Introduction

You are reading Multiplayer Gaming and Engine Coding for the Torque Game Engine, a follow-on to my last book, The Game Programmer’s Guide to Torque (GPGT). In short, the purpose of this guide is to extend your knowledge of the Torque Game Engine (TGE) such that you are prepared to write, modify, and debug your own multiplayer games. Whereas GPGT functioned as both a tutorial/learning guide and a reference, this book tends more towards the latter. The discussions you will fi nd in this guide are a bit more terse and assume a higher level of experience than those discussions found in my last book. In this guide, I assume that you have read GPGT or have acquired an equivalent level of experience elsewhere. Be warned: you will not make very good progress in this book if you are not familiar with TorqueScript language and the ins and outs of running TGE games/mods. A full list of the things you should know is provided in Section 1.4. It is important to understand that this guide does not attempt to paint a coherent picture of what a multiplayer Torque game is. Instead, it provides discussions and descriptions of the parts that go into multiplayer Torque games. It will become clear as you learn more about the engine that there is no single right way to assemble a multiplayer Torque game. Instead, there are many. At the end of your journey, having read this guide and having done the exercises (on the accompanying CD), you should be well prepared to modify standard Torque game mods like “Starter.FPS” and “Starter.Racing” to take your fi rst steps towards designing a new multiplayer Torque game.