What Happened
Greetings Everyone,
As of a few minutes ago I am now officially licensed as a developer to use Torque 3D Professional. Swivelgames really stepped up to the plate with this one, contributing the funds to cover both my license and his own. Before I talk about what this means for you as users, and as modders of FreeBuild, I'd like to also give a really hearty round of applause to Eric Preisz and the rest of the crew at GarageGames. As some of you might be aware, the normal licensing model for T3D is incompatible with the style of modding we all know and love from the Torque Game Engine and requires that the script sources for a game be closed, and that developers not distribute the editor tools for the game. Since FreeBuild is supposed to be a free and open experience for both players and modders, I felt it would be a betrayal of you as a community to upgrade to T3D under such an agreement (as much as I was envious of the modern technology available to licensees of T3D). Eric (the CEO of GarageGames) worked with me to create an alternate version of the license which would be more compatible with my goals for community involvement. This process involved tremendous dialog spanning the course of almost a month and a half, and standing on this end of it all, I am very pleased with the way in which everything turned out, and I think you will be too.

What it All Means (For Modders)

• Under the new licensing scheme I will be allowed to openly distribute the source code to FreeBuild, or any other project which I undertake, as long as the game remains free.
  
• Users will be allowed to modify the scripted source code to change their game play experience, or even to create new games as long as they also maintain open sources and keep their game free as well.
  
• I am allowed to distribute the Demo version of the Torque level editors, but not the full versions (which are only available to licensees of GarageGames). The demo version of the editors allow you to edit maps, but place a limit on the number of objects you can place in the scene. Given that most of our maps have traditional been a very few number of objects (terrain, interiors, skybox), this shouldn't be a problem for most of you.
  
• From a legal/licensing perspective it sounds like total conversion mods would be allowed under this scheme (if you can work within the constraints of the demo editor), but Eric expressed concern that this would encourage freeloading off the licensing scheme. As a measure of good faith towards GarageGames, I would ask that if you are planning a total conversion mod of some sort, you speak with me first, as I would like to look into sources of funding to provide licenses for budding game developers within our community.
  

What it All Means (For Players)
The system requirements for T3D are higher than in TGE, though not at all high compared to most modern games. Some of you have expressed concern that your older hardware will be unable to perform to the level required by the new engine. Rather than giving up on FreeBuild, I ask that you work with me to bring a reasonable game play experience to others with the same sorts of hardware. Unlike a big game studio, I'm looking to cater to an existing community, not to make profit by selling eye candy, so I am more than willing to look into the specific problems you may be having with your machine (particularly machines with older Intel graphics cards).



I think that's all for now, but if you have questions or comments, please post them here. Lets give one last round of applause to Swivel, Eric Preisz, and the GarageGames crew.


Update
Eric has sent me an email clarifying that the demo editor shouldn't be distributed with FreeBuild, but is still freely available for download from the GarageGames website. This just means a little extra work for you in going to download it - no changes as far as what you can use it for.

I have some questions.

1. With better rendering, will builds be less laggier? Like a LOT less laggier?
2. The GG site says that T3D supports ragdolls. Is this true and is it possible to make a LDraw minifig ragdoll?

1. This is one of the primary reasons I upgraded. According to the profiling I did on TGE, a huge percentage of the framerate problems on big builds like Cemetech towers were caused by very poor rendering techniques. Obviously we can't be 100% sure without some testing, but I am very optimistic.

2. I believe that ragdolls are supported (along with a lot of other physics). You probably could have LDraw minifig ragdolls, but this seems a little silly to me given the constraints we want to have on Lego hinges. It seems like a better option would be to use constrained joints.

Is my laptop in the clear?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 900 @ 2.20GHz, 2194 Mhz, 1 Core(s), 1 Logical Processor(s)
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 2.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 1.93 GB
Available Physical Memory 622 MB
Total Virtual Memory 3.86 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.23 GB
Page File Space 1.93 GB

The RAM and processor speeds look like they should be fine, I can't say about your graphics card from the specs you posted, but even an Intel card that is moderately new should be able to handle this game engine on low-moderate, and it looks like your system isn't terribly old. I'd download the demo (or check out the recommended specs on the GG site) and see how it fares. Play with some of the graphical settings as well.

Many congratulations! While we're playing this game, how do these specs strike you?

http://i54.tinypic.com/8vqdyh.png

For that price... NEVER.

Its a tablet, so assuming it has a wacom digitizer its decent for that price but this should really be in another thread.

Jonimus, you misunderstand my questioning; I'm trying to get a feel of what the specs for T3D are like.

I think I've posted the requirements before, but for the sake of being informative I'm adding them to the first post. I also edited your img tags to links to keep the page from breaking.

What exactly are the limits for # of objects in the demo editor? I'd like to be able to build sprawling cities, but am perfectly willing to use the old engine if need be.

I'm not 100% sure - I need to look into it, but you are the sort of person I had in mind when I mentioned looking for funding to license budding game developers. I have some ideas too, but it will take me a little while to follow up on them.

You have no idea how much that means to me.

I think my wife would not let me buy a computer that costs that much. The specs are good, but out of my price range. Where are the cheap computers within in the spec range for this.

I think I have some idea, since I just spent a month and a half working to make sure that the project would remain open to modding for creative people like yourself.

I think it might be fun to experiment with minifig ragdolls, with varying levels of joint constraint, as I don't think that's been done before.



I take it this means a gritty, in-your-face "no" on the idea of a Gabby Giffords forensic simulation?

Chances are that your computer is fine, but that your graphics card might not be, which is a relatively inexpensive (and easy) upgrade. Do you have a desktop or a laptop?

Not if you have an integrated Intel chipset...

Well, I'm hoping that he has a desktop.

Even today's desktops are shipped with Intel Chipsets to reduce costs. Unless you bought a computer specifically for gaming, odds are it has integrated intel.