5 replies to this topic

[marciano]

Hello everybody,

I want to announce an open-source graphics engine here that I'm currently working on. It is called Horde3D. The first version of the SDK will soon be available for download but you can already have a look at the website and the documentation. Here is a short description:


Horde3D is a small open source 3D rendering engine. It is written in an effort to create a graphics engine that offers the stunning visual effects expected in next-generation games while at the same time being as lightweight and conceptionally clean as possible. Horde3D has a simple and intuitive interface accessible from virtually any programming language and is particularly suitable for rendering large crowds of animated characters in next-generation quality.




For more information see http://www.nextgen-engine.net

I hope you enjoy this ambitious project :)

Thanks for your interest
marciano

[marciano]

I just released the first version of the SDK. It includes a sample application that shows how to use the engine. The sample is a simple crowd simulation with a hundred characters walking around. Here is a screenshot:




Some feedback is greatly appreciated!

www.nextgen-engine.net

Thanks!
marciano

[geon]

I hate to be a whiner, but the top image looks surprisingly much like Jet Grind Radio for the dreamcast, graphics-wise. And the charakters could have been taken from Half Life 1. Not really next-gen.

The feature list on the website looks a bit more impressive, but you need some better test scenes. How about the deferred shading? I'd love to see a stress test of that, together with some sensible parrallax-mapped surfaces (Not just a single ground-quad.)

And do you have working shadows yet?

[marciano]

Yes the top image doesn't show next-gen content. The assets were originally created for an old VRML engine. We only had one student to reconstruct a not so small part of a city. The characters are so low poly because 500 of them are walking around.

Really impressive test scenes are hard to get, especially for an open source project without budget. I have uploaded a new screenshot which is a bit more next-gen. It's not directly Horde3D but the predecessor engine I have worked on for several years from which many parts were taken over.



Shadows are one of the next points on my list. I have already tried shadow maps and shadow volumes. I will probably opt for variance shadow maps with some sort of perspective adaptation.

[mrbones]

This stuff is awesome,

I got to make sure and try to keep track of this one.

Cheers.

:surprise:

[rego]

all i got to say is "too good" and congratz!