Torque3D/engine/index.html

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title: Engine | Torque 3D
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<div class="banner"><div class="container">
    <h1 id="made-with-torque">Made with Torque</h1>
</div></div>

<div class="container">
    <p>
    Here are some of the premier projects using Torque 3D right now. This isn't
    an exhaustive list, just a showcase of some of our favourite projects. If
    you'd like your project to feature on this page, let us know!
    </p>

    <div class="row">
        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.frozenendzone.com/">
              <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.frozenendzone.com/">Frozen Endzone</a></h4>
                <p>
                Frozen Endzone is the premier tactical future sports game! 
                It combines the strategic depth of Frozen Synapse with completely
                original creative gameplay and a thrilling futuristic aesthetic. 
                You must design a play to get the ball into your opponent's endzone,
                using the stadium's procedurally-generated terrain to your advantage. 
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.yorkshirerifles.com/">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/airship-dragoon-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.yorkshirerifles.com/">Airship Dragoon</a></h4>
                <p>
                Conquer the super-continent of Pangea with an invasion of Airships! 
                Battle Dastardly Pirate Insurgents! Keep the locals happy or else
                they will be revolting! Turn-based Steampunk squad tactical combat
                and global strategy with emergent gameplay. No two games the same.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="row">
        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.afterworld.ru/">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/afterworld-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.afterworld.ru/">AfterWorld MMO</a></h4>
                <p>
                AfterWorld is a "free market economy" persistent-world massively
                multiplayer online game set in a science fiction setting of post-
                apocalyptic Siberia. Enjoy a complex skills-based role-playing
                system, an advanced crafting system, and more than 100 square
                kilometers of vast Siberian landscapes.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.beamng.com/BeamNG.drive">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/drive-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.beamng.com/BeamNG.drive">BeamNG.drive</a></h4>
                <p>
                An open-world driving simulator, and so much more.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="row">
        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://lifeisfeudal.com/">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/life-is-feudal-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://lifeisfeudal.com">Life is Feudal</a></h4>
                <p>
                Life Is Feudal challenges you to go back in time and discover
                living medieval life. You must not only survive, but find a way
                to prosper. How will you fend for yourself? Where will you live? 
                How will you defend against other players and predators from the
                wild? Will you establish or join a peaceful community?
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.deadlymatter.com/">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/deadly-matter-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.deadlymatter.com/">Something Else</a></h4>
                <p>
                Something Else is not a shooter. That doesn't mean you won't have
                to handle a weapon, but it may be a bit different from what you
                have experienced in other games.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="row">
        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://www.deadlymatter.com/">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/deadly-matter-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://www.deadlymatter.com/">Deadly Matter</a></h4>
                <p>
                Deadly Matter is not a shooter. That doesn't mean you won't have
                to handle a weapon, but it may be a bit different from what you
                have experienced in other games. The story behind the game is
                based on science and history. Be prepared for the unknown and
                face immense forces that threaten our existence.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="media col-sm-6">
            <a class="pull-left" href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=223336592">
                <img class="made-with-torque" src="{{page.root}}/img/blood-and-mana-icon.jpg" />
            </a>
            <div class="media-body">
                <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=223336592">Blood &amp; Mana</a></h4>
                <p>
                Blood &amp; Mana is a fast-paced multiplayer medieval arena combat
                game, mixing elements of the RPG and FPS genres. Equip your
                character for each battle with no restrictions, no levels, and no
                classes. Choose from a vast collection of armor, weapons, spells,
                skills, and items.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="banner"><div class="container">
    <h1 id="features">Features</h1>
</div></div>

<div class="container">
    <div class="media">
        <img class="pull-left feature" src="{{page.root}}/img/rendering-feature.jpg" />
        <div class="media-body">
            <h4 class="media-heading">Rendering</h4>
            <p>
            Torque 3D includes both a high-performance forward-rendering basic
            lighting engine, and a deferred-rendering advanced lighting mode so
            you can tailor your game to meet the needs of different customers.
            The modern rendering system includes per-pixel lighting, normal and
            parallax mapping, and materials generated by a high-level editor, or
            written from scratch in GLSL/HLSL. The engine comes with shaders
            for water, sky and sun, and many common material types.
            </p>
            <p>
            The engine also has a powerful PostFX system allowing you to create
            custom post-processing effects. It ships with buit-in effects including:
            </p>
            <ul>
                <li>HDR/light adaptation</li>
                <li>Depth of field</li>
                <li>Lens flare and sun rays</li>
                <li>Screen-space ambient occlusion and FXAA</li>
                <li>Refraction, reflection and glow</li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="media">
        <img class="pull-left feature" src="{{page.root}}/img/rendering-feature.jpg" />
        <div class="media-body">
            <h4 class="media-heading">Editors</h4>
            <p>
            Torque 3D comes with everything you need to construct environments
            and levels from your assets. Shapes are imported in Collada DAE format
            and placed in the in-game editor. Switch to playing through your level
            with one press of a button.
            </p>
            <ul>
                <li>Powerful terrain editor that allows you to import terrains
                or sculpt them by hand.</li>
                <li>The shape editor provides tools for previewing and touching
                up your shapes after import.</li>
                <li>The road and river editor modes make it simple to place paths
                that become solid roads, flowing rivers or decal tracks across
                the terrain.</li>
                <li>A fully-featured material editor means you don't have to touch
                a line of shader code to create great-looking visuals.</li>
                <li>The GUI editor lets you place HUD and menu elements in an
                easy-to-use WYSIWYG environment.</li>
                <li>Torque 3D will automatically reload assets that are changed
                outside the editing environment, enabling speedy development
                iteration.</li>
                <li>Editor modes are implemented as plugins, so you can add your
                own custom modes.</li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="media">
        <img class="pull-left feature" src="{{page.root}}/img/rendering-feature.jpg" />
        <div class="media-body">
            <h4 class="media-heading">Networking</h4>
            <p>
            Since its inception as the engine behind the online shooter Tribes 2,
            Torque has consistently provided high performance, reliable networking
            for fast-paced online games. The engine has networking built into 
            its core, including interpolation and prediction to smooth over
            high-latency environments and provide instant feedback to clients.
            </p>
            <p>
            Time-invarying data is transferred via datablocks at client join time,
            reducing the amount of data that needs to be networked during
            gameplay.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="media">
        <img class="pull-left feature" src="{{page.root}}/img/physics-feature.jpg" />
        <div class="media-body">
            <h4 class="media-heading">Physics</h4>
            <p>
            Torque 3D provides a plugin system for physics. There is a simple
            implementation built in which can be easily swapped out for PhysX or
            Bullet libraries.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="media">
        <img class="pull-left feature" src="{{page.root}}/img/rendering-feature.jpg" />
        <div class="media-body">
            <h4 class="media-heading">Scripts and source code</h4>
            <p>
            When you get Torque, you get everything. The entire source code is
            yours to modify under the permissive MIT license. The codebase is mature
            and extensible with a plugin system, allowing you to easily add features
            of your own, or from other libraries, to each project.
            </p>
            <p>
            If you're not the recompiling type, Torque provides a scripting engine
            using a custom C-like language called TorqueScript. You can create
            whole games without touching a line of C++.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="banner"><div class="container">
    <h1 id="roadmap">Roadmap</h1>
</div></div>

<div class="container">
    <p>
    Please note that the roadmap is currently being debated by the Steering Committee.
    This version represents our rough ideas and intentions and may change when we
    settle on an actual plan! When that happens we will document future engine
    versions here with their planned outcomes.
    </p>
    <h2>Short-term</h2>
    <p>
    The theme of our immediate efforts will be cleaning up the state of the repository,
    forging new links with the community, and putting in place procedures that will
    make the Committee more effective in the future.
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Complete and launch this website!</li>
        <li>Set up automated testing to increase confidence in pull requests.</li>
        <li>Merge (possibly into unstable branches) or reject all outstanding pull-requests.</li>
    </ul>
    <h2>Middle-term</h2>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux and OSX support via OpenGL rendering layer.</li>
        <li>Clean up engine source code (e.g. use of non-STL container replacements, signed/unsigned mismatches).</li>
        <li>New modular script templates and content distribution.</li>
    </ul>
    <h2>Long-term</h2>
    <ul>
        <li>Modularise scripting engine, paving the way for other scripting languages.</li>
        <li>Replace project generator with CMake or other appropriate solution.</li>
        <li>Entity/component system replacing hardcoded gameplay classes.</li>
        <li>64-bit support.</li>
    </ul>
</div>

<div class="banner"><div class="container">
    <h1 id="history">History</h1>
</div></div>

<div class="container">
    <img class="pull-left history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    Torque began as the game engine behind Starsiege: Tribes, one of the venerable
    online shooters of the late 90s. When Dynamix folded after releasing Tribes 2,
    members of the company decided to continue by reconfiguring the game engine
    as a standalone product called the Torque Game Engine. The game engine was
    written in C++ (with a couple of files of assembly to do the heavy lifting of
    terrain texture blending), used TorqueScript for gameplay scripting, and ran
    on the Big Three - Windows, Linux and Mac.
    </p>

    <img class="pull-right history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    GarageGames sold TGE for around $100USD throughout the product's lifetime,
    increasing this to $150 with the release of TGE 1.5. Its selling point against
    other engines was its strong networking (that had powered 128-player games
    of Tribes 2), its terrain rendering, and the fact that a license bought you
    the entire engine source code. During this time, GarageGames spun off numerous
    other products - TorqueX focused on delivering the same strengths to the XNA
    platform, and Torque Game Builder refactored the engine to render 2D graphics
    instead of 3D, though using the same platform core and scripting engine.
    </p>

    <img class="pull-left history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    Eventually, as game technology moved on, TGE was superseded by TGEA, the Torque
    Game Engine Advanced. This kept a lot of TGE's strengths (and weaknesses) but
    added more modern graphics capabilities and enhancements to the terrain system.
    TGEA was available for roughly twice the price of TGE, with the same open-source
    (not <i>free</i> and open source) license. Eventually, TGEA was replaced by
    Torque 3D, which brought the engines all the way to the modern era with a
    deferred rendering engine, Collada asset loading, and revamped editors. At
    this point, unfortunately, the burden on GarageGames of maintaining OSX and
    Linux versions began to show. Linux support was dropped entirely and OSX support
    began to lag behind (the last version of T3D that officially supported OSX
    was 1.01).
    </p>

    <img class="pull-right history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    Shortly after the release of Torque 3D, business machinations forced GarageGames
    to increase the engine's price to $1000, and introduce a script-only version
    that sold without access to the engine source code, only the TorqueScript
    starter projects and editors. The company began to run into difficulty and
    found it increasingly difficult to sell licenses at a profit. When their parent
    company folded, GarageGames was left looking for a buyer to keep them alive.
    </p>

    <img class="pull-left history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    They found one, who stepped in and encouraged GarageGames to re-release Torque 3D
    under the original source-included license for just $100. Unfortunately even
    after several updates, Torque 3D (and its new sibling, Torque 2D) were not
    able to sustain GarageGames. Faced with the inability to continue being solely
    engine developers, they released both Torque 3D and Torque 3D as free open-source
    software for the community to maintain, and moved their focus to consulting
    in video game software.
    </p>

    <img class="pull-right history" src="{{page.root}}/img/frozen-endzone-icon.jpg" />
    <p>
    Torque 3D's first two years as an open-source project have been rocky at times
    and exuberant at others. GarageGames set up the first Steering Committee, a
    body of members nominated from the existing developer community to become
    custodians of the official repository, determining the future direction the
    engine should take and guiding community contributions in this direction.
    Under their leadership, Torque made great advances such as integration with
    the Oculus Rift virtual reality display and Razer Hydra and Leap Motion input
    devices. Unfortunately the first Committee, after several membership changes,
    found itself unable to perform for a variety of reasons, and a second committee
    was enlisted from old and new community members.
    </p>
</div>