Back, but my post was deleted

Hi,

I asked if the 3D engine was still planned at all, as I would like to make a decision if I should invest time in other 3D engines. I bookmarked the topic and went away for a day or so.

I have returned and it seems to have been deleted. I assume it was for a good reason, but I do really need to know if a 3D engine is planned.

The reason I ask is because I am close to choosing another language and 3D package as I do not really want to be held back any more, but I know if I do choose another language it will be bye bye for keeps.

I would like my loyalty rewarded with a small answer thats all. Many of us do 3D for hobbyist purposes too (I suspect the majority of us here) and so jumping from engine to engine is not very enjoyable.

Is it coming or is it scrapped?

General consensus was unlikely any time soon, and to go and look at alternatives.

Personally I recommend TV3D first, followed by XNA second.

The thread was going fine until Flameduck posted. He started swearing, members asked why he swears and doesn't get banned and then the thread was killed.


Anyway. There's no Max3D. Pick one of the already available 3D engines and move on.

Recommendations are:

TV3D
3Impact
Ogre
irllicht
TGEA
XNA

You might want to keep an eye out for Cobra and Nuclear Basic (Nuclear Fusion?) which might provide the 3D engine wrapped up in a nice package that you're looking for.
I'm hoping Mark is going to take some time away from Max3D
and concentrate on the existing stuff.

Don't forget Blitz3D. It's rock solid and given a decent artist you can still make some extremely nice things with it in a reasonable timeframe.

Skidracer or Simonh (I forget which) said something along the lines of "Don't wait for Max3D, use what's available now".

Ah thanks lads. Looks like there will be no Max 3D. I think Blitz3D would have been ok but the language is too primitive.

The world has definately moved on languages wise, and I've no reason to use something like that. Max's language is fine though, comparable to c# from what I've seen, however no 3D engine for it that is powerful.

I think for my little (hobbyist) 3D adventures I will be looking at c# with dark sdk (from dark basic) as it is rock solid from a 3D engine point of view. Perhaps Ogre too.

Blitz3d can load dll's, you can use any other language that can compile dll's.

And instead of trying to make smart code, try to make smart data and use dumb code to process it.

I understand why Flamey was swearing.

use minib3d and if you want shader support, use klepto2's version.

it is very good.

Personally I can't for the life of me fathom why BRL haven't converted the Blitz3D 2D and 3D graphics library into a dll form compatible with BlitzMax and other languages that can use dlls, and put it up for sale. I'd buy the thing in a second, as long as the price was reasonable. The Blitz3D graphics engine suits me just fine, but I'm thouroughly sick of working around the limitations of the procedural language.

Obviously there are other 3d options available for Max - but the Blitz3D function library is a thouroughly tried, tested and stable platform which behaves in a familiar fashion for those of us used to Blitz3D. It's not cross platform, but who cares. The people who don't need a cross platform engine can buy it - others can use something else.

Max3D will probably be useless for the vast majority of BlitzMax users, anyway, as the indicated system requirements will most likely be too high for the shareware market that most Blitz programmers are catering to. It makes better sense to release an engine with lower requirements first and then later on worry about the cutting edge engine that Max3D is supposed to be. And the Blitz3D engine is already written, so no need to write and test the huge bulk of code that would go into a 2D and 3D graphics engine - it's already there. Tried and tested over several years, with many released games using it. It just needs to be modified to work as a dll.

Sure there are going to be issues with people complaining because they already have a license for Blitz3D and don't want to pay for the graphics engine again - and this would be a valid complaint. The solution is to simply provide a discount for existing Blitz3D license holders, as was done with the MaxGui module. Not a free upgrade, however - the work done on converting the codebase to work as a dll needs to be paid for.

And think of the huge market for the dll with the many other languages that support dlls but don't have a graphics engine. Most other graphics engines are either not available as a dll, are too young and untested, or try to do far too many things themselves that should be done by the programming language - restricting the uses which the engine can be put to in the process. And then there's the Darkbasic engine. In the past, Darkbasic has garnered a reputation for being as stable as a truckload of set mousetraps. I don't know whether or not that reputation is still deserved, but it still most likely exists in the minds of many people who've looked into integrating a graphics engine into their language of choice and have done the research into the various engines available. Blitz3D on the other hand, has always had a reputation for being rock solid stable and easy to use. Even if it's not a cutting edge engine, many people using other languages would buy it just to do rapid prototyping with an engine they know will work.


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