I can't use expensive 3d engines?

Why does MiniB3D and Blitz3D have to be so damn easy to use?

I've been trying for ages to make a go of it with TV3D but it's too much work especially as there's no docs for it.

I keep finding that I'm going back to the Blitz3D SDK or minib3d.

I've also think that based on how Blitz3D is Max 3D will be much of the same and I would have wasted $500 on TV3D.

What 3D Sollutions are you guys currently using?

Max3D?

Blitz3D is top sausage.

Blitz3D, TGE, TGEA

but TGE(A) is not a 3d engine, its a whole technology, so it most likely wouldn't qualify.

if you want to have simple usage and relatively easy stuff, give Visual C++ 2008 Express + GDK a go
GDK is the C++ sdk version of DarkBasic Pro, so its written for people that think blitz3d is to hard to get ^^

Dev-C++, Blitz3D SDK
I still hope for an SDK based on DX9.0 ...

MiniB3D, which has me hooked in a similar way to you (and if I ever ship a commercial product it will be on the Mac). But Irrlicht is sufficiently interesting ("Shadows out of the box? Yes please!") and accessible (cheers iB3D) for me to be surprised that it doesn't have its own forum here.


The aforementioned Irrlicht?

I use C++ and Ogre. The documentation is very good, and there are lots of add-ons and possibilities to expand it if you like that sort of thing (I do). However, I wouldn't recommend any C++ engine unless you know C++ fairly well, otherwise you're sure to be confused.

My own via OpenGL in BlitzMax.

Were hoping to have something pretty soon that might fit the bill.

Were using flow, and started a simple game demo with it a couple of weeks ago. Will be releasing it in a couple of weeks as a compatibility test.

It's an Ogre wrapper thats been in development for over a year now and almost ready for an initial release.

Whats TV3D like? I've been wondering how it compares to ogre for a while.

Many tools aren't designed as well as Blitz products in terms of pure usability (most engines are designed under pressure to get a game done, not to cater to beginners). However, when it comes down to it learning to deal with the complications of a larger engine and C++ is really useful. The best part is that after dealing with the complex stuff Blitz becomes even easier. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself! Eventually the stuff that seems hard now will become easy. Last year I couldn't stand the fact that I didn't have the pivot class of Blitz in Torque ... now though I just think in matrices so I don't even notice the lack of a nice pivot class. The bottomline is to just push over the hump after you get over it you never look back so it doesn't matter.

Yeah, Ogre uses Matrices too, We used them extensively in Flowed. Cygnus spent a fair ammount of time learning them, really helped in the long run.Ogre does still have some nice helpers for rotations.

I never could get into torque the whole thing seemed like a dinosaur of an engine with extra fluff slapped on to give the impression they were keeping up. Hopefully the Torque 2 mutterings I hear of on the forums will mean a fresh start and maybe after all these years a good engine will emerge out of it all.

Most engines have a transform class to handle that stuff. Ogre and Unity are two recent tools I've explored which do include that functionality. OGRE had commands very similar to Blitz3D just slightly different formats. You didn't have to multiply matrices to get your rotations or your world/local space transforms.

The point is that by digging into the guts of things more you only improve your skills even when you're doing high level work. My Blitz3D code is much cleaner now then it was before I really got comfy with more low level tools. You might not always feel the need to use Blitz3D once you learn the lower level aspects but sometimes it's still the best solution.

What 3D Sollutions are you guys currently using?

Blitz3D-pure beauty, but my concern about DX7 portability in future as well as my personal wish to play with shaders, push me on to other things

JME-real beauty and regarding ease of use, very friendly thing,multiplatform, and majority of fancy things we all want to have in Blitz :)

Unity3D-real beauty but im feeling too 'synthetic' with it, regarding scripting/coding..but thats just me..other than that..nice thingy..:)

tbh TV3d is easy and also neat to code for the classes are wrapped in a clean manner in glimmers wrapper. I have yet to see much that could even scratch the surface as to its simplicity

The Main problem people find with Tv3d is that its a pure graphics engine with the means to be used in all kinds of apps
this could be narrowly compared to coding for openGl just with a more stabalised form of developement cycle

Sure its needs a bit more setting up than some other 3dengines but it makes up for this by being very flexible and reliable

@Naughty Alien
What do you mean with synthetic?

@Taumel
After I received my Unity 2.x update, I start again playing with it(I have pro license)..so my expression 'synthetic' was ment to be something like difference between car with manual and then you switch to automatic transmission :), many things done for you and visually easy to observe, in comparison with JME or other things(TV3D, Ogre, Blitz3D, and so on) what was actually render engines and you have to code plenty of things you see in Unity by default(whats very nice, and im really enjoying it now after first rejection:))..so, 'synthetic' wasnt ment to be something bad..just rough feeling when I started to dig it deeper than before, after all this render engines I use to mess with...no worries man, I know U luv it (Unity) :)

Well, it's not perfect and lacks certain features which would be very important to have in my opinion but it also is the best overall compromise i've found so far...

I thought you gave your licence back. Anything you've done with it so far - links? :O)

..I didnt push my license back..I just lost interest initially when I tried it 1 year ago..so it was collecting dust until version 2.x pop up, and took my attention again, so i pay for upgrade and I must admit, this time my thoughts about it are very different..I dont have anything done with it, I did download all free stuff, platformer example with media and code as well as messing with lightmapping from 3dsmax to Unity..basically I wanna clear up standard stuff and make it easy for me to digest before i start bothering folks on forum :)

Ah okay, i just remember you beeing kind of upset and through the emails i got the impression that you wanted to give the licence back. Well, don't foget to offer a link as soon as you've done something... :O)

I guess there aren't any news about Max3D and Flow, right?

It looks too complicated to me...


Wich compiler do you use? I would like to know if I can use OGRE with Dev-C++ environment (MingW)

..yeah, im seriously thinking to rewrite my 3rd perspective game im working on, in to Unity3D, after I saw how good my characters looking with normalmapping and shaders...I'll post my stuff on forums over there once I have something worth ;)

C++ and Ogre here.

It would be nice to see some projects people are making with their tool choices.

What about Leadwerks engine, Amon? It seems just as easy to use as B3D, and you have a license IIRC.

It does look like a really bizarre mix of low-ish level jargon (scenegraphs, nodes etc) and click-together effects (ie water) but you have iB3D to make it B3D-like.

I could use the leadwerks engine but it's no as feature complete or fast enough yet. Plus leadwerks/Josh is working on leadwerks engine 2. I'll probably check that out when it's released but we'll see.

Thanks for all the replies anyway. People seem to be using OGRE alot.

[edit] Just saw this earth demo on the TV3D forums which is HLSL based.

Dev C++ and Nuclear fusion 3.03, waiting for the upcoming 3.05.
I am using Blitz3d for my basic programing, but I am trying to learn some C++, NF is a big help.

@Amon
The way you sound like i would advise you to try out Unity if you can life with that the IDE is an OSX only thing now. I guess you would be more happy with it than with ogre...

Hi, I would try Unity and have wanted to use it but I don't have a Mac. ANd there's also little chance of me buying one unless I can get one on the cheap that supports Unity...

Heh, your thread got us talking, so we posted a little bit of new flow info and a really basic demo to go with some sample code on another thread.


http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=76348

Plan to have a game demo with integrated level editor released this month, before we let flow out the bag.

@Amon
Unity rocks man..I hate it 1 year ago, until version 2.x pop up..its just initially a bit 'weird' feeling that tons of stuff you use to code and pretty much 'imagine' during development time, you can actually see by default..its really worth buying it both, mac and unity, if you are seriously in to game or casual games for profit :)

Don't know if I want to invest in a Mac capable of running Unity and spending all the money needed for a Unity Pro License.

TV3D is really enough for my needs heck Blitz3dSDK is enough because I know nothing about shader programming. This is where I stumble with TV3D as everyone is a shader programming God and I don't even know how to make example shaders interface with TV3D. :)

I use shaderFX to create shaders. Brilliant tool. The exporter I use has a shaderFX bridge and writes more optimized Ogre shaders than vanilla .FX files shaderFX creates.