Content Is Queen - Guess This Engine

Well... I 've Finally Found It!!!

This One Is No Joke...

just a texture or two... and a lil work in the editor... and the beginnings of a fps running in the engine...

an example of my first hello world type room...






as you can see, there isn't much content... but the specbumpmapping and the lighting, and what you can't see, the smooth player movement and the collisions, are what make the scene... content is secondary...

ok... nowGuess This Engine... and win a prize*

note - Ashmantle and AlienForce hold your guesses for a while ;)


* 1st prize is me, Red Ocktober, personally naming a star after you... any star... any one up there in the heavens that is not already named can your claim to immortality...


--Mike

Dark Basic Pro? :)

I really have no idea.
Looks decent though.

DarkBasic? I so, now I have won the prize because you never said I have to guess it right! ;P

yeah 'Stang, you made a guess... but you didn't "Guess The Engine"

nice try... but wrongo!!!

press any key to try again :)

--Mike

Whatever happened to Panda being your new choice :P

Please just say already ;)

Thats too easy:

Torque with lighting pack and eventually TSE as it is the lighting packs page screenshot (at least the textures etc)

The alternative would be the actual SoW version ;-)

*buzzzzzzzer sound* sorrrrrryyyy, wrong D...

IK... is your guess Panda...

--Mike

Pretty crappy gfx if you ask me, the lighting is horrible, especially the 2nd screenshot. How can you have an exceptionally bright light that is virtually white and then on the adjacent wall it is totally black?

I don't wanna brag Red... but oh go on I will... I already have a star named after me, in the part of the sky inhabited by Orion.

IPete2.


And no its not called IPete2.

because the extremely bright light source is inside the tunnel... and because of that, the light acts similar to a flashlight beam... what do ya think, it should shine through the wall ENAY... *inane buzzzzzzzer sound*

IPete... that's great, i am happy for you... what's your guess...

--Mike

Hah! Maybe it is Panda then, since you didn't say I was wrong. That wasn't my guess, but now it is.

hahahaha... *loooong wrong buzzzzzzer sound*

sorry IK... you should've stayed with your original guess :)

hey, i did look at Panda for a few days... very well done, but a lot of work... and there are some performance issues... but overall, it almost was the one...

--Mike

If you think that lighting looks perfectly correct then you need to get a new set of eyes. Get a new keyboard whilst you're at it :)

Looks like something put together with Josh's 3D World Studio, and I know he was developing an engine, so that's my guess.

@ ENAY...
well, i definitely could use a new set of eyes... come over here for a second, and i'll gouge out yours, and keep em in a jar for when mine go totally bad...

besides, you see things in your mind ENAY, not in your eyes... and that, i suspect, is where *your* problems lie ;)

the lighting in the shots is acceptable and correct... when have you ever seen the light from the bulb in a flashlight shine through the case... *plays looooong looooney tunes buzzzzer sound*

now do you have a guess or not...


@ Avon....
nice try Avon... but Josh doesn't have bumpmapping implemented yet in his engine... at least i don't think he does... and if you look at the pics, they are spec bumpmapped, in all their Doom3 reminiscent plasticy, wet look, glory... exactly what i've been trying to do for the longest...

sorry... *wrong buzzzzzzer sound here too*

--Mike

hmm I see why Avon thinks that, there is a floor texture which I seem to recognise...

IPete2.

It's ok, I can handle being wrong... *sob*

Ok Red, you've got my attention. What is it then? Spill the beans!

@ IPete...
yup... and if you recognize that one, the one on the far wall, and the one on the pole should be familiar too...

this just demonstrates how easy it is to use existing media from any place on your system, and easily integrate it into the engine... those were from an old CShop release... but they didn't have normalmaps associated with em... and i didn't make any either...

... yet there they are, in all their bumpmapped glory.

that was partt of the point i was trying to make in the other thread... about the engine tied into a good editor being King... it really does help...

@ Avon...
sorrrry A... not just yet, this is too much fun :)


--Mike

don't know what it is Red, but I'm not horribly impressed by it.

and oh yeah... FINISH THAT DAMN SUB GAME!!!

It's an Engine with specular and bump map and with pixel perfect lighting. Was this the first realtime engine with all this? Cause irrlicht can do that and there is a wrapper for BMax.

@ Kanati...
hey there K... you must be busy, not posting much lately...

you would be impressed if you had a hands on session with it, and could see how easily things can be done...

consider... this is the 3D equivilent to the ubiquitous hello world app every new developer is bound by law to make when he/she starts in a new development suite...

i'm doing some of the tuts now, getting up to speed with it... maybe i should post a video of the lights moving around, and the bumpmapped surfaces and real time shadows reacting to em...

with all apologies to shadow and dot3 coders, id like to see this happen in Blitz...

but hey, lets not turn this into that sorta thread...


@ Harami...
Irrlicht... i've coded a lil irrlicht stuff... it's good, but you combine spec bumpmapping and stencil shadows with real time lighting... and watch the frame rate drop...

plus, the lighting (the bright light inside the tunnel) won't look anywhere as good as the one pictured above... the way it affects only the surfaces it should...

also, this was done without a single line of code... first person player, running in the engine... try that with irrlicht, and you'll be a week coding it...

--Mike

Yeah its the wet look which is baffling me a little.

IPete2.

Im pretty sure i know which engine it is , but Ill refrain since we spoke of it yesterday..

You didnt even make normal maps for it? it generated them from the textures?
(although for best quality Use a height map ;)) I take it you can supply your own?

hows 4 pixel lights affecting the Fps?


Sam

Hey Sam, come on tell us... we won't tell Red! ;)

hey Sam...

thx... keep it under your hat, please...


that's right... i can't go into any detail about it, but all you need do is point to a diffuse texture...

it must be magic :)


--Mike

I've just realised... there was a hint in the title "Content is Queen" - it's the Freddie Mercury engine!

LOL @ Avon...

good one... but wrong again...

--Mike

Red, you're starting to sound like Puki about the media moving side of things; watch that, it gets serious! ;O)

Oh and I know you'll just SAY that you knew this already, but why not invert that wall texture so it's the right way round? It's inside out! ;O)

Psh this is boring. Just tell us already ;)

The only engine besides Lawmaker that I'm really interested in is Luxinia.

Ok...my guess is Unity....am I even close?

Ragnar

@ polygoon...
on no, say it aint so... startin' to sound like puki... what's next, becoming ENAY!!!

@ ragtag...
close... only in the sense that they're both game engines... sorrrrrrryyyy *wrong again buzzzer sounds*

@ IKG... what was that you said... could ya repeat that again... slowly... your guess i mean...

(someone's getting warmer)

--Mike

oh oh! I know! its ........!!!

Oh duh, it's Lawmaker.

Don't know why it took you till now to check it out. I've been evaluating it too.

DADAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

we have a winnnaaahhh...


for your prize, i will name the third star, two degrees north of the constellation Lyra, IKG... you can point to it and tell all your friends that that star is named after you...

... and if they don't believe you, have em ask me.


yeah... what took me sooooooo long... and why haven't you told me, and the rest of the world, about this gem sooner as well...

this is really great stuff... seriously... lots of potential here for a reall AAA production... this is no toy...

now that's all i can say, the guys over there were good enough to permit me to post a pic of what i've done in the first few days with it... if you are interested in it, go over to their site and check it out...

tell em Mike sent you...

THANKS to everyone for participating in the fun...

--Mike

Damn i just popped in...i think i will never guess one right! :O)

So what do you think about the engine?

Will do... as soon as you post a link - I'm too lazy to go searching, all that guessing tired me out! ;)

Ugly stuff..

http://www.darkroomstudios.com/content/view/61/171/

I haven't done much with it so far, but the support is outstanding.

Mike, I've got a couple of questions (or so :) ) for you if you've time to answer them about the Lawmaker Engine:

1. Are you able to develop code for it using BlitzMax? If so, did you have to code your own BlitzMax "port" of it (like we have to do with 3impact, for example).

2. What is the art pipeline you used to get content into the game engine? Will it work only with (the very expensive) 3ds Max?

I like what I'm hearing from you guys (e.g. IKG) about Lawmaker's support. A few months ago I was asking them for details about their engine, but they weren't able to say much, and implied that in order to develop commercial products using their engine, we would have to pay them royalties for each sale made. Has this changed? How much does Lawmaker cost now?

I thought interest in Lawmaker was dead, since when I've visited their forums there never seems to be much in the way of recent posts on them. (Perhaps there is some secret "paid customers" part of their forums which is as busy as can be that is invisible to us "outsiders").

of course GB, i always have time for a question... all i can really say is that i'm verrrrry impressed with it...

the art pipeline is kinda flexible as far as geometry and textures... and no, you are not restricted to using 3DSMax for your models...

so far as i know, i don't think BMax code will be able to work, but i really haven't explored anything in that direction yet...

best thing to do is contact em and pose your questions directly over there... not trying to rush you off or anything, but i really can't go into detail about anything... plus, this *IS* a Blitz forum, and so far they've been generous with defectors like me, and haven't dragged me off to jail yet :)

--Mike

Thanks for the info, Mike.

I just may have to contact those Lawmaker guys again... ;)

C4 is coming along, and it supports a lower-cost art pipeline (via Collada), but it has inferior built-in tools to work with compared to Lawmaker.

The Unigine engine is also due for a big release soon with version 0.4, but it will most likely cost several thousand dollars (that's not counting having to buy 3ds Max or Maya to work with it). :P

That website's awful - does anyone know what the licencing options and costs are?

Something like:

Private license = $300

Commercial license = $1000

But you can upgrade later if you choose the private license (which is actually named "weekend warrior").

Hmmm. Cheaper than the TSE.

@IKG
Aren't these per title licence fees?!

If your game is worth it then that really isn't too much PER GAME!

BUT (and this is a large and hairy but)

I would still like to know the restrictions of each level before I speculate anymore further... ;)

It's per seat taumel. So, yes.

Varnish 3D? Shellac 3D? PlasticWrap 3D?

Eh? Torque Shader Engine is $150. $250 if you don't already own Torque Game Engine, as you need TGE to buy/use TSE.

@IKG
Hmm so is it per title or per seat? This wouldn't be the same. Per seat would be good as long as they allow you to install it on the machines you're working on. Per title it's too expensive in my opinion and there exist alternatives.

@Gabriel: Oops, yeah, you're right. I thought the commercial licence was cheaper, but it looks like you don't already need to own TGE for the TSE commercial licence, just the indie one.