Greets all!
There are a couple of concerns that I have with the announcement, in the newsletter, of the game engine to be used for Yserbius Online.
First, while Garage Games is continuing with support for the Torque Game Engine, many of their resources (people) are working on support for the Xbox and other platforms. Their Torque Shader Engine is being developed to offer more options for cross-platform applications. So my concern is that the TGE engine support will evaporate from GG and depend solely upon user-submitted hacks and fixes.
Second, the newer TSE engine demands that the users have a Shader-compliant graphic card. I know that people can currently buy older graphic cards (older is a relative word these days) that support Shader technology. For example, the nVidia 6600 series supports Shader and costs less that $150 USD. By the time that Yserbius Online is released, this will be a moot (moo?) point as all cards will have Shader support. My concern is with the alpha & beta testers computer requirements.
I know as a fact that the TGE engine runs fine under dialup conditions....if the game client allows users to decrease their graphical options. TSE demands more but the Shader-supported graphic cards relieve much of the load off the CPU and system, thereby removing enough induced lag to equal the speed of TGE under dialup.
I am currenly a lead tester on another up-and-coming online game and they are currently using the TGE engine. They are exploring using the TSE engine and are developing both in parallel to compare the differences and to make a decision. I have been scouring the various online community forums concerning Torque and support, to keep abreast of issues that may affect me in the present and future testing tasks.
Here is a link to the older TGE 1.3 demo movie:
ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tge/TorqueGameEngineDemo_1_3.exe
If you want to see of your graphic card supports the Shader graphics, download and run this official Torque demo for the Shader Engine:
ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_MS1_Car_Demo.exe
Here is what the demo *should* look like if your system supports shader:
Quicktime version: ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_Car.mov
Windows Media version: ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_Car.wmv
Toodles,
Dolnor
P.s. I originally posted this on the wrong forum on the wrong site. I am so embarassed. Shows what happens when the candle is lit at both ends...resting in a pan over a hot stove! -(
There are a couple of concerns that I have with the announcement, in the newsletter, of the game engine to be used for Yserbius Online.
First, while Garage Games is continuing with support for the Torque Game Engine, many of their resources (people) are working on support for the Xbox and other platforms. Their Torque Shader Engine is being developed to offer more options for cross-platform applications. So my concern is that the TGE engine support will evaporate from GG and depend solely upon user-submitted hacks and fixes.
Second, the newer TSE engine demands that the users have a Shader-compliant graphic card. I know that people can currently buy older graphic cards (older is a relative word these days) that support Shader technology. For example, the nVidia 6600 series supports Shader and costs less that $150 USD. By the time that Yserbius Online is released, this will be a moot (moo?) point as all cards will have Shader support. My concern is with the alpha & beta testers computer requirements.
I know as a fact that the TGE engine runs fine under dialup conditions....if the game client allows users to decrease their graphical options. TSE demands more but the Shader-supported graphic cards relieve much of the load off the CPU and system, thereby removing enough induced lag to equal the speed of TGE under dialup.
I am currenly a lead tester on another up-and-coming online game and they are currently using the TGE engine. They are exploring using the TSE engine and are developing both in parallel to compare the differences and to make a decision. I have been scouring the various online community forums concerning Torque and support, to keep abreast of issues that may affect me in the present and future testing tasks.
Here is a link to the older TGE 1.3 demo movie:
ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tge/TorqueGameEngineDemo_1_3.exe
If you want to see of your graphic card supports the Shader graphics, download and run this official Torque demo for the Shader Engine:
ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_MS1_Car_Demo.exe
Here is what the demo *should* look like if your system supports shader:
Quicktime version: ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_Car.mov
Windows Media version: ftp://demos.garagegames.com/tse/TSE_Car.wmv
Toodles,
Dolnor
P.s. I originally posted this on the wrong forum on the wrong site. I am so embarassed. Shows what happens when the candle is lit at both ends...resting in a pan over a hot stove! -(
