Torque Script - Behind The Scenes

Torque script is the scripting language behind all of the Torque Engines is a simple, but robust scripting language that is very easy to learn. All game engines include a scripting engine and Torque is no different. For non-game developers, the idea of a scripting language may seem like a negative, but there aren't any commercial games that don't use a scripting language.

Most non-game developers may at first think that this means the source to parts of your game are shipped with the game, but this is not the case. Torque script is compiled into a bytecode format and saved to a separate file (.dso extension). Everytime the game engine runs it does a date comparison between the source (.cs) and the compiled files. If the source is newer, it re-creates the bytecode file. If the source file does not exist, it simply uses the bytecode file. You simply ship your final version without the source files.

This is transparent and very fast. When you are developing games using this system you never see the compile taking place. One drawback of this system with Torque is that it isn't blatent when compile errors happen and you have to go back and look in the logs when you've made a bunch of changes. In most cases I've seen it will simply use the older .dso file and you'll be caught wondering why that echo/printf you just put in the code isn't appearing. As with most tools, once you get used to it, it is not really a problem. There is an editor called Torsion that will check/monitor your syntax, but I have not tried it. Everything I've read says it is highly recommended.