Original Post
Hi guys. I signed up here simply to ask this question.. so I hope there's some people out there able to help me. Firstly, I'm not ready to jump in and start learning C++/Delphi/etc right now. I just don't have the time. However, I don't mind learning a propriatary scripting language (or even Basic). I seem to do well with those. With that said, I've been doing some hunting around for a good 3D game engine to work around. I'm going to list the pros and cons that I know of about each engine... and I'm hoping others will contribute. I want to make sure I pick the right one. I'm not sure what type of games I really want to make, but I do want to make sure I'm able to create different types of games if I WANT to. (RTS, FPS, TPS, Racing, Sports, etc) I am pretty interested in creating an Adventure game.. similar to that of Dreamfall, Syberia, Broken Sword, etc. So I guess we can keep that in mind. For this topic, let's just pretend money is no object. I'll determine what's worth the money later on. Torque Game Engine (TGE/TSE) Very advanced. Pros: - Powerful engine, capable of some nice eye candy. - Fairly large community. - Built-in scripting language (TorqueScript), though it doesn't seem to be very flexible. - Compiles (I think) - Great multiplayer support. Cons: - It seems like you're more-or-less limited to creating FPS/TPS games. If you want to create anything different, you're forced to modify the Torque source code (C++), which is supplied when you purchase. - Limited built-in physics (only gravity, friction, etc) 3D Game Studio A6 Pros: - Seems to also be a powerful engine, with lots of graphical features. - Built-in scripting language, I don't know much about it. - Compiles - Powerful physics engine Cons: - From what I've read, it's pretty buggy. - World builder is kind of crappy Blitz3D Pros: - ? Cons: - ? DarkBasic Pros: - ? Cons: - ? Irrlicht I'm really interested in this one so far, but I know nothing about it. Pros: - OpenSource - Lots of users, easy to find help if needed. Cons: - ? BeyondVirtual Pros: - ? Cons: - ? Unity Pros: -? Cons: -? Game Maker I've been using gamemaker for a long time. It's where I first started messing around with game design/creation. This is where I'm at now, and I'm ready to evolve.. finally. Pros: - Easy to use, easy to learn - Very powerful, and easy scripting language (GML) with thousands of built-in functions. - Very flexible. - Great support forum. - Lots of free plugins. - Cheap, only $20 Cons: - Slow engine. (interpreted language, not compiled) - Poor native 3D support. Can only render about 20,000 polygons at 30fps on an average system. No modern graphics features. - No model import support. Have to use a third-party model converter to convert to .D3D models. - Bad multiplayer support. (but good with plugins) Truevision3d Thanks, TheTroll Pros - Multilanguage support. - Very powerful engine. - Flexability. Cons - No built in tools. If I think of more I'll add them, or if you guys knows of any others, feel free to mention them. Thanks! Adam
