More TGEA, and interface design
I recently posted a survey of opinions on the Torque Game Engine Advanced, but that didn't yield me a lot of responses so I decided to download the latest version and take a look. I'm doing this out of interest for a side project.
I finally realized why I, and perhaps many others, have such a hard time with Torque: the engine's interface (the API). Starting with the integration of application code with engine code (no engine library/DLL), the engine's interface is ill-defined. The architecture is a flat hierarchy, and it's difficult to find begin/end points. There's nothing particularly wrong with this type of architecture from a design standpoint, but from a user standpoint, without decent tutorials and/or documentation the barrier of entry is higher for a system like Torque.
My aim is not to detract from the Torque engine, as it's a very capable engine, but I think I now understand that the interface is what prevents the engine from gaining greater acceptance, and in some ways the high barrier of entry created by the lack of a well-defined interface may be turning away potential users.
As for myself, I may still use it, but I need to look at it more. The inherent lack of user focus (re: the person using Torque) in the system's design really bothers me.
But my biggest peeve? The toolset. Embedded Direct3D-rendered tool interfaces with custom widgets are so 1990's.
Filed under: Game Engines
Torque is a buggy pile of crap. And their support is non existent. They give source code so you can fix all the bugs in their shitty code so they don’t have to be bothered with supporting it or you… and you can only build similar Tribes style games with it..