A simple 3D game library compatible with Linux?

Being a beginner is no reason to avoid C++. If C++ really grabs you as a language, learn it.

Learn the language you like first, not the one(s) people recommend to you. Once you've learnt one programming language, additional languages are about a month for competence, three for proficiency.

So, just learn the one you like the most first.

Alright, let me rephrase it.

I don't want to deal with pointers just yet. And even if I did, I still don't know what library to go for.

Alright, let me rephrase it.

I don't want to deal with pointers just yet. And even if I did, I still don't know what library to go for.

What's so hard about pointers? They are just numbers that say where something is in memory.

I'm trying to avoid C++ for now as I am a beginner >.>

I don't want to deal with pointers just yet. And even if I did, I still don't know what library to go for.

Your going to have to deal with pointers in all computer science, they are a very fundamental part of how computers operate. I suggest you get over this fear. If you use C# which would be another good alternative while running mono on Linux your going to have to deal with delegates which is similar to pointers. Most Linux users I know, learn C or C++ though, most even know assembly.

If you like jMonkeyEngine go ahead and use it, you could even try using python with pygames.

I never said I didn't understand how pointers work, but for me it's a hassle that increases the time until I see any progress on my game, so I want something easier but powerful to begin with. If I indeed decided to go with C++, what library should I go for?

So far I have my eyes on jMonkeyEngine because it seems both easy and powerful (and works on Lee-Nukes), but, is there anything else?

There is LibGdx for example.

I'm trying to avoid C++ for now as I am a beginner >.>

Good decision.

For unix there is the open-source Irrlicht 3D engine which provides almost everything required to build a game without requiring developing or finding your own stuff (i.e model libraries).

There are multiple bindings for it if you want to use less common / exotic languages but it obviously works best using C++ (like most games developers should be using regardless of what the Unity / XNA salesmen tell you).

Irrlicht with c++ also doesn't require any memory management because it is all reference counted whereas java for example still requires resource management with things like files and threads etc...

Really.. for linux (and everything else), use C++ or you are going to be shooting yourself in the foot. most distributions dont even provide java in their repos. Just learn C++ and then you will never need to learn any other language.

For unix there is the open-source Irrlicht 3D engine which provides almost everything required to build a game without requiring developing or finding your own stuff (i.e model libraries).

There are multiple bindings for it if you want to use less common / exotic languages but it obviously works best using C++ (like most games developers should be using regardless of what the Unity / XNA salesmen tell you).

Irrlicht with c++ also doesn't require any memory management because it is all reference counted whereas java for example still requires resource management with things like files and threads etc...

Really.. for linux (and everything else), use C++ or you are going to be shooting yourself in the foot. most distributions dont even provide java in their repos. Just learn C++ and then you will never need to learn any other language.

It's true that irrlicht provides a lot of features, but in the end it's only a rendering engine with some very basic collision detection built in. Irrlicht does not provide any general solutions for physics, audio, etc. and it does not support any modern features of current graphics APIs.

This doesn't mean that irrlicht is not a good choice, it definitely is a good choice for those wanting to get into game/graphics development since it pretty much has the simplest API I've ever seen in these kind of libraries, but it does suffer from some bad design decisions IMO (there's a good amount of god-classes to be found in there), and as I said, it's not a complete solution for developing games.

Agreed, (though jmonkey, and libgdx examples above also have the same issue when it comes to complete solutions).

The great thing again about C++ though is it is generally the universally accepted language for libraries so you can pick the best physics engine to add to your game, you can pick the best sound library / api for your game without needing to worry about finding a (usually less supported) binding or writing your own wrapper.
It is less likely that you will find a generic library written in java or C# directly.

So with regards to physics and collision, the Irrlicht tutorials give good examples of using newton and ODE physics in a game.

If you do want much more flexibility (which you may not want as a beginner) then I highly recommend just using raw OpenGL and some seperate libraries.

What I do find a really dumb idea is to use large engines like unreal, source or crytek's offering since not only are these closed-source but there is no way in hell a beginner can keep up with the development of them. Not to mention the massive likelyhood that they wont even exist in the next 5 years. My suggestion is to only use an engine that you know you can personally maintain from the src level and upwards.

Some LibGdx features:

• sprites
  
• particles
  
• OpenGL bindings
  
• integrated bindings to the C++ physics library Box2D
  
• bitmap fonts
  
• UI widgets
  
• support for tile maps
  
• various target platforms like Windows, Linux, OSX, Android and soon iOS
  
• audio
  
• input
  
• Open Source
  

LibGdx looks good but I would have a slight issue with my game requiring a whole .NET framework to be installed for it to work.
Not saying it is a bad thing and I have seen a couple of the games in the humble indie bundle doing it, but I guess if it can be avoided, I definately would.
Remember Linux doesn't come with as many libraries as Windows by default and it is just such a pain to have to drag so much stuff in just to run a game.

It sucks that you are not allowed to strip down the runtime by yourself when you bundle it. At least that will change with project Jigsaw.
On the other hand, big titles take several giga bytes meanwhile, so what are 40MB compressed runtime for an Indie game compared to that ?
About 8 minutes of OGG-compressed music take up about 30MB as well.
That is just the natural evolution.

LibGDX seems nice. But I still don't know. It runs on .NET but it's Java? What is this sorcery.

libgdx runs on the Java platform and can cross-compile to JavaScript.
Also, you don't actually have to use pointers in C++. Using 'new' to instantiate a class is actively discouraged when you can use stack objects and pass by reference.

Irrlicht with c++ also doesn't require any memory management because it is all reference counted whereas java for example still requires resource management with things like files and threads etc...

I'm sorry that I'm off topic as far as OP, but I'm not sure if this is quite right. As far as I can see, there is no way to close an actual File object and if I recall correctly, when threads reach the end of their execution, they die and get recycled.

If you are more interested in working on the GAME than learning the language technology,. perhaps try the opensource ZGameEditor. It uses a C like scripting and lets you preview stuff in real-time from within the editor. This speeds up development of the game.

LibGDX seems nice. But I still don't know. It runs on .NET but it's Java? What is this sorcery.

IKVM. Java classes loaded into mono or .net. No java runtime required.

It actually only requires java. However iOS doesnt support java which is where IKVM comes in as IKVM will run on iOS and can load the java classes required to use LibGDX on iOS. Theoretically you could choose to use it with IKVM on the other platforms aswell but for mac, windows and linux support you don't need IKVM or .net or mono.

Yes, sorry. My fault for causing this chaos. I meant a Java VM not a .NET VM. :/

That said, it is often even more awkward to get Java installed on a less known version of Linux (or BSD) than it is Mono due to licensing and bootstrapping issues.

As far as I can see, there is no way to close an actual File object and if I recall correctly, when threads reach the end of their execution, they die and get recycled.

In C#, to make sure an open file has been closed, I am quite sure that you need to call Close() on it whereas in C++ (std::iostream), you just let it go out of scope and it will close immediately.

As for threads, it is quite common that they go on forever (such as a polling server) and it is up to the main thread to signal them to close. If some random exception is thrown, so long as the thread is correctly wrapped in C++, it will all clean up perfectly with no extra hassle, however in C#, I have seen some really messy hacks to get round this, usually involving the singleton pattern and a shedload of try catch, finallys.

To bring this slightly back on topic, since the OP did mention JMonkeyEngine he is probably quite interested in using java, in which case I did come across an engine called JCPT (http://www.jpct.net/) which looks extremely easy to use and has good example projects.