Interested in becoming part of Torque's development? Great! Torque thrives off the contributions of its enthusiastic community, and we always welcome new members. Here's a few things you'll need to know before you dive in.

Open Source Software Agreement

Before contributing to the Torque 3D code base we require that you sign the Open Source Software Agreement on GarageGames' site. This agreement is designed to protect the integrity of the Torque 3D project as well as GarageGames LLC. This is a common practice with large scale open source projects such as those under the Apache Software Foundation (individual and corporate) and Oracle.

To sign the Open Source Software Agreement please follow these steps:

  1. Log into your account at GarageGames.com.
  2. Go to your account settings page.
  3. Review the Open Source Sotware Agreement on that page and fill in the required fields.
  4. Please fill in your GitHub username so we can quickly check when you make a pull-request that you've signed the agreement.
  5. Click on one of the three radio button choices at the bottom of the section.
  6. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the settings screen.

It is important to note that once you have accepted the agreement it is not possible to make any changes to the information you have entered. Unfortunately, this also means your GitHub account name at this time, although it will be moved to a separate section in the future. For now, double check that you have entered it correctly before clicking on the Save button.

Branches

There are two main branches: master and development. The master branch contains the current stable version of Torque 3D. The development branch is where all work is done prior to it being tested and moved to the master branch as determined by the Steering Committee.

Using the development branch

To start using the development branch you will need to create your own fork of the repository:

  1. Create your own fork of the Torque 3D repository by using the Fork button on GitHub.
  2. Clone your Torque 3D fork to your computer.
  3. Check out the development branch from the Git command line: git checkout development
  4. Add an upstream remote: git remote add upstream https://github.com/GarageGames/Torque3D.git

To pull changes from the GarageGames/Torque3D development branch into your developer fork: git pull upstream development

To submit your changes back to the GarageGames/Torque3D development branch, use the Pull Request page from GitHub to make a request from your fork into the development branch. Note that we highly recommend you not make any changes in the development branch, but create a new branch for features you'd like to pull request, and a branch for all changes you don't want to contribute back to the main engine (for example a my-game branch). This makes it easier to contribute, and also easier to get the latest changes from the main repo!

How To Submit A Pull Request

The How To Submit A Pull Request Tutorial page is designed to give a quick look at the basics of how to properly prepare and submit a Pull Request

Code style guidelines

Please refer to the Code Style Guidelines if you want to contribute code back to the main engine. A consistent codebase is good for everyone!