11 replies to this topic

[darkwolf]

Hey everyone.
Maybe you can provide me with some usefull information.

Ok, at first: We're a team of 6 people and we have to create a game prototype within 8-10 month.
We already came up with a project idea, a more detailed design document will follow.

I was doing hours of research today to find a decent engine that might be cabable of doing the job. Creating our own engine is not an option because we don't have the time for that.

The two most interesting engines seem to be the Irrlicht Engine and the Ogre Engine.

No one of us has been working with a 3d engine so far, but we all already have some programming skills (in c++ and other languages from previous undergrad courses or working experience -> we're gamestech students right now).
furthermore we started working with directx and how to develop an ai the last weeks.

I think we'll devinitely go for one of these two engines, but right now I'm still not sure which one might be better for our team.

So if anyone can provide us with some information he would help us alot.

thx,
darkwolf

[wolf]

If you want to use an open-source engine that was used in several commercial game projects, try the Nebula Device 2 Engine.

[NomadRock]

LOL, classic open source advice.

"Which is better between A and B?"
"You should use C"

I dont have any sort of extensive use with either engine, but they both seem to be pretty solid. And they both allow you to make a non-windows version of your game, which is a big plus for us Linux and Mac folk :)

I suggest you try them both. Get a sample app running in both of them, and then if one of them just seems to rub you the wrong way, go with the other.

[darkwolf]

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"Which is better between A and B?"
"You should use C"

Maybe we should go for D then... *gg*
Yeah, its just a difficult decision, especially if you're still in the beginning of ur project and you just have a limited amount of time.

The Nebula2 Engine, hmm, I was thinkin' about that one as well. But support seems to be pretty bad compared to Ogre and Irrlicht.
Anyway, I'll download it and have a look.
Same with Irrlicht and Ogre.

Just having a look at some samples apps is just not enough. You may think, oh yeah, Engine A looks better than Engine B, but in the end its not the engine that looks better, its the one that made the sample app that made it look better.
Sure, some Engines r more powerfull than others, same way some r more complicated than others.
Talkin' about that, would be nice to hear some experiences about that.
Which engine is easy to handle or maybe definitely too confusing.
Where do you have more possibilities, r they up to date or is it impossible to reach a "up to date look" because its just too old or something like that.

Yep, and now lets check them more in detail...

[NomadRock]

Dont go based on how they look. That is totally going to be your art guys that make that work. Go by how the code feels to you. I mean there will definately be some engines that simply do not meet your feature requirements, but those two have pretty good feature sets.

[Ed Mack]

I'm using Ogre, and quite happy with it, but be warned: Ogre will _only_ do the rendering. Want some physics? Want some sound? How about AI? Well you must code all that yourself.

I suggest trying to create some semi-complicated functionality from your design doc (i.e. dynamic wall building, or whatever) and see how nice your solution is for each engine.

[darkwolf]

Quote

Well you must code all that yourself.

But there r some free systems you can implement into the engine aren't there? (physics engine, sound, ai etc.)

[Ed Mack]

Indeed. I'm currently using Ogre, Ode for physics, Lua for scripting and Sqlite3 for db. But, you have to write substantial code to glue it all together.

[Rofar]

Based on what you have said about your requirements so far.. and based on the choice between Irrlcht and Ogre, I would say go with Irrlcht. I have played around with both and I think Irrlcht would be easiest to get started with. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm just saying which one I think might be best for your situation (between those 2 choices).

[AticAtac]

You should decide on:

- engine's features
- engine's api (structure, documentation)
- engine's runtime behaviour (speed, stability, ...)

And believe me, you will end with several engines playing in the same league, pick one and go for it and and don't even consider to come back to another one once you go with one half the way and hit some "serious" problems, because you will always hit serious problemes and need to overcome them.

[AticAtac]

@Ed Mack
I am exactly using the same "things" to develop my game (prototype), and i use ReplicaNet as the network-engine.

[dave_]

I've worked on a couple of prototypes before and I've found its best to evaluate them first. I was doing that in a comerical environment and I found Unreal was best for our purposes.

So my advice is: invest time in evaluating the alternatives properly. It will save you in the long run.