3 years. It really depends on what goes into the releases. Obviously development requires that we pay our guys, so at some point we'll have to charge, but as always, if we do, you'll get more than your money's worth.

Q. When will we see OpenGL support in TGEA?
A. Ahh...should have added that to the R&D bubble in the last graphic. There is work being done on it right now, but talking about a delivery date is still premature.

Q. How do I become an Associate?
A. There is no hard and fast rule of what qualifies a good candidate for Associate status. It is usually rewarded to long-time GarageGames members who show continued contributions of quality work to the community. Candidates should above all be helpful and willing to share their knowledge with the community through the forums or blogs. A professional attitude is expected when interacting with others in the community. Associates are looked up to by other community members, so it is important to present a good example of how a professional developers should interact with their peers. It is possible that some members who should be associates have been overlooked, if you know of such people, you can nominate them by e-mailing us.

Deborah Marshall : GDC, TGB, You and Me

Deborah Marshall — 2008-03-21T16:35:03+00:00

Okay, so it's been a month since GDC, but I have to admit that I'm still recovering. The deluge of e-mails that follow such a huge gathering of developers is always a bit overwhelming. I got back to my desk on February 25th, looked down at my gi-normous pile of business cards, and didn't even know where to start. It was invaluable meeting so many Torque owners. I talked about every subject imaginable: what's cool about Torque, what sucks about Torque, casual games, WiiWare and XBLA games, you name it, I discussed it. It was awesome to meet so many of you and I hope to continue passing notes back and forth as you finish projects. (Hint: I love prototypes, alphas, betas, and all sorts of early versions of games! Send them my way! ^_^)

It really is true that you learn something new every day, but that goes triple for every day spent at GDC. For someone like me who is supposed to be an expert on what's going on with Torque, it's amazing to discover just what I don't know. Because it would be impossible for me to discuss everything, I'm going to limit myself to Torque Game Builder-related topics. But for those of you who ninja'ed other information on Torque out there, feel free to reply to my blog and let the world know.

Interesting TGB Tidbit #1: GarageGames has no idea how many games have been made with TGB.

It's embarrassing, but true. I've been trying really hard in the past few months to compile a list of everything made with Torque, and I felt pretty good walking into GDC. It's not so bad having your bubble burst for such a good reason. Here are two games I discovered at GDC that you might find interesting:

Creative Kingdom's Bubble Warrior: A fun side-scroller game where you play characters from the popular Thai cartoon of the same name. The game is still in active development and should have more playable characters soon. I ended up chatting with two guys from Creative Kingdom about their use of TGB to make Bubble Warrior. They are planning on making more commercially-licensed games for Thailand TV using TGB. I'm looking forward to seeing what they cook up next.

Thai studio Creative Kingdom lights up with Bubble Warrior

Eric Robinson's Kanji Kami: If you're interested in learning Japanese, like I am, than Kanji Kami is for you. Players take on the role of Matsuo Basho as they collect kanji characters with targetted radicals. Not only is the game beautifully stylized, it also promotes learning kanji in a much more accessible way than strict memorization. Eric Robinson, the guy who created Kanji Kami, and I ended up talking quite a bit in the booth. We found out that we both taught English in Japan on the same program, and that we both ended up using our time abroad to pursue our true passions: he made this game, and I wrote a novel.

Learn Japanese with poet Basho in Kanji Kami

Because of GDC, I've added about a dozen or so projects to the Powered by Torque list, and I'm adding to it all the time. If you notice anything missing on the list, please e-mail me and I'll add it on, ASAP.

Interesting TGB Tidbit #2: Platformers are the gateway drug into 2D game dev.

At GDC, there is a good mix of new and experienced game developers running around. Because part of my mission at GDC was to find interns for GarageGames, I ended up talking to a lot to aspiring game developers. There was an overwhelming number of students who choose 2D in order to make platformers. In fact, we got a little flack because so many students wanted to make a platformer, but the current TGB documentation and tutorials have very little support for that type of game.

I can hear Phillip O'Shea doing a happy dance right now because he just released the TGB Platformer Kit on the GarageGames site. Honestly, he couldn't have been working on this project at a better time. Here's another example of one of our awesome community members filling a need before we even saw it. Thanks a bunch, Phillip!

A Demon smiles with large bottom teeth in the TGB Platformer Kit

Interesting TGB Tidbit #3: There's a ton of TGB documentation if you know where to look.

Probably the most valuable thing I observed at GDC was the different way people liked to play around with our game engines. After watching people for two days, I saw a few patterns emerge and wrote down all the different ways people had tried to learn TGB for the first time. I was able to try out my new list on the last day in the booth, when one college professor approached me and wanted to know how he could learn TGB not only for himself, but also to teach his students. Here are the different places I told him he could start:

1. Go through the official TGB tutorials: You can find them by going to the "Help" drop down menu in TGB, clicking on "Documentation," and clicking on "Behavior Tutorials" and "Tutorials" in the left drop-down menu. Depending on what game you want to make, you can go through each tutorial in order, or you can pick and choose which ones are most appropriate to your game. These documents are available even if you are off-line.

Expandable lists make it easy to access official TGB Tutorials
2. Check out the TGB tutorials on TDN: Besides the official docs listed above, we also have a great page of tutorials you can find on the Torque Developer's Network, our community-managed wiki. HUGE props go out to Mike Lilligreen for largely taking over the maintenance of this part of TDN. To give you an example of this guy's work, he ported over GarageGames's Rainy Day Tutorial to TDN within 24 hours of Derek Bronson posting it. Lightning fast!

In the spirit of helping people learn tutorials, I also took a few hours and made this video version of the Rainy Day Tutorial. Feel free to check it out and give me feedback on whether it's useful to you!

Mike Lilligreen, we salute you on TDN's TGB page
3. Tinker around on the Behavior Playground Demo: For those people who have programming experience, I suggest modifying the Behavior Playground Demo that comes with TGB. Behaviors are little bits of functionality you can assign to an object, and they make TGB easier to use because you can simply assign script files to different objects to make them behave in a similar manner. To open the Behavior Playground, go to the place where you installed TGB, then click on the following path: Games > Behavior Playground > project.t2dProj. The script files for all the behaviors in the demo are under the "Behaviors" folder, so once you want to figure out how something works in TorqueScript, you can easily find its script file in the folder.

So many objects to play with in the Playground
4. Make a friend on our community forums: The above three suggestions will get you pretty far, but you'll need help at some point. That's where our community comes in. If you don't own TGB, you can access free user forums to ask questions as you use trial version of TGB. Once you own TGB, you can access a more comprehensive forum community.

You've got questions? The TGB forum guys have answers

Ultimately, I'm grateful I had the chance to meet so many of you at GDC. For those of you that couldn't make it, feel free to drop me a line (deborahm AT garagegames DOT com) and start an on-line conversation with me. I'm not going to know what's on your mind unless you talk to me. And as great as GDC is, it's just not feasible to meet everyone at any one event. I hope you stick around and add your name to this list of people who are proud to use TGB to make their own games. And stay tuned as we have more in store for this great 2D engine.