David Wyand's new cookbook on Torque 3D

Recently I had the privilege to work alongside Logan Foster and Chip Lambert (among others) as a technical reviewer for David Wyand's new Torque 3D Game Development Cookbook (Amazon link, Packt link). I have all versions of the book - draft, ebook and printed - and I'm very happy about how it turned out in the end. Packt Publishing asked me to do a short, public review as well - I hope this helps Torque 3D developers decide on whether this is the right book for them. (Hint: It is.)

So here it goes:

David Wyand's Torque 3D Game Development Cookbook is aimed at developers who are already familiar with the Torque 3D engine but who want to improve their level of knowledge or who look for quick and concise solutions to specific problems - carefully hand-picked problems that are likely to surface during the development of any game. This prerequisite and the game developer terminology used throughout the book make it one of the very few intermediate to advanced level guides that are available today. 

I was a technical reviewer for this book - this made me one of the book's earliest critics. Being a game developer and having worked with this particular engine for many years, my personal wish was to help create a book that goes beyond the widely accessible pieces of information in terms of content and tries to dig deeper. David Wyand's book meets and exceeds this expectation. 

It is not for absolute beginners - at least not without minimal preparation. It often assumes knowledge of terms and engine features for specific recipes. Such an example would be shaders and CustomMaterial. The book explains how you can make good use of CustomMaterials, but it assumes you have an idea about what a shader is - which I find fair. It doesn't waste your time explaining what a shader is - this information is available through a number of sources online - but it will tell you how you can hook up your custom shader to create unique materials.  

The great thing about a cookbook is that requirements change recipe by recipe. So even if you are a beginner, you will find solutions to problems that you are likely to face on day one. Other recipes are tailored at problems that you meet several weeks or months into your development cycle, and by then it rightfully assumes a background knowledge of a number of things that you were likely to meet during that time. 

If you are serious about working with Torque 3D, this book will definitely make your life easier. However, if you are just starting out, be sure to first go through the Torque 3D tutorials that you find in the engine docs. Those will give you the basics, while Torque 3D Game Development Cookbook will be your go-to source for tips once you begin writing script code.

I've worked with Torque 3D full time for the past 5 years, and I was very happy to find chapters that taught me something new about the engine. In comparison, I haven't had this with other Torque 3D books, but to be fair, they immensely helped me get to the experience level that was needed to create the most ambitious project I have undertaken in my life so far - Xenocell.