Torque Game Engine
Encyclopedia
The Torque Game Engine, or TGE, is a 3D computer game engine
originally developed by Dynamix
for the 2001 FPS
Tribes 2
. The Torque engine and its many derivative products are available for license from GarageGames
, a company formed by many members of the Tribes 2 team at Dynamix. GarageGames was later acquired by InstantAction
, but on November 11, 2010, InstantAction announced that it was winding down its operations and looking for potential buyers for Torque. As of January 19, 2011, GarageGames announced their return to their old name and with new owners. Torque3D (as well as most of their other products) are continuing to be developed and supported.
Several notable commercial titles developed using the Torque engine include Blockland
, Marble Blast Gold
, Minions of Mirth
, TubeTwist
, Ultimate Duck Hunting
, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa
, ThinkTanks
, The Destiny of Zorro
, Penny Arcade Adventures and most recently, indie video games S.P.A.Z. and Frozen Synapse
.
creation. The source code
could be compiled for Windows
, Macintosh, Linux
, Wii
, Xbox 360
, and iPhone
platforms. TGE shipped with starter kits for a first-person shooter
and an off-road racing game. A real-time strategy
starter kit was also available as a separate purchase. These starter packs could be modified to suit the needs of the developer, or the developer could start from scratch.
The engine supported loading of 3D models in the DTS file format
and the DIF file format. The DTS models could be animated using either skeletal animation
or morph target animation
. It was also possible to blend multiple skeletal animations together by playing them simultaneously or automatically tweening
between the different positions of bones in the skeleton. DTS models were typically used for characters and vehicles though occasionally, they were used for buildings and interiors. DIF models have pre-calculated lighting
and as such are ill-suited for animation. Instead, they were used for buildings and interiors. They automatically had bounding boxes
that perfectly match the visible geometry. This was so that it wasn't made overly difficult for a player in a Torque Game Engine game to move or fire weapons around them.
The game featured a terrain engine that automatically created LODs of the ground so that it rendered the fewest polygons necessary at any given time. The terrain was automatically lit, and textures applied to the terrain could be blended together seamlessly. The game's rendering engine featured environment mapping, gouraud shading
, volumetric fog, and other effects such as decals that allowed for textures to be projected onto interiors in real time (for example, a player in a Torque Game Engine game might fire a weapon that left a bullet hole in the wall. The bullet hole would be a decal). Torque supported networked games over LAN and the internet with a traditional client-server architecture. Server objects were "ghosted" on clients and updated periodically or upon events.
s, per-pixel lighting, and massive terrains. This version of the engine has been ported to Microsoft's Xbox
and Xbox 360
console systems. Several Xbox Live Arcade games have been released using the Torque engine, most notably Marble Blast Ultra
.
Although TGEA supported the existing Torque Legacy Terrain, TGEA incorporated entirely new terrain
rendering engine, the Atlas Terrain Engine, which is an improvement over the blended terrains of TGE. Atlas used GPU hardware to render a massive terrain block and its textures. This allowed Atlas to scale with faster systems of the future. A shaded water rendering system was implemented with full reflection
, refraction
, and Fresnel reflection. TGEA incorporated a lighting system based on Torque Lighting Kit, including a light manager tool, scene lighting, and dynamic shadows among others.
Torque Game Engine Advanced 1.0 supported Direct3D
rendering via an API-independent graphics layer. Future versions were expected to support both Direct3D and OpenGL
pipelines to allow TGEA to support Macintosh and Linux
platforms as well as Windows
. There had also been planned TGEA compatibility with Microsoft's game development suite for the Xbox 360
, XNA Game Studio Express
.
TGEA contained several ready-to-apply shaders and common shader settings. Custom shaders based on High Level Shader Language
could be compiled by the engine and applied as custom materials. This could be applied to both interior and exterior type 3D art assets. Fallback materials could be configured to allow support of pixel and vertex 1.x first-generation video cards.
Development History
February 10, 2009 New release of TGEA, TGEA 1.8.1
April 5, 2008 New release of TGEA, TGEA 1.7
February 15, 2007 Production release of TGEA 1.0 and end of Early Adopter Program
January 23, 2007 Release 4.2 Beta.
(2009, Broken Rules, WiiWare).
. It added a variety of enhanced lighting features to the Torque Game Engine. In the latest release, features such as dynamic lighting
and shadowing were added. Torque Lighting Kit was later included as part of Torque Game Engine 1.5 and Torque Game Engine Advanced. In 2008, Kabus and Synapse Gaming
stopped supporting Torque, began a partnership with Microsoft
, and packaged their lighting technology and other new tech into the Sunburn XNA Game Engine.
. Many of the 3D features were left incomplete and never finished. Specifically, 3D terrain using RAW height maps suffered from a lack of working examples, shadows were substandard (consisting only of a spherical shadow texture projected on the terrain), the ability to use skinned meshes for animated models was not working (non-skinned meshes worked), and the 3D rigid-body physics suffered from several issues.
$75.00 per programmer
, provided the programmer was not employed by a company with an annual revenue of greater than $250,000. The alternate commercial license was available for $2250 per seat. The Torque Indie License required the TGE (or Garage Games) logo to be displayed for four seconds before a game starts up in all released titles, and a link to the Garage Games' website was required to be included in the credits.
The Torque Commercial License did not omit these requirements. The Indie License only allowed programmers to introduce games to the market. For example, a database administration tool expressed as a 3D interface using the engine would violate the Indie License and would require the commercial license.
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
originally developed by Dynamix
Dynamix
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of computer games from 1984 to 2001, best known for their flight simulator, Red Baron, the Front Page Sports series, Betrayal at Krondor, and their online multiplayer game, Tribes.-History:...
for the 2001 FPS
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
Tribes 2
Tribes 2
-Legacy:On November 20, 2002, Sierra released an update for Tribes 2. This update contained two new game types, new maps and updates to address several issues. Sierra, which is now part of Vivendi SU, licensed the franchise to Irrational Games for a third installment; Tribes: Vengeance was...
. The Torque engine and its many derivative products are available for license from GarageGames
GarageGames
GarageGames is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, where it was moved after being acquired by IAC in 2007. As the makers of Torque game development technology, they have provided cross-platform technology and tools since 2000...
, a company formed by many members of the Tribes 2 team at Dynamix. GarageGames was later acquired by InstantAction
InstantAction
InstantAction was a web gaming site and digital distributor featuring 3D, browser-based games.The site was created by game and technology developer GarageGames after its acquisition in 2007 and released a year later. InstantAction's goal was to allow publishers and developers the ability to embed...
, but on November 11, 2010, InstantAction announced that it was winding down its operations and looking for potential buyers for Torque. As of January 19, 2011, GarageGames announced their return to their old name and with new owners. Torque3D (as well as most of their other products) are continuing to be developed and supported.
Several notable commercial titles developed using the Torque engine include Blockland
Blockland
Blockland is a multiplayer computer game built on the Torque Game Engine, in which players build using Lego-like building blocks. It was developed by Eric "Badspot" Hartman and was released on February 24, 2007. The game is not endorsed by, or affiliated with the Lego brand. However, at one point,...
, Marble Blast Gold
Marble Blast Gold
Marble Blast Gold is a 3D platformer game. It was pre-installed on some Apple Inc. computers like the iMac and iBook. It is also available for Windows operating systems as well as various Linux distributions...
, Minions of Mirth
Minions of Mirth
Minions of Mirth is a role-playing game for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows by Prairie Games, Inc. The game includes both a single-player and a massively multi-player mode...
, TubeTwist
TubeTwist
TubeTwist is a puzzle game created by 21-6 Productions. The game uses the classic mechanic of balls moving through a labyrinth of tubes which you must utilize to construct a Rube Goldberg style device...
, Ultimate Duck Hunting
Ultimate Duck Hunting
Ultimate Duck Hunting is a duck hunting video game developed by Mid Carolina Media for the PC. The goal of the game is to shoot ducks and then collect them with hunting dogs, a concept similar to that of the classic NES game, Duck Hunt...
, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa
Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa
Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa is an simulation video game set in Africa. Players create and control African animals such as lions, elephants, zebras in this strategy game. To succeed, the player must discover the unique behaviors of each species and build food and water sources to suit them...
, ThinkTanks
ThinkTanks
ThinkTanks, also called TT, is an online multiplayer third-person shooter available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux. It was developed by BraveTree Productions and marketed by GarageGames and Shockwave.com.-Gameplay:...
, The Destiny of Zorro
The Destiny of Zorro
The Destiny of Zorro is a video game about Zorro, developed by Pronto Games for the Wii.-Setting:The game will be set in the coast and desert landscape of Spanish California in the early 19th century, as the player takes the role of the hero Zorro...
, Penny Arcade Adventures and most recently, indie video games S.P.A.Z. and Frozen Synapse
Frozen Synapse
-External links:****...
.
Features
As well as being a 3D graphics engine, TGE provided networking code, scripting, in-engine world editing, and GUIGui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
creation. The source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
could be compiled for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Macintosh, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
platforms. TGE shipped with starter kits for a first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
and an off-road racing game. A real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
starter kit was also available as a separate purchase. These starter packs could be modified to suit the needs of the developer, or the developer could start from scratch.
The engine supported loading of 3D models in the DTS file format
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
and the DIF file format. The DTS models could be animated using either skeletal animation
Skeletal animation
Skeletal animation is a technique in computer animation in which a character is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character and a hierarchical set of interconnected bones used to animate the mesh...
or morph target animation
Morph target animation
Morph target animation, per-vertex animation, shape interpolation, or blend shapes is a method of 3D computer animation used together with techniques such as skeletal animation. In a morph target animation, a "deformed" version of a mesh is stored as a series of vertex positions...
. It was also possible to blend multiple skeletal animations together by playing them simultaneously or automatically tweening
Tweening
Inbetweening or tweening is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. Inbetweens are the drawings between the key frames which help to create the illusion of motion...
between the different positions of bones in the skeleton. DTS models were typically used for characters and vehicles though occasionally, they were used for buildings and interiors. DIF models have pre-calculated lighting
Lightmap
A lightmap is a data structure which contains the brightness of surfaces in 3d graphics applications such as video games. Lightmaps are precomputed and used for static objects. Quake was the first computer game to use lightmaps to augment rendering. Before lightmaps were invented, realtime...
and as such are ill-suited for animation. Instead, they were used for buildings and interiors. They automatically had bounding boxes
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
that perfectly match the visible geometry. This was so that it wasn't made overly difficult for a player in a Torque Game Engine game to move or fire weapons around them.
The game featured a terrain engine that automatically created LODs of the ground so that it rendered the fewest polygons necessary at any given time. The terrain was automatically lit, and textures applied to the terrain could be blended together seamlessly. The game's rendering engine featured environment mapping, gouraud shading
Gouraud shading
Gouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes...
, volumetric fog, and other effects such as decals that allowed for textures to be projected onto interiors in real time (for example, a player in a Torque Game Engine game might fire a weapon that left a bullet hole in the wall. The bullet hole would be a decal). Torque supported networked games over LAN and the internet with a traditional client-server architecture. Server objects were "ghosted" on clients and updated periodically or upon events.
Derivatives
Over time, Torque Game Engine was expanded on with the creation of derivative engines.Torque Game Engine Advanced
Torque Game Engine Advanced (formerly known as Torque Shader Engine) was an expanded version of Torque Game Engine made to support advanced technologies including shaderShader
In the field of computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that is used primarily to calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with a high degree of flexibility...
s, per-pixel lighting, and massive terrains. This version of the engine has been ported to Microsoft's Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
console systems. Several Xbox Live Arcade games have been released using the Torque engine, most notably Marble Blast Ultra
Marble Blast Ultra
Marble Blast Ultra is a 3D puzzle/action game involving a marble developed by GarageGames. It was released on January 25, 2006 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. It is the sequel to Marble Blast Gold. It features 60 brand new levels, enhanced graphics, 2 new power-ups and a multiplayer mode...
.
Although TGEA supported the existing Torque Legacy Terrain, TGEA incorporated entirely new terrain
Terrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
rendering engine, the Atlas Terrain Engine, which is an improvement over the blended terrains of TGE. Atlas used GPU hardware to render a massive terrain block and its textures. This allowed Atlas to scale with faster systems of the future. A shaded water rendering system was implemented with full reflection
Reflection (physics)
Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two differentmedia so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves...
, refraction
Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. It is essentially a surface phenomenon . The phenomenon is mainly in governance to the law of conservation of energy. The proper explanation would be that due to change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed...
, and Fresnel reflection. TGEA incorporated a lighting system based on Torque Lighting Kit, including a light manager tool, scene lighting, and dynamic shadows among others.
Torque Game Engine Advanced 1.0 supported Direct3D
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
rendering via an API-independent graphics layer. Future versions were expected to support both Direct3D and OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
pipelines to allow TGEA to support Macintosh and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
platforms as well as Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. There had also been planned TGEA compatibility with Microsoft's game development suite for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, XNA Game Studio Express
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
.
TGEA contained several ready-to-apply shaders and common shader settings. Custom shaders based on High Level Shader Language
High Level Shader Language
The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft Direct3D API. It is analogous to the GLSL shading language used with the OpenGL standard...
could be compiled by the engine and applied as custom materials. This could be applied to both interior and exterior type 3D art assets. Fallback materials could be configured to allow support of pixel and vertex 1.x first-generation video cards.
Development History
February 10, 2009 New release of TGEA, TGEA 1.8.1
April 5, 2008 New release of TGEA, TGEA 1.7
February 15, 2007 Production release of TGEA 1.0 and end of Early Adopter Program
January 23, 2007 Release 4.2 Beta.
Torque Game Builder
Some time after the release of Torque Shader Engine, the company went on to create Torque 2D. Torque 2D was a game engine designed for 2D games based on the Torque Game Engine. The name was eventually changed to the Torque Game Builder because the ultimate goal is to make Torque Game Builder a game-making suite. It was used to create the puzzle game And Yet It MovesAnd Yet It Moves
And Yet It Moves is a single-player puzzle platform game developed by independent developer Broken Rules. The game was released on personal computer and WiiWare platforms, and the name itself is an English translation of Galileo Galilei's famous remark E pur si muove!-Gameplay:And Yet It Moves is...
(2009, Broken Rules, WiiWare).
Torque Lighting Kit
Torque Lighting Kit was an expansion pack to the Torque Game Engine developed by John Kabus and Synapse GamingSynapse Gaming
Synapse Gaming is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based video game engine developer. It is best known for lighting and rendering technology, integrated into the SunBurn XNA Game Engine and previously, Garage Games' Torque Lighting Kit....
. It added a variety of enhanced lighting features to the Torque Game Engine. In the latest release, features such as dynamic lighting
Unified lighting and shadowing
Unified shadow and lighting is the lighting model used in the Doom 3 game developed by id Software.Previous 3D games like Quake III Arena, used separate lighting models for determining how a light would illuminate a character or a map...
and shadowing were added. Torque Lighting Kit was later included as part of Torque Game Engine 1.5 and Torque Game Engine Advanced. In 2008, Kabus and Synapse Gaming
Synapse Gaming
Synapse Gaming is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based video game engine developer. It is best known for lighting and rendering technology, integrated into the SunBurn XNA Game Engine and previously, Garage Games' Torque Lighting Kit....
stopped supporting Torque, began a partnership with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, and packaged their lighting technology and other new tech into the Sunburn XNA Game Engine.
Torque X
After the release of Torque Game Builder, GarageGames began to develop Torque X. Torque X was a game engine based on Torque Game Builder using a component system that allows multiple game objects to have the same abilities. It has to do with Microsoft XNA Game StudioMicrosoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
. Many of the 3D features were left incomplete and never finished. Specifically, 3D terrain using RAW height maps suffered from a lack of working examples, shadows were substandard (consisting only of a spherical shadow texture projected on the terrain), the ability to use skinned meshes for animated models was not working (non-skinned meshes worked), and the 3D rigid-body physics suffered from several issues.
Licensing
As of version 1.5, the Torque Indie License allowed the engine to be used by independent game developers for USDUnited States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$75.00 per programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
, provided the programmer was not employed by a company with an annual revenue of greater than $250,000. The alternate commercial license was available for $2250 per seat. The Torque Indie License required the TGE (or Garage Games) logo to be displayed for four seconds before a game starts up in all released titles, and a link to the Garage Games' website was required to be included in the credits.
The Torque Commercial License did not omit these requirements. The Indie License only allowed programmers to introduce games to the market. For example, a database administration tool expressed as a 3D interface using the engine would violate the Indie License and would require the commercial license.
External links
- Torque Engine product page
- Roar of the Indy - article in Business Week on the Torque Game Engine
- TorqueBay - game development resources for Torque developers
- TGEA product page
- Feature Comparison of TGEA with TGE and other engines
- TorqueBay - game development resources for TGEA developers