Torque Game Engine, or TGE, is an open-source cross-platform 3D computer
game engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term " software engine" used in the softwar ...
, developed by
GarageGames
GarageGames was a game technology and software developer. GarageGames was the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the compa ...
and actively maintained under the current versions Torque 3D as well as Torque 2D. It was originally developed by
Dynamix
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator ''Red Baron'', the puzzle game '' The Incredible Machine'', the ''Front Page Sports'' series, ''Betrayal at Krondor,'' and the online ...
for the 2001
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
''
Tribes 2
''Tribes 2'' is a first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001 as a sequel to '' Starsiege: Tribes''.
Setting
Set in the year 3941 of the fictional Earthsiege universe, ''Tribes 2 ...
''. In September 2012, GarageGames released Torque 3D as open-source software under the
MIT License
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license co ...
.
Torque 3D features a world editor suite including tools for sculpting terrain and painting forests, drawing rivers and roads, as well as material, particle and decal editing. It supports the open
COLLADA
COLLADA (for ''COLLA''borative ''D''esign ''A''ctivity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available ...
file format as interface to 3D digital content creation software.
PhysX
PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite.
Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU ( expansion cards designed by ...
provides support for
cloth dynamics,
rigid body dynamics
In the physical science of dynamics, rigid-body dynamics studies the movement of systems of interconnected bodies under the action of external forces. The assumption that the bodies are ''rigid'' (i.e. they do not deform under the action of ...
, destructible objects and joints, as well as fluid
buoyancy
Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the p ...
simulation. Other features include a
deferred lighting model and modern shader features such as dynamic lighting,
normal Normal(s) or The Normal(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Normal'' (2003 film), starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson
* ''Normal'' (2007 film), starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, Callum Keith Rennie, and Andrew Airlie
* ''Norma ...
and
parallax occlusion mapping
Parallax occlusion mapping (POM) is an enhancement of the parallax mapping technique. Parallax occlusion mapping is used to procedurally create 3D definition in textured surfaces, using a displacement map (similar to a topography map) instead of ...
,
screen space ambient occlusion
Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is a computer graphics technique for efficiently approximating the ambient occlusion effect in real time. It was developed by Vladimir Kajalin while working at Crytek and was used for the first time in 2007 by ...
,
depth of field
The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera.
Factors affecting depth of field
For cameras that can only focus on one object di ...
, volumetric light beam effects,
lens flare
A lens flare happens when light is scattered or flared in a lens system, often in response to a bright light, producing a sometimes undesirable artifact in the image. This happens through light scattered by the imaging mechanism itself, for exa ...
/
corona
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
effects,
refraction
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomen ...
,
bloom, blurring and
color correction
Color correction is a process used in stage lighting, photography, television, cinematography, and other disciplines, which uses color gels, or filters, to alter the overall color of the light. Typically the light color is measured on a scale kno ...
, among others. Networking functionality for multiplayer support is included as well. Build support is provided for desktop
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
and Web platforms.
Inception
The Torque engine and its many derivative products were available for license from
GarageGames
GarageGames was a game technology and software developer. GarageGames was the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the compa ...
, a company formed by many members of the ''Tribes 2'' team at Dynamix. GarageGames was later acquired by
InstantAction
InstantAction was a web gaming site and digital distributor featuring 3D, browser-based games.
The site was created by GarageGames after being acquired by IAC/InterActive Corp in 2007 and released a year later. InstantAction's goal was to allow ...
, but on November 11, 2010, InstantAction announced that it was winding down its operations and looking for potential buyers for Torque. On January 19, 2011, GarageGames announced their return to their old name with new owners.
GarageGames released Torque 3D as open-source software under the
MIT License
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license co ...
on September 20, 2012.
''Torque 2D'' followed on February 5, 2013.
Torque 3D and most of their other products were to continue being developed and supported. The latest stable release of Torque 2D was marked May 2018 on
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
,
and the latest stable release of Torque 3D was marked August 2022, on
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
.
History
Original Torque Game Engine
The original Torque Game Engine, which has been superseded by Torque 3D, provided networking code, scripting, in-engine world editing, and
GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
creation. The
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...
could be compiled for
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
,
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...
,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
, and
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
platforms. TGE shipped with starter kits for a
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
and an off-road racing game. A
real-time strategy
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pla ...
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 model
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, ...
s in the DTS and DIF
file format
A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...
s. DTS models were typically used for characters and vehicles though occasionally for buildings and interiors. They could be animated using either
skeletal
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
or
morph target animation
Morph target animation, per-vertex animation, shape interpolation, shape keys, 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 m ...
. It was also possible to blend multiple skeletal animations together by playing them simultaneously or automatically
tweening
Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image in ...
the different positions of bones in the skeleton. 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 was not 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
Lods () is a commune in the Doubs département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.
Geography
Lods is located southeast of Ornans in the valley of the Loue River.
History
It is first documented in 1189, and there are a ...
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
In computer graphics, environment mapping, or reflection mapping, is an efficient image-based lighting technique for approximating the appearance of a reflective surface by means of a precomputed texture. The texture is used to store the image of ...
,
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. In practice, Gouraud shading is most often used to achieve continuous li ...
, 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.
TorqueScript (also known as TS) is a coding language designed specifically for the Torque Game Engine, with a syntax similar to
C++.
Torque 3D
Torque 3D version 1.2 was released as open-source software under the
MIT License
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license co ...
on September 20, 2012, and is being actively maintained, the current version being 3.10.
Originating as a successor to Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA), Torque 3D features
PhysX
PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite.
Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU ( expansion cards designed by ...
support, modern shader features, an advanced
deferred lighting model, as well as build support for Windows, macOS and Linux.
DTS and DIF have been superseded by
COLLADA
COLLADA (for ''COLLA''borative ''D''esign ''A''ctivity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available ...
, a more commonly supported interactive 3D model file format. The DIF format has been completely deprecated, while DTS is still used as an internal format.
Release history
Torque 2D
Torque 2D, originally Torque Game Builder, is a game engine designed for 2D games and based on the ''Torque Game Engine''.
It was first released in 2006, in a ''standard'' and a ''pro'' version, with the professional version including the
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...
.
Torque 2D started as ''Torque Game Builder'' because the ultimate goal was to make it a game-making suite. It was used for instance to create the puzzle game ''
And Yet It Moves
''And Yet It Moves'' is a puzzle-platform game developed by independent developer Broken Rules. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux on April 2, 2009, and for Wii as a WiiWare title in August 2010. ''And Yet It Move ...
'' (2009, Broken Rules, WiiWare) and dozens of other games. The latest "Torque game builder" release was 1.7.6 from December 2011. In 2012 a ''Torque 2D MIT'' edition was created as combination of the previous "Torque Game Builder" and iTorque 2d, an iOS fork. On February 5, 2013, ''Torque 2D MIT'' was released in version 2.0 as
open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
.
Torque 2D's development continues on
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
with latest version being v.3.4 from May 2018.
Release history
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
shader
In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...
s, per-pixel lighting, and massive terrains. This version of the engine has been ported to Microsoft's
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by th ...
and
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
console systems. Several Xbox Live Arcade games have been released using the Torque engine, most notably ''
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 levels, enhanced ...
''. First release was January 23, 2007 with the 4.2 Beta, production release of TGEA 1.0 and end of ''Early Adopter Program'' was on February 15, 2007.
Although TGEA supported the existing Torque Legacy Terrain, TGEA incorporated entirely new
terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...
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
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomen ...
, and
Fresnel reflection
The Fresnel equations (or Fresnel coefficients) describe the reflection and transmission of light (or electromagnetic radiation in general) when incident on an interface between different optical media. They were deduced by Augustin-Jean Fresne ...
. 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 is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware ...
rendering via an API-independent graphics layer. Future versions were expected to support both Direct3D and
OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve ha ...
pipelines to allow TGEA to support
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
platforms as well as
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
. There had also been planned TGEA compatibility with Microsoft's game development suite for the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
,
XNA Game Studio Express. TGEA contained several ready-to-apply shaders and common shader settings. Custom shaders based on
High Level Shader Language
The High-Level Shader Language or High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for the Direct3D 9 API to augment the shader assembly language, and went on to become the required shading 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.
On November 18, 2009, latest release of TGEA, TGEA 1.8.2 became available.
Torque Lighting Kit
Torque Lighting Kit was an expansion pack to the Torque Game Engine developed by John Kabus and
Synapse Gaming. It added a variety of enhanced lighting features to the Torque Game Engine. In the latest release, features such as
dynamic lighting
Computer graphics lighting is the collection of techniques used to simulate light in computer graphics scenes. While lighting techniques offer flexibility in the level of detail and functionality available, they also operate at different levels of ...
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
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
, 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, running on
Microsoft's XNA Framework. 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.
Reception and usage
The Torque engine and its derivatives have been used in the development of a variety of games, especially among
independent video game developer
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large Video game publisher, game publisher, in contrast to most AAA ...
s.
Commercial titles developed using the Torque engine include ''
BoneTown'', ''
Blockland'', ''
Marble Blast Gold
''Marble Blast Gold'' is a 2002 3D platform game. It was pre-installed on some Apple Inc. computers like the iMac, iBook, and Mac mini. It is also available for Windows operating systems as well as various Linux distributions.
The game ...
'', ''
Minions of Mirth'', ''
TubeTwist'', ''
Ultimate Duck Hunting'', ''
Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa'', ''ThinkTanks'', ''
The Destiny of Zorro'', ''
Penny Arcade Adventures'' and
indie video game
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...
s ''
The Age of Decadence'', ''
BeamNG.drive
''BeamNG.drive'' is a vehicle simulation video game developed and published by Bremen-based video game developer BeamNG GmbH. The game features soft-body physics, which simulates realistic handling and damage to vehicles. The game was initial ...
'', ''
The Cat and the Coup'', ''
Dead State
''Dead State'' is a turn-based survival horror role-playing video game developed by DoubleBear Productions and Iron Tower Studio set in a zombie apocalypse scenario. Players are tasked with leading a group of survivors living in a shelter in the f ...
'', ''
Frozen Synapse'', ''
S.P.A.Z.
''Space Pirates and Zombies'' (''S.P.A.Z.'') is a real-time strategy video game released on August 15, 2011, on the Steam distribution platform. with a top-down perspective based around space combat. The game was developed by a two-man team under ...
and
Villagers and Heroes''. The
open-source video game
An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
Definition and differentiation
Not all open-source games ...
''Uebergame'' also uses the engine.
See also
*
GarageGames
GarageGames was a game technology and software developer. GarageGames was the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the compa ...
*
Dynamix
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator ''Red Baron'', the puzzle game '' The Incredible Machine'', the ''Front Page Sports'' series, ''Betrayal at Krondor,'' and the online ...
* ''
Tribes 2
''Tribes 2'' is a first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001 as a sequel to '' Starsiege: Tribes''.
Setting
Set in the year 3941 of the fictional Earthsiege universe, ''Tribes 2 ...
''
References
External links
Torque Engine product pageRoar of the Indy- article in
Business Week
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
on the Torque Game Engine (2005)
Official Torque3D MIT WebsiteTorque3D MIT ForumTorque3D MIT Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torque (Game Engine)
Formerly proprietary software
Free game engines
Game engines for Linux
Software using the MIT license
Video game development software
Video game engines
XNA game engines