Want to learn Torque and TorqueScript. Where to begin?

[Wolfsong3D]

I'm interested in learning Torque3D to make some games. I am mostly a 3D/2D artist, but would also like to learn the scripting side of things. At least enough to prototype something without breaking it too much.

I poked around some of the links, but saw a lot of unfinished pages, links to empty articles, and so on. Is there a good solid source someone could point me to to start learning?

Thank you

[Wolfsong3D]

Sorry to reply to my own topic, but I found something since I last posted. Looks like it could be what I'm looking for. I just want to make sure it's up to date, though.

I found this file download on the garagegames site.

Would this still be relevant and recommended to learn from?

[Sir_Skurpsalot]

That works... I reference this site a lot: https://torque-3d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/script/languageref.html

[Wolfsong3D]

That works... I reference this site a lot: https://torque-3d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/script/languageref.html

 

Nice resource! Bookmarked.

I started looking at the Coin Collecting game lesson on this site, too. Between all these resources I think I'm in good shape.

Thank you

[Wolfsong3D]

Question for you, Sir_Skurpsalot,

Did you do the echo part of the tutorials on this page?

I'm typing in the code as written, into the console, but am not getting the intended result.

The code is just:

echo("Hello World", 3);

The result should be:

Hello World3

Instead, I get:

33

Not sure what's going on there.

The first code I've ever typed for T3D, and already having issues. Yikes :lol:

[fLUnKnhaXYU]

some one here can probably get you a link to this book . It covers many aspects of using the program and it has a great introduction to torqueScript .If you are new to torque3D and interested in torque3D, then you will appreciate this book .

The Ultimate Guide to Torque 3D

Volume I: By Robert C. Fritzen

[Duion]

Forget all the documentation and books for now, the easist way, at least for me was to do something pratical.

To do something practical you ideally start with something that is fully functional or at least mostly functional and then you invent a feature and implement it.

The bad news is, Torque3D is not very functional by default, a lot of code has been removed in order to make Torque3D a more general game engine, where you have to do everything yourself, this may work for people who are already good at programming, but it will block off most people who don't (like me).

Developing a game takes a lot of time, so you have to work goal oriented and the goal is to get your feature done and save time, because your time is limited.

So what you should do now is, first think about what you want to do, like what kind of game you want to develop and then think what features you need to add, that do not already exist in Torque and then work them off one by one, starting with the easier ones and most importantly, don't try to code it yourself, but search first on the forum, especially the old garagegames forums if not already someone had the same idea/problem and maybe already solved it or at least tried to solve it, then you can look how that person did it and build upon it. Of course keep the documentation at hand with the basics, like the script syntax etc so you know what you can use in script.

[Wolfsong3D]

The way I learn best is to reference documentation on how something works, the syntax, the tools, or what have you. I follow the basic tutorials, then I create simple little projects to practice and reinforce what I know, then I advance from there.

That's what works for me.

However, there has to be a starting point which, for me, is this documentation. However, if what the documentation shows doesn't match the actual results, then that's an obstacle. That's the situation here.

This is why I posted my question to Sir_Skurpsalot. They suggested the resource, and so they may have gone through that same part and can answer my question.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Wolfsong3D

[Wolfsong3D]

some one here can probably get you a link to this book . It covers many aspects of using the program and it has a great introduction to torqueScript .If you are new to torque3D and interested in torque3D, then you will appreciate this book .

The Ultimate Guide to Torque 3D

Volume I: By Robert C. Fritzen

 

Thanks for that!

I'll have to start scouring the interwebz for it. I'm sure I'll scrounge up a copy somewhere.

[Sir_Skurpsalot]

Question for you, Sir_Skurpsalot,

Did you do the echo part of the tutorials on this page?

I'm typing in the code as written, into the console, but am not getting the intended result.

The code is just:

echo("Hello World", 3);

The result should be:

Hello World3

Instead, I get:

33

Not sure what's going on there.

The first code I've ever typed for T3D, and already having issues. Yikes :lol:

 

Never did that one. Didn't realize echo is supposed to take a second argument until just now... might have to find it in the source code to see how the second argument really works, tutorial must be outdated.

To get Hello World3 in a similar fashion I would type

echo("Hello World"@3);

@ concates strings

[Wolfsong3D]

Question for you, Sir_Skurpsalot,

Did you do the echo part of the tutorials on this page?

I'm typing in the code as written, into the console, but am not getting the intended result.

The code is just:

echo("Hello World", 3);

The result should be:

Hello World3

Instead, I get:

33

Not sure what's going on there.

The first code I've ever typed for T3D, and already having issues. Yikes :lol:

 

Never did that one. Didn't realize echo is supposed to take a second argument until just now... might have to find it in the source code to see how the second argument really works, tutorial must be outdated.

To get Hello World3 in a similar fashion I would type

echo("Hello World"@3);

@ concates strings

 

I "hacked" it by doing echo("Hello World", "3"); :p

It worked, but I don't think I've actually solved anything. :lol:

[Sir_Skurpsalot]

Question for you, Sir_Skurpsalot,

Did you do the echo part of the tutorials on this page?

I'm typing in the code as written, into the console, but am not getting the intended result.

The code is just:

echo("Hello World", 3);

The result should be:

Hello World3

Instead, I get:

33

Not sure what's going on there.

The first code I've ever typed for T3D, and already having issues. Yikes :lol:

 

Never did that one. Didn't realize echo is supposed to take a second argument until just now... might have to find it in the source code to see how the second argument really works, tutorial must be outdated.

To get Hello World3 in a similar fashion I would type

echo("Hello World"@3);

@ concates strings

 

I "hacked" it by doing echo("Hello World", "3"); :p

It worked, but I don't think I've actually solved anything. :lol:

 

Seems putting a number directly into echo() makes it print twice unless you pre-convert it to a string with "" or another string operator.... weird. I've used echo to print tons of numbers from variables and never ran into this though.

[Phantom139]

some one here can probably get you a link to this book . It covers many aspects of using the program and it has a great introduction to torqueScript .If you are new to torque3D and interested in torque3D, then you will appreciate this book .

The Ultimate Guide to Torque 3D

Volume I: By Robert C. Fritzen

 

Thanks for that!

I'll have to start scouring the interwebz for it. I'm sure I'll scrounge up a copy somewhere.

 

All of my resources and works were published to GitHub: https://github.com/PhantomGamesDevelopment/Phantom-Games-Development-Packs

The guide specifically is here: https://github.com/PhantomGamesDevelopment/Phantom-Games-Development-Packs/tree/master/The%20Ultimate%20Guide%20to%20Torque%203D

As others have mentioned though, the engine is kind of going through a transition period right now and when I wrote that document I believe we were at 3.5-ish? So while a lot of the concepts I talk about in there are "relevant", you'll still need to update to the newest standards that the engine has adapted.

I've been a bit "hands-off" due to my own personal reasons but I still check in here from time to time to see what's going on in Torque land. :)