SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Amon on November 10, 2018, 07:19:25

Title: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amon on November 10, 2018, 07:19:25
So, what 3d engine are you guys using now?
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GrindalfGames on November 10, 2018, 08:43:40
Im still using Blitz3D ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amon on November 10, 2018, 09:27:52
Quote from: grindalf on November 10, 2018, 08:43:40
Im still using Blitz3D ;)


:)


Does it work on windows 10? When you compile to .exe does it crash on windows 10 or suffer any unexplained crashes?
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: STEVIE G on November 10, 2018, 10:13:46
Quote from: Amon. on November 10, 2018, 09:27:52
Quote from: grindalf on November 10, 2018, 08:43:40
Im still using Blitz3D ;)


:)


Does it work on windows 10? When you compile to .exe does it crash on windows 10 or suffer any unexplained crashes?

Blitz3d for me too.  Getting too old to start something new.  Only minor issue is that on first use, win10 asks for directplay install but if you include the dplayx.dll in the exe directory it works just fine.  There is also a version with dplay stuff ripped out.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 10, 2018, 10:27:01
Quote
win10 asks for directplay install but if you include the dplayx.dll in the exe directory it works just fine.

In case anybody asks, if you look at Stevie's competition entries you also get that dll with the download.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 10, 2018, 11:38:38
Blitz3d ! 8)
When i started to code games (for Windows) around 8-9 years ago, i have read several posts on the blitzbasic forum, about how it was going to cause compatibiliy problems in the near future and how this or this engine was more future proof.
Well look at some of us these days, still coding in blitzbasic and running the games / tools on recent versions of Windows OS. (and many of the future proof engines have disappeared), not so bad in term of compatibility...
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 10, 2018, 12:55:56
..im lurking in a limbo, searching for something which offers complete physics/networking solution, but its not Unity-like system..orbiting around Urho, while looking over other things :)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 10, 2018, 13:49:18
After Blitz3D I moved on to GLBasic and when that became broke in many areas I moved on to AGK. In the last few months I've been dabbling with Unity.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amon on November 10, 2018, 14:03:07
We're all lost in the wilderness.


******QUEUE - ARRIVAL OF OPTIMUS PRIME MUSIC FROM 1ST TRANSFORMERS MOVIE*******


After many of the blitz languages were retired,


We were scattered across the Interweb. Some made it, others didn't.


In our ever growing fight against the tyranny of those that abandoned programming languages,

We found Qube. And SyntaxBomb. Our new home. To all blitzers, if you are out there.

WE ARE HERE. Waiting.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 10, 2018, 15:21:19
Bobysait was working on a 3d engine for Blitzmax, with Blitz3d-like functions names, and what he showed was quite impressive, but not sure what he is doing now, and if he still works on it...

Blitzbasic / Blitz3d is good enough for my hobby experiments / creations anyway !
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GrindalfGames on November 10, 2018, 18:17:56
Quote from: Amon. on November 10, 2018, 09:27:52
Quote from: grindalf on November 10, 2018, 08:43:40
Im still using Blitz3D ;)


:)


Does it work on windows 10? When you compile to .exe does it crash on windows 10 or suffer any unexplained crashes?

Works fine. I've run the exes across 5 different win 10 computers that I have in my household and like STEVIE G says as long as dxplay.dll is in the same folder as the exe there are no problems
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 10, 2018, 23:46:30
I'm still using Blitz 3D, just created another demo trial on gpsrunner.co.uk, imports and compares tcx files (GPS) ,that's if I included directplay !
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on November 11, 2018, 00:42:38
I use:

Blitz3d
Cerberus - X

Torque (version 1.4) and T3D
Unity
3D Gamestudio
Lumberyard  (learning)

perhaps thats why its taking me so long to get something done!
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amon on November 11, 2018, 09:56:24
Quote from: bsisko on November 11, 2018, 00:42:38
I use:

Blitz3d
Cerberus - X

Torque (version 1.4) and T3D
Unity
3D Gamestudio
Lumberyard  (learning)

perhaps thats why its taking me so long to get something done!


lol, yeah but atleast you're experimenting with other engines. You never know, you may just find the one that clicks with you.


[edit]


for those using blitz3d: which IDE are you guys using or are you using the stock IDE that comes with Blitz3D.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 11, 2018, 10:10:28
Used a couple over the last decade, Protean until I found IDEal, IDEal has loads of functionality, a great IDE, highly recommend it  8)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 11, 2018, 10:14:43
Quote
for those using blitz3d: which IDE are you guys using or are you using the stock IDE that comes with Blitz3D
yes i use the default Blitz3d IDE, there are a few tricks to know to determine where a error most likely is, but it is good enough for me...
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: STEVIE G on November 11, 2018, 13:21:10
Quote from: 3DzForMe on November 11, 2018, 10:10:28
Used a couple over the last decade, Protean until I found IDEal, IDEal has loads of functionality, a great IDE, highly recommend it  8)

IDEal is a must for me too as the original IDE is pretty poor functionality wise.  I've also heard in the past of people having issues with the original IDE when the code gets beyond 10,000 lines.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Alain on November 11, 2018, 15:51:05
Regarding Blitz3D on modern hardware, be aware of 2 serious limitations:

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 11, 2018, 16:02:31
I'm quite happy with 2D  ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GrindalfGames on November 11, 2018, 18:27:55
Quote from: Alain on November 11, 2018, 15:51:05
Regarding Blitz3D on modern hardware, be aware of 2 serious limitations:


  • Blitz requires a mouse to be connected to start (does not start on Microsoft Surface for instance.)
  • Cannot display on a resolution higher than 2000xsomething ... It is a real problem nowaday with screen resolution regularly larger than 1920x1200

I was not aware of the mouse issue. I will go test that now on my Linx Vision

As for the IDE I tried IDEal for a while but went back to the default editor after a while. I just prefer it


EDIT:Tested on my Linx Vision and blitz apps run fine(I couldn't play anything because I had no mouse or keyboard connected) but the programs ran ok
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Santiago on November 11, 2018, 18:48:08
Blitz3D, allways :)

(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-slLss9tCVII%2FVwe1ZNkPHxI%2FAAAAAAAAHHM%2FTRTz1gYuT0QpBj2ansTmv4DVX_hQmM6uw%2Fs1600%2Findiesoft%252Bsimulador%252Bnaval%252Bsantiago%252Bgonzalez%252Bcolonia%252Brio%252Bde%252Bla%252Bplata%252Bvirtual%252B%25252857%252529.jpg&hash=c194af7d58c0ef54be0bfa7f61e54c380237ff0b)

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 11, 2018, 18:51:18
If Blitz3D is running in Windowed mode, you can maximize the window to fill the screen I believe.... Although the maximum resolution within the window may be 1920 X 1200.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 11, 2018, 19:08:16
Anyone should take the bb3d source and expand it with dx11/dx12 support. ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Santiago on November 11, 2018, 19:36:34
Quote from: c0d3r9 on November 11, 2018, 19:08:16
Anyone should take the bb3d source and expand it with dx11/dx12 support. ;)

Shaders!!!!! in blitz!!! and i will be happy forever!
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 11, 2018, 21:15:29
After a lot of testing and searching over the years, I settled on AGK. It's performant, keeps the oldschool ease of use and Blitz style programming approach while allowing for shenanigans.

(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FPpI0NXel.jpg&hash=93f4bce926bb5fdb470f126dbc491841e852e906) (https://imgur.com/PpI0NXe) (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FPWr1fwbl.jpg&hash=7af1b12a419a6d9997d0512efb879bb379dfa9e0) (https://imgur.com/PWr1fwb)

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 11, 2018, 21:55:43
The Shader Master has returned  ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Coder Apprentice on November 12, 2018, 02:05:09
Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 10, 2018, 12:55:56
..im lurking in a limbo, searching for something which offers complete physics/networking solution, but its not Unity-like system..orbiting around Urho, while looking over other things :)

Naughty! I thought AGK became sort of the new Blitz3D for you too. You seemed to be satisfied with it for a while. Any particular reason why it's not the "real thing" for you?

When Xaron first mentioned it in 2017 I also bought it and it seems very nice. Didn't dive into it full force yet though...
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 02:06:37
..yes, it is correct what you have said..but physics implemented is very basic and incomplete, this is the only thing stopping me from full commitment, even i do use it actually, yes..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 12, 2018, 04:03:48
Quote from: GaborD on November 11, 2018, 21:15:29
After a lot of testing and searching over the years, I settled on AGK. It's performant, keeps the oldschool ease of use and Blitz style programming approach while allowing for shenanigans.
Nice nice nice ;D - I think you should create a shader package and sell it for others to use. Your talent is wasted on just creating scenes alone :o

Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 02:06:37
..yes, it is correct what you have said..but physics implemented is very basic and incomplete, this is the only thing stopping me from full commitment, even i do use it actually, yes..
That is a downside of AGK, as much as I love it many of the features are half arsed implemented. Physics, 3D and 2D Spline as examples all just have the the basics followed by a "that'll do" mentality. It can be a nightmare getting a 3D model with textures and animation working with AGK as it's so specific as what it accepts. Also there are no clear instructions of what it does accept. The docs mention FBX but so much of that side is missing, for example it doesn't import FBX's included textures. This is certainly an area that needs some serious work and one that would boost AGK.

Don't get me wrong, I really like AGK but it needs completion of some of the features it offers. It would make it a much more pro package.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 04:43:13
Quote from: Qube on November 12, 2018, 04:03:48
Quote from: GaborD on November 11, 2018, 21:15:29
After a lot of testing and searching over the years, I settled on AGK. It's performant, keeps the oldschool ease of use and Blitz style programming approach while allowing for shenanigans.
Nice nice nice ;D - I think you should create a shader package and sell it for others to use. Your talent is wasted on just creating scenes alone :o

Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 02:06:37
..yes, it is correct what you have said..but physics implemented is very basic and incomplete, this is the only thing stopping me from full commitment, even i do use it actually, yes..
That is a downside of AGK, as much as I love it many of the features are half arsed implemented. Physics, 3D and 2D Spline as examples all just have the the basics followed by a "that'll do" mentality. It can be a nightmare getting a 3D model with textures and animation working with AGK as it's so specific as what it accepts. Also there are no clear instructions of what it does accept. The docs mention FBX but so much of that side is missing, for example it doesn't import FBX's included textures. This is certainly an area that needs some serious work and one that would boost AGK.

Don't get me wrong, I really like AGK but it needs completion of some of the features it offers. It would make it a much more pro package.

..100% agree..for instance, i still cant get lightmapped objects in to AGK..i have had some success, and then, some other 3D models i have lightmapped on same way, just doesnt work, even i did follow exact instructions..this makes me very nervous over such things which should work by default...then to add in to confusion more, only working example of lightmaps supplied by AGK is done by use of OBJ file format which actually cant support 2 UV map channels, while FBX and B3D which does by default, doesnt work at all..so i just dropped it for a while, even i do update it on regular basis...
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 12, 2018, 06:19:47
I use FBX for everything AGK related. The tangent space support is a big plus.
Downside is FBX indeed doesn't seem to work with HTML5 exports. Not sure about mobile, never tried, I hate mobile with all my guts.
So yeah, definitely an issue if you want to target other platforms.

One solution I can think of is to bake the second UV set as vertex colors. But I guess OBJ doesn't support that either. OBJ is... well... aaargh.
Could that work as B3D workaround? Could also bake UV2 to a texture if UV1 is unique-unwrapped (basically UV1 being your LM channel, and UV2 the standard one).
Then again, if you have tiled textures on the object the coords will go beyond 0-1, would take quite some effort to pack the values. I guess you could set up material nodes in Blender that do it or such. But it's a hassle for sure.

@Qube Yeah, I have thought about it. This year was horrible, didn't get to anything due to long sickness and the following frantic work catch up.
The other issue is that for correct PBR "a shader" just doesn't do it.
The entire render chain needs to be tailored for it and shovel around HDR data. Plus you need a robust system for lighting and the tons of reflection probes needed all over the place. Lighting/reflection probes (need them to be full range HDR) your user has no way of importing from 3D software or CubeMapGen, other than having an extra conversion tool written in NB or such. Hmmm... that ofcourse makes NB useful again!  ;D
So that's a reason to do all of this I guess. NB will rise again, like Phoenix from the ashes! As a GUI tool to convert HDR probes, HDR skies and HDR lightmaps for AGK.
In any case, have to get the particles done first, haha.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 12, 2018, 07:02:47
[trolling]
i can have rigged skinned animated meshes, and lightmap uvs, in the old, deprecated, Blitz3d  ;)
[/trolling]
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 12, 2018, 07:05:30
Quote..100% agree..for instance, i still cant get lightmapped objects in to AGK..i have had some success, and then, some other 3D models i have lightmapped on same way, just doesnt work
I found that too. The solution for me was to bake on UV1 or UV2 depending on which one failed initially. Could never figure out why some models breezed into AGK and others were a complete twat.

Quotethen to add in to confusion more, only working example of lightmaps supplied by AGK is done by use of OBJ file format which actually cant support 2 UV map channels
That is true but ( as mentioned above ) I've found that baking on UV1 or UV2 works, depending on how AGK feels about your model. It's all very hit and miss sometimes which really annoyed me. Model > Bake UV1 > Import into AGK.. Nope!, grey model. Bake UV2 > Import into AGK.. \o/ success. I've had that both ways. I've also imported models into AGK which sends bone information into the next galaxy resulting in very disfigured models. Yup, AGK is pretty temperamental with what it does and does not support on the 3D side. I wish they'd fix it.

Quote@Qube Yeah, I have thought about it. This year was horrible, didn't get to anything due to long sickness
Sorry to hear that. Hope all is getting better now :)

Perhaps you should approach TGC directly and work something out?. I'm sure AGK would benefit a great deal from enhanced 3D techniques and your knowledge. When I delved into the 3D side of AGK I found it very lacking in file format support and decent feature support. Also, no matter what you did with lighting and shadows it always looked like an early DirectX7 game. I think the whole 3D side of AGK needs a serious overhaul. It has good shader support ( if you can make them ) but it would greatly benefit from a core set of built in shaders that users could use for both the 2D and 3D side of things.

Quote from: RemiD on November 12, 2018, 07:02:47
[trolling]
i can have rigged skinned animated meshes, and lightmap uvs, in the old, deprecated, Blitz3d  ;)
[/trolling]
Lol, OK, I'll send you a rigged, animated and skinned 3D model in DAE or FBX format. Let me know how that goes ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 07:08:35
@Gabor

..with B3D everything works as advertised..heck, you can even take mesh (3DS) and load lightmap data from texture and then apply such thing on to UV2 you can have on the fly..or interchange...this is what i just cant understand with AGK...follow exact instructions in help file, regarding this, and you will get a world of confusion..i did post this question on AGK forums, some time ago..few guys tried to reply just to realize that they also have no clue...

..so, while i like whole thing about AGK in general, this sort of fundamentals which are very confusing and difficult to properly implement, is a no no for me, which is why im looking for something else...i mean, it took me some 10 minutes to get exported same mesh, same lightmap i used with AGK, and run it inside Urho..no fuss no confusion, it works as advertised..now im messing with this Lumberyard engine, suggested by Amon..very nice so far..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 12, 2018, 07:27:28
Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 12, 2018, 07:08:35..with B3D everything works as advertised..heck, you can even take mesh (3DS) and load lightmap data from texture and then apply such thing on to UV2 you can have on the fly..or interchange...this is what i just cant understand with AGK...follow exact instructions in help file, regarding this, and you will get a world of confusion..i did post this question on AGK forums, some time ago..few guys tried to reply just to realize that they also have no clue...
Yup, that's pretty much it. I found that AGK randomly decides if it uses UV1 or UV2 for the primary texture.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Pakz on November 12, 2018, 12:37:17
Mark posted a new update. He is going towards making the longterm shift of taking monkey 2 towards the web. Other targets will keep working but Wasm wil be overhauled(faster compiling like monkeyx)

I was a little bit uncertain on how the future of Monkey 2 would look but it seems to have life in it. So I wil keep using it for 2d/3d.

I did a compile yesterday, of my current Voxel world for the browser. I think I left the lighting on there since in the lower parts the framerate drops quite a bit. But getting a browser 3d game going seems so easy with monkey 2. I forgot to make the internal textures to the power of 2 so it does not work on tablets right now.

(Voxel world browser)
https://cromdesi.home.xs4all.nl/emscripten/monkeymine/Untitled1.html
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Madjack on November 12, 2018, 13:08:44
It was the great diaspora.

Quote from: Amon. on November 10, 2018, 14:03:07
We're all lost in the wilderness.


******QUEUE - ARRIVAL OF OPTIMUS PRIME MUSIC FROM 1ST TRANSFORMERS MOVIE*******


After many of the blitz languages were retired,


We were scattered across the Interweb. Some made it, others didn't.


In our ever growing fight against the tyranny of those that abandoned programming languages,

We found Qube. And SyntaxBomb. Our new home. To all blitzers, if you are out there.

WE ARE HERE. Waiting.

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 12, 2018, 15:56:32
@Madjack and Amon, oh yeah, the great diaspora;)

Thanks to Qube and syntaxbomb, B3D still cuts the mustard. I'm still coding (albeit occasionally, this year has also been a tough one with a protracted illness).

You just can't keep a good coding tool down  :P
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 12, 2018, 17:42:41
Quote
OK, I'll send you a rigged, animated and skinned 3D model in DAE or FBX format. Let me know how that goes
if the format has a clear documentation of how it is structured, i bet that i could create an importer... (but i don't want to do that, but i can explain how, and you probably knows how too, so i don't need to explain, so why did you say that ? :P)

but maybe not for everything, i suppose that fbx / dae have others properties that b3d hasn't (since it was supposed to work with the old deprecated directx7 ;D) ? (like properties for shaders ?)

for example, in Fragmotion, there are some properties of a material which means nothing for Blitz3d (emissive, specular, shader)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 13, 2018, 01:54:41
Qube does deserve certain recognition for saving a day..thats for sure...thats why i have his pic, on the wall of the heroes i recognize as legit one, right next to the Puki :)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 13, 2018, 03:45:27
Quoteso why did you say that ? :P
Lol, I was just re-trolling your trolling quote you made and saying that Blitz3D doesn't support FBX or DAE rigged, textured and animated files directly. Silly post, move on, nothing to see here :P

Quotefor example, in Fragmotion, there are some properties of a material which means nothing for Blitz3d (emissive, specular, shader)
I know, it's a real shame and I'll always dream that one day we'll get a bang up to date Blitz3D 2 with a thriving community and regular updates, just like the good old days of yesteryear.

QuoteQube does deserve certain recognition for saving a day..thats for sure...thats why i have his pic, on the wall of the heroes i recognize as legit one, right next to the Puki :)
Now that would be freaky, ya banned :P
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 13, 2018, 06:08:32
Quote from: Qube on November 13, 2018, 03:45:27
I know, it's a real shame and I'll always dream that one day we'll get a bang up to date Blitz3D 2 with a thriving community and regular updates, just like the good old days of yesteryear.

Yeah indeed. I have been dreaming of something like that for many years.
Now noone even tries anymore, I guess this is the downside of the big guys gobbling up the entire market by throwing free stuff around for the lower end users. Engines are not worth developing unless you are either one of the big guys who can make back the money on the pro end or already have an established audience from the old days.
So we are stuck with these bloated monsters that run like molasses or with mostly unfinished stuff.
NB was so close to greatness.. argh. C3D would have gotten there... double argh. I am getting too old for this crap. Triple argh.  ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 13, 2018, 07:25:32
Quote from: GaborD on November 13, 2018, 06:08:32
Quote from: Qube on November 13, 2018, 03:45:27
I know, it's a real shame and I'll always dream that one day we'll get a bang up to date Blitz3D 2 with a thriving community and regular updates, just like the good old days of yesteryear.

Yeah indeed. I have been dreaming of something like that for many years.
Now noone even tries anymore, I guess this is the downside of the big guys gobbling up the entire market by throwing free stuff around for the lower end users. Engines are not worth developing unless you are either one of the big guys who can make back the money on the pro end or already have an established audience from the old days.
So we are stuck with these bloated monsters that run like molasses or with mostly unfinished stuff.
NB was so close to greatness.. argh. C3D would have gotten there... double argh. I am getting too old for this crap. Triple argh.  ;D

You are so right.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 08:12:29
Also what is a huge wall that gets in the way is.. . people expected a cross platform tool these days. For one person that does it only part time, it is almost impossible to support.
I still have a base language sitting on my harddrive, which i never published cause noone would want a tool that would be windows only. When you look at the stats of the market, for indies it isn't worth supporting osx and linux. It is more a labour of love imho.Nevermind that unity destroyed the market with their free license.

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 13, 2018, 08:17:52
Quote from: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 08:12:29
I still have a base language sitting on my harddrive, which i never published cause noone would want a tool that would be windows only.

Thats all what i want. ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 13, 2018, 08:28:33
Quote from: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 08:12:29
Also what is a huge wall that gets in the way is.. . people expected a cross platform tool these days. For one person that does it only part time, it is almost impossible to support.
I think cross platform is expected because indie's selling a game need every sale they can get, although I agree that Windows sales of games greatly dwarf those of Linux and Mac. Personally I like an engine that supports multiple platforms as I prefer developing on a Mac.

Quote from: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 08:12:29
Nevermind that unity destroyed the market with their free license.
Yeah and it allowed thousands of people to buy a game template, change the graphics and pump it out as something they've done themselves. I bought a license to get rid of the "Made with Unity" splash screen and also use dark mode over the over bright default skin.

I still think there is a market for paid for Blitz3D type tools. AGK is proof of that.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on November 13, 2018, 09:14:39
Quote from: GaborD on November 13, 2018, 06:08:32
Yeah indeed. I have been dreaming of something like that for many years.
Now noone even tries anymore, I guess this is the downside of the big guys gobbling up the entire market by throwing free stuff around for the lower end users. Engines are not worth developing unless you are either one of the big guys who can make back the money on the pro end or already have an established audience from the old days.
So we are stuck with these bloated monsters that run like molasses or with mostly unfinished stuff.
NB was so close to greatness.. argh. C3D would have gotten there... double argh. I am getting too old for this crap. Triple argh.  ;D

So why don't you write a "graphics engine" on top of BlitzMax NG? It favors a syntax we all learned to love. NG comes with SDL so you could use that, or you help Brucey bringing in "BGFX" which would provide a solid render chain already.
It is up to you (and your knowledge of how a "easy but advanced" render-pipeline has to be) to create the tool you want to use.

Brucey is a one-man-wonder when it comes to coding certain stuff, but knowledge and especially time to devote for a project is limited - it helps if people with special abilities jump in (documentation writers, sound gurus, GFX wonder-boys and girls, ...). If a one-man-band (we NG contributors are only small lamps next to the flood light of Brucey) tries to do everything alone you end up with something like AGK: it provides what Qube described so nicely: half-arsed stuff. It should never be the intention of a (game) programming toolchain to led the developers/users bend around the chain ("you can use FBX but for materials you need to export it first as XYZ"). Offer convenience and flexibility. And especially these benefit aspects are the most time consuming as they are far away from being "barebone".

While I appreciate efforts of others (like AGK) I do not see why they should be "superior" to NG (talking about Mac, Linux, Windows). BlitzMax offers the more flexible language and thanks to Brucey a lot of modules to use. It just lacks a modern "framework" for games programming. And this is where others could chime in - describing to Brucey what is "needed" for a certain thing (basic functionality - like eg. the SDL framework offering "graphic contexts"). If a team would build up around this - you could create something which is how you like it to be and this without having to decide everything on your own, to build and test everything on your own. The people with certain knowledge should not be forced to also test stuff thoroughfully, to write the most proper and elaborative documentaion for 3rd party users (the normal game-developer).

So why am I promoting NG so much? Of course because I use BlitzMax for a teenagers life long now and because I like Brucey - and because it is _free_ and _opensource_ and _matured_ - it just lacks some love here and there (see above, modern game programming technologies). If NG attracted more people again (because the basics are working and providing modern functionalities) then the economical environment would grow too - leading to 3rd party tools, ideas, modules, IDEs or even better plugins for existing IDEs.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on November 13, 2018, 12:18:40
what you want (graphics engine with functions names similar to Blitz3d + shaders), already exists with blitzmax+openb3d or blitzmax+bigbang (engine by Bobysait)

the thing is if you want regular fixes / updates / addons, the developper needs to be paid in some way to dedicate enough time to that...
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 13, 2018, 12:49:11
Quote


Brucey is a one-man-wonder when it comes to coding certain stuff, but knowledge and especially time to devote for a project is limited - it helps if people with special abilities jump in (documentation writers, sound gurus, GFX wonder-boys and girls, ...). If a one-man-band (we NG contributors are only small lamps next to the flood light of Brucey) tries to do everything alone you end up with something like AGK: it provides what Qube described so nicely: half-arsed stuff. It should never be the intention of a (game) programming toolchain to led the developers/users bend around the chain ("you can use FBX but for materials you need to export it first as XYZ"). Offer convenience and flexibility. And especially these benefit aspects are the most time consuming as they are far away from being "barebone".


...did i understood this correctly? I mean, AGK is one man show? Yes? No?
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 13, 2018, 12:55:50
Quote
...did i understood this correctly? I mean, AGK is one man show? Yes? No?

AGK is not a one man show - NG is.

https://www.thegamecreators.com/team
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 13:37:06
Quote from: Steve Elliott on November 13, 2018, 12:55:50
Quote
...did i understood this correctly? I mean, AGK is one man show? Yes? No?

AGK is not a one man show - NG is.

https://www.thegamecreators.com/team (https://www.thegamecreators.com/team)


There was and still is only one man working on the AGK code, Paul.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on November 13, 2018, 14:02:41
OpenB3D is .. a bit bugged and surely misses things (accessibility or so?), else I cannot imagine why people prefer Blitz3D to BlitzMax(NG)+OpenB3D as it means to also allow Linux/Mac - and some more advanced visual looks than most here come up with their Blitz3D-products/games. Sure, assets help a lot there but still they look "DirectX7-ish" (think you understand what I mean). The gamekits should assist the "average joe" coder in creating some nice looking stuff "out of the box" - and if that means "EnableAmbientOcclusion()" then yes, add it - with the option to finegrain for advanced users.

For NG I was not talking about something 3rd party but something more or less officially included (so like "Max2D" - or Graphics3D in Blitz3D which I never used). I am also pretty sure that all of you miss things here and there in Blitz3D, AGK, Unity, ... which could be tackled when writing your own graphics lib for eg. NG. Of course it could utilize existing stuff (BGFX, SDL ...) to avoid having to handle all the low-level stuff. Keyword is "convenience". Average coders should not need to know about potential texture format support - they should have a "LoadTexture(url)" and voila...works for most common formats.

And what does it need else? Some talented artists (GaborD has posted some awesome shots) to show others what is "possible" (hopefully with "only a handful of commands"). Visuals is what attracts people. If you do not want to use Godot, Unity, UE ... then you look what games can be made with a toolchain. Of course most of these users won't be able to do similar games as it needs more than just the programming language / toolchain (=> asset creators!) still these users are what makes the community grow then (people ask questions, old pro's answer if they can). Also these users are needed to find out what is needed for "convenient" use (the old users know how to circumvent certain issues). Means the newbie helps to improve accessibilty to a tool/language and the modules. Economically these newbies are of interest too - as some of them might be interested in paying for some stuff here and there (modules, assets, tools, ...).
Newbies are also needed for increased awareness - google does not analyze if you know the language, as long as you talk about it, it helps to spread the word "search engine-wise".


@ one man show
This is especially important for the "compiler" as the compiler bugs need to get ironed out here and there - most of us are not capable of doing that (without much trial-and-error or a very steep learning curve). But module bugs are what more people could fix (everybody according to their own "specialization"). If a basic shader borks up things, then the shader experts can chime in. If there is some artificial audio delay on linux then linux users could help out ... and so on. The less advanced a topic for a "normal specialist" (graphics design students, musicians, ...) is, the more easier it is to assist in bug fixing. But as it is the same for all projects: you need a certain amount of commitment by the main developers (for now Brucey is pretty committed) and a critical amount of "helpers" - this "core helper" group is in almost all indie projects way too low. This hurdle is to climb before it can really become successful. Once you reach critical mass you will be able to reduce load of the main developer. And this works better for an FOSS tool kit (NG) than for paid/closed-source/non-liberal-licence-tools (AGK etc.).
Some time ago I asked for NG help - documentation, examples, ... some offered help - still it needs someone who manages the whole thing so there would actual help be done instead of only offered. I know how tedious it is to write documentation and auxiliary stuff (this is what Brucey did the last weeks). As a non-native English speaker I cannot write much documentation - but of course could localize stuff if it really was needed. Helping out requires a certain level of believe in a project - a project which might miss some stuff (modern render engine). A bit of a vicious circle most of us know very well.


Excuse the thread-derailment, just wanted to cry a bit more for potential help by some of you.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 13, 2018, 14:50:50
Quote from: MikeHart on November 13, 2018, 08:12:29
Also what is a huge wall that gets in the way is.. . people expected a cross platform tool these days. For one person that does it only part time, it is almost impossible to support.
I still have a base language sitting on my harddrive, which i never published cause noone would want a tool that would be windows only. When you look at the stats of the market, for indies it isn't worth supporting osx and linux. It is more a labour of love imho. Nevermind that unity destroyed the market with their free license.

I definitely prefer a Win only engine.
As soon as you start adding export targets, you are compromising. Hate losing important features (like texture compression, FP rendertargets, flexible render chains, etc) because multi platform engines usually just stick to what will easily export to all the toasters.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 13, 2018, 14:59:40
@Derron, I've coded in both B3D and BMax, had an education tool sanctioned by BECTA (in BMAX), however I confess my familiarity with what is achievable in B3D with fastlibs suits my needs. Also, I'm getting too old to get to grips with different syntactical ways to skin the proverbial cat. As for multiplatform dev, that equals ball aches in my limited experience.

One last thing, the huge array of coding examples for B3D in the archives is a great aid for the indie coder, IMO.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on November 13, 2018, 15:14:07
@ 3DzForMe
I think syntaxwise there is no big difference between B3D and BMax(NG). Most examples could more or less get converted to BlitzMax (+ OpenB3D or miniB3D or ...).


@ GaborD
Being able to compile on other platforms only sacrifices functionality if you want to provide everything on every platform. Just do a "basics on all platforms" approach and it helps.
Nobody doing (somehow) stuff for NG expects all functions working on all platforms (Mac/Linux/Win + iOS/android/raspi/switch). I know that not all (ancient) hardware support S3Tc ( requiring GL_ARB_texture_compression on the OpenGL side) which is the parent of "DDS" (which is more likely a container than a direct texture format). This is what all the abstraction tries to do: avoid low level contact to the "end developer". So if a platform/hardware does not provide support for eg. "DDS" then the framework should convert to something else (and on debug output this information).

Many of the "casual developers" do not care for "4 times the VRam" as long as it works. So once a project matures there should be the possibility to connect to some inner beings of the frameworks so to optimize stuff or use special framework commands to adjust things to their needs.

Do not judge "BlitzMax(NG)" by comparing it to "Monkey-X" or big-player-projects like "Unity" with their "code once, run everywhere"  attitude. Think all of us are aware that it won't work a 100% for more complex projects or programmes using advanced techniques.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Alain on November 13, 2018, 16:00:29
I have to agree BlitzMax NG is here and is what you want basically. Just show him some love :-)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 13, 2018, 16:15:27
BlitzMax (NG) sounds like a great product, it's had more recent development than B3d, I have not any experience with BMax (NG), please give it consideration with other 3D engines.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Madjack on November 13, 2018, 20:23:18
I had a look at AGK tier 1, which is the equivalent of Blitz3d I suppose, but compared to BlitzMax, it ran like a snail.
Reading the fine print I see it's interpreted not compiled.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 13, 2018, 20:29:54
Yeah I see AGK as a good 2D option, but for 3D Games it's a half arsed attempt.  For extra speed you can use Tier 2 and use C++ though.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Kryzon on November 13, 2018, 21:24:32
Godot looks sexy:
https://godotengine.org/features (https://godotengine.org/features)
(Lol my autocorrect named it "Goody" instead of Godot)

Oh, and remember Shiva?
http://www.shiva-engine.com/features192/ (http://www.shiva-engine.com/features192/)
It's still going.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 13, 2018, 21:37:18
Yep, so many options out there...But I just get the feeling people aren't truely connecting with a particular product...I like this about it - but not this...I'll wait for something better.  That's not a great situation to be in.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Madjack on November 13, 2018, 22:34:38
So what is the best Blitz3d like option at the moment?
And by best, I mean something that is DX9 or higher, at least as fast as B3d (but pref as fast as BMax), has the full range of commands including raycasting+collision and has very few bugs?
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 13, 2018, 23:29:37
I've tried AGK briefly, to be fair, my age might not have given it a fair crack of the whip, and just possibly my resolve at overcoming coding nuances that I didn't find a problem a decade ago when having fun with Blitz3D and JV ODE may be down to coding mojo fade.

Blitz3D still works for me, made a new video tonight on my W7 box, I should really do it on my son's W10 box. Sure, it's not polygon tastic, but it's an example of what is achievable as an analysis tool of real world 3d data.

Would love to hear of any responses to MJ's question, otherwise/nevertheless, B3D still rocks
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 00:34:01
Quote from: Madjack on November 13, 2018, 22:34:38
So what is the best Blitz3d like option at the moment?
And by best, I mean something that is DX9 or higher, at least as fast as B3d (but pref as fast as BMax), has the full range of commands including raycasting+collision and has very few bugs?

..thats exactly what im trying to look for..there are tons of options which are Unity like, but thats not something im feeling comfortable with..currently, im messing with Lumberyard engine, and it is nice..just like Unity and all, you sort out your level visually quickly, and then you go to coding..and when you do that, this is what you code just to have entity spinning around Z axis...


local RotateEntity =
{
Properties =
{
IncomingGameplayEventName = "",
AxisOfRotation = {default=Vector3(0,0,1), description="The axis to rotate around"},
IsRelative = {default=true, description="When true, the entity's transform will transform the AxisOfRotation"},
RotationSpeed = {default=60, description="Degrees per second."},
},

}


function RotateEntity:OnActivate()
local gameplayBusId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.IncomingGameplayEventName, "float")
self.gameplayBus = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, gameplayBusId)
end

function RotateEntity:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
local axisOfRotation = self.Properties.AxisOfRotation:GetNormalized()
local localTM = TransformBus.Event.GetWorldTM(self.entityId)
local translation = localTM:GetTranslation()
localTM:SetTranslation(Vector3(0,0,0))
local scale = localTM:ExtractScale()

if not self.Properties.IsRelative then
axisOfRotation = axisOfRotation * localTM
end

local dt = TickRequestBus.Broadcast.GetTickDeltaTime()
local rotationAmount = floatValue * dt * Math.DegToRad(self.Properties.RotationSpeed)

local finalTM = localTM * Transform.CreateFromQuaternion(Quaternion.CreateFromAxisAngle(axisOfRotation, rotationAmount):GetNormalized())
finalTM:SetPosition(translation)
finalTM:MultiplyByScale(scale)
TransformBus.Event.SetWorldTM(self.entityId, finalTM)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventBegin(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventUpdating(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventEnd(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnDeactivate()
self.gameplayBus:Disconnect()
end

return RotateEntity


..and this is exactly where this tools start losing me..yes, you do compose your level quickly in editor( i do same in 3dsmax by the way,end export directly for engine use), and then you 'code' stuff...i mean..if you see trigger code(to open door for example), its a spaghetti of various things..i guess its just me as so many people like this sort of tools..ill keep digging..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 14, 2018, 01:01:21
and thats where i totally agree.
I tested unity some years ago.But at the end its most only behavior scripting.
Its good for game designer and i know we can code detailed in unity.
And the games made with unity, godot and similar looks good but maybe i´m to oldschool.
Atm i´m learning c++ deeper and maybe i can code a little 2d framework/engine anytime...

But the bigges wish is a Blitz3D like thing with dx11/12 support and an active community.
I´m sure such thing is possible with bm-ng too but i never used it.
On the other side there are then modules and modules and always modules....thats not bad but the most would use an out-of-the-box system.

Its the same reason why i don´t use linux(this time its better...but years ago...).
I would work with an OS not for an OS. ;)
And mainly i would code game code and not an (parts of) engine.

And so i should write a wishlist to santa....for now...good night ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Madjack on November 14, 2018, 01:15:54
The example code NA posted below is why sometimes I feel that programmers make things overly complex because it's self-reinforcing and a form of gate-keeping.

Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 00:34:01

local RotateEntity =
{
Properties =
{
IncomingGameplayEventName = "",
AxisOfRotation = {default=Vector3(0,0,1), description="The axis to rotate around"},
IsRelative = {default=true, description="When true, the entity's transform will transform the AxisOfRotation"},
RotationSpeed = {default=60, description="Degrees per second."},
},

}


function RotateEntity:OnActivate()
local gameplayBusId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.IncomingGameplayEventName, "float")
self.gameplayBus = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, gameplayBusId)
end

function RotateEntity:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
local axisOfRotation = self.Properties.AxisOfRotation:GetNormalized()
local localTM = TransformBus.Event.GetWorldTM(self.entityId)
local translation = localTM:GetTranslation()
localTM:SetTranslation(Vector3(0,0,0))
local scale = localTM:ExtractScale()

if not self.Properties.IsRelative then
axisOfRotation = axisOfRotation * localTM
end

local dt = TickRequestBus.Broadcast.GetTickDeltaTime()
local rotationAmount = floatValue * dt * Math.DegToRad(self.Properties.RotationSpeed)

local finalTM = localTM * Transform.CreateFromQuaternion(Quaternion.CreateFromAxisAngle(axisOfRotation, rotationAmount):GetNormalized())
finalTM:SetPosition(translation)
finalTM:MultiplyByScale(scale)
TransformBus.Event.SetWorldTM(self.entityId, finalTM)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventBegin(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventUpdating(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnEventEnd(floatValue)
self:ApplyRotation(floatValue)
end

function RotateEntity:OnDeactivate()
self.gameplayBus:Disconnect()
end

return RotateEntity


Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 01:32:39
...i mean..i just dont get this hype over this visual tools...it does allow you to create scene rather fast and visually very pleasing, no doubt about that, but soon as you start doing some coding work, things are a bit different..i mean..look at this AiSpawn trigger code, which really could be scaled down to not more than 5 lines of code, if coded directly..


local utilities = require "scripts/common/utilities"

local aispawntrigger = {
Properties = {
AISpawnGroup = { default = "", description = "The spawn group to be triggered when the player enters the trigger." },
Switch =
{
On = { default = "", description = "The event name when switched on." },
Off = { default = "", description = "The event name when switched off." },
},
},
}

function aispawntrigger:OnActivate()
self.triggerHandler = TriggerAreaNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.entityId);
self.enteredAreaId = GameplayNotificationId(EntityId(), "EnteredAITrigger", "float");
self.exitedAreaId = GameplayNotificationId(EntityId(),"ExitedAITrigger", "float");
self.somethingDeepInside = false;

-- Initialise the values with defaults first and then set them up for listening, if necessary.
self.switchedOn = true;
self.switchedOnEventId = nil;
self.switchedOnHandler = nil;
self.switchedOffEventId = nil;
self.switchedOffHandler = nil;
local validOn = self:IsValidString(self.Properties.Switch.On);
local validOff = self:IsValidString(self.Properties.Switch.Off);
if (validOn and validOff) then
self.switchedOn = false;
self.switchedOnEventId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.Switch.On, "float");
self.switchedOnHandler = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.switchedOnEventId);
self.switchedOffEventId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.Switch.Off, "float");
self.switchedOffHandler = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.switchedOffEventId);
elseif (validOn or validOff) then
-- Output a warning that something was set but it'll be ignored.
Debug.Log("[LuaWarning] AISpawnTrigger '" .. tostring(StarterGameEntityUtility.GetEntityName(self.entityId)) .. "': one of the switches has an event name but the other doesn't. The switch will not be active.");
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnDeactivate()
if (self.switchedOffHandler ~= nil) then
self.switchedOffHandler:Disconnect();
self.switchedOffHandler = nil;
end
if (self.switchedOnHandler ~= nil) then
self.switchedOnHandler:Disconnect();
self.switchedOnHandler = nil;
end
if (self.triggerHandler ~= nil) then
self.triggerHandler:Disconnect();
self.triggerHandler = nil;
end
end

function aispawntrigger:IsValidString(str)
return str ~= "" and str ~= nil;
end

function aispawntrigger:OnTriggerAreaEntered(entityId)
--Debug.Log("A.I. Trigger Volume entered");
if (entityId ~= nil) then
self.somethingDeepInside = true;
end
if (not utilities.GetDebugManagerBool("PreventAIDisabling", false) and self.switchedOn) then
GameplayNotificationBus.Event.OnEventBegin(self.enteredAreaId, self.Properties.AISpawnGroup);
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnTriggerAreaExited(entityId)
--Debug.Log("A.I. Trigger Volume exited");
if (entityId ~= nil) then
self.somethingDeepInside = false;
end
if (not utilities.GetDebugManagerBool("PreventAIDisabling", false)) then
GameplayNotificationBus.Event.OnEventBegin(self.exitedAreaId, self.Properties.AISpawnGroup);
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnEventBegin(value)
if (self.switchedOnEventId ~= nil and self.switchedOffEventId ~= nil) then
if (GameplayNotificationBus.GetCurrentBusId() == self.switchedOnEventId) then
if (not self.switchedOn) then
self.switchedOn = true;
if (self.somethingDeepInside) then
self:OnTriggerAreaEntered(nil);
end
end
elseif (GameplayNotificationBus.GetCurrentBusId() == self.switchedOffEventId) then
if (self.switchedOn) then
self.switchedOn = false;
if (self.somethingDeepInside) then
self:OnTriggerAreaExited(nil);
end
end
end
end
end

return aispawntrigger;


..it must be just me as many folks enjoying this sort of tools..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 14, 2018, 01:46:09
I am with you on that NA, I never liked these kinds of engines.
I did use Unity back in the day for work projects a lot. But I never enjoyed it and always used other engines for own fun stuff. It's just not my cup of tea.
You spend more time in Wikis trying to figure out how their devs think and work than actually making your own game. And then it runs slow as heck. (Which is not meant as attack, it just comes with the territory. They are bloated because they try to support everything and everyone. A streamlined own renderchain will always be much faster)
I do however see how these tools are great for new people or when you need to export to toasters. They have the edge in that area.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 02:23:48
..exactly what i feel all the time..no doubt these visual tools are productive, but they rub me on wrong way for some reason..anyway, i think i have found what i was looking for, in form of Urho3D, as suggested before..it seems to be well documented and supported with modern features and quite friendly..and it does come with editor, where you put your scene in order and just load and access trough code to do whatever you want, directly..nice so far..

..simple scene with 2 dynamic lights set on scene..
(https://i.postimg.cc/j5Tjrnj3/Screenshot-11-14-2018-10-15-35-AM.png)


..loaded scene and lights and all parts of scene/entity, easy to access and modify directly...yay..
(https://i.postimg.cc/MGVG4mzj/Screenshot-11-14-2018-10-14-01-AM.png)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 14, 2018, 02:56:12
Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 01:32:39
...i mean..i just dont get this hype over this visual tools...it does allow you to create scene rather fast and visually very pleasing, no doubt about that, but soon as you start doing some coding work, things are a bit different..i mean..look at this AiSpawn trigger code, which really could be scaled down to not more than 5 lines of code, if coded directly..


local utilities = require "scripts/common/utilities"

local aispawntrigger = {
Properties = {
AISpawnGroup = { default = "", description = "The spawn group to be triggered when the player enters the trigger." },
Switch =
{
On = { default = "", description = "The event name when switched on." },
Off = { default = "", description = "The event name when switched off." },
},
},
}

function aispawntrigger:OnActivate()
self.triggerHandler = TriggerAreaNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.entityId);
self.enteredAreaId = GameplayNotificationId(EntityId(), "EnteredAITrigger", "float");
self.exitedAreaId = GameplayNotificationId(EntityId(),"ExitedAITrigger", "float");
self.somethingDeepInside = false;

-- Initialise the values with defaults first and then set them up for listening, if necessary.
self.switchedOn = true;
self.switchedOnEventId = nil;
self.switchedOnHandler = nil;
self.switchedOffEventId = nil;
self.switchedOffHandler = nil;
local validOn = self:IsValidString(self.Properties.Switch.On);
local validOff = self:IsValidString(self.Properties.Switch.Off);
if (validOn and validOff) then
self.switchedOn = false;
self.switchedOnEventId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.Switch.On, "float");
self.switchedOnHandler = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.switchedOnEventId);
self.switchedOffEventId = GameplayNotificationId(self.entityId, self.Properties.Switch.Off, "float");
self.switchedOffHandler = GameplayNotificationBus.Connect(self, self.switchedOffEventId);
elseif (validOn or validOff) then
-- Output a warning that something was set but it'll be ignored.
Debug.Log("[LuaWarning] AISpawnTrigger '" .. tostring(StarterGameEntityUtility.GetEntityName(self.entityId)) .. "': one of the switches has an event name but the other doesn't. The switch will not be active.");
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnDeactivate()
if (self.switchedOffHandler ~= nil) then
self.switchedOffHandler:Disconnect();
self.switchedOffHandler = nil;
end
if (self.switchedOnHandler ~= nil) then
self.switchedOnHandler:Disconnect();
self.switchedOnHandler = nil;
end
if (self.triggerHandler ~= nil) then
self.triggerHandler:Disconnect();
self.triggerHandler = nil;
end
end

function aispawntrigger:IsValidString(str)
return str ~= "" and str ~= nil;
end

function aispawntrigger:OnTriggerAreaEntered(entityId)
--Debug.Log("A.I. Trigger Volume entered");
if (entityId ~= nil) then
self.somethingDeepInside = true;
end
if (not utilities.GetDebugManagerBool("PreventAIDisabling", false) and self.switchedOn) then
GameplayNotificationBus.Event.OnEventBegin(self.enteredAreaId, self.Properties.AISpawnGroup);
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnTriggerAreaExited(entityId)
--Debug.Log("A.I. Trigger Volume exited");
if (entityId ~= nil) then
self.somethingDeepInside = false;
end
if (not utilities.GetDebugManagerBool("PreventAIDisabling", false)) then
GameplayNotificationBus.Event.OnEventBegin(self.exitedAreaId, self.Properties.AISpawnGroup);
end
end

function aispawntrigger:OnEventBegin(value)
if (self.switchedOnEventId ~= nil and self.switchedOffEventId ~= nil) then
if (GameplayNotificationBus.GetCurrentBusId() == self.switchedOnEventId) then
if (not self.switchedOn) then
self.switchedOn = true;
if (self.somethingDeepInside) then
self:OnTriggerAreaEntered(nil);
end
end
elseif (GameplayNotificationBus.GetCurrentBusId() == self.switchedOffEventId) then
if (self.switchedOn) then
self.switchedOn = false;
if (self.somethingDeepInside) then
self:OnTriggerAreaExited(nil);
end
end
end
end
end

return aispawntrigger;


..it must be just me as many folks enjoying this sort of tools..
What the frack is all that for?. It looks like a load of code to make up for something the engine should be handling by itself in the background. Remind me never to use LumberTurd ;D

Quote..exactly what i feel all the time..no doubt these visual tools are productive, but they rub me on wrong way for some reason
Me too, I've been coding since I was 10 years old and that's just how my brain works. Then I changed my approach to Unity. Rather than fight with it I thought hang on, I like things like VB.NET and Delphi and those have visual editors?!?!?, what's the difference?. So now I just treat Unity as a visual level designer and I'm happy that you have to code a lot more than some make out. Sure, it's a lot more than just that but that was the best starting point I was happy with.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 10:40:32
..ehhmm..soo..i have installed Unity and playing with it now...script seems to be very straightforward and it does feel 'natural' to given environment..lets see how it goes..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 14, 2018, 12:09:13
we are horrified.  :o   ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 14, 2018, 12:15:08
Quote from: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 10:40:32
..ehhmm..soo..i have installed Unity and playing with it now...script seems to be very straightforward and it does feel 'natural' to given environment..lets see how it goes..
Have fun ;D

Oh and that mountain of code you posted about rotating an object on the Z axis in Lumberyard.. Here's the full Unity version :P


using UnityEngine;

public class RotateAGoGo : MonoBehaviour {
void Update () {
        transform.Rotate( 0, 0, 10.0f * Time.deltaTime, Space.Self );
}
}
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 14, 2018, 12:20:12
Quote
I have installed Unity

We are horrified.  :o   ;D

Yes we are  :P
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on November 14, 2018, 12:38:52
gdscript (Godot):

extends Spatial

func _physics_process(delta):
self.rotation_degrees += Vector3(0, 10.0f*delta, 0)


I am pretty sure it can get cut down to a similar thing in Lumberyard too. The biggest problem is the "component/entity"-approach they use in all these tools. Separation of concerns as much as possible (A does not know B, B does not know A, it is C who connects events from B to A and vice versa). Especially if you are used to code in "single files" or often used "includes" rather "imports" (BMax) then you will need to think twice or end up with "might work if I do not change something" code.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 14, 2018, 12:57:24
@ Ron

Im sure it can be scalled down..i was literally following tutorial which i have completed so i understand workflow...scripts given are from mentioned tutorial and probably could be done on easier way, so im showing only what is presented to me..

..Im messing with Unity and i start to like damn thing..all stuff i have in 3dsmax i have created before, loads perfectly (minus materials, but thats ok)...scripting isvery straightforward and i have picked it up in no time...we shall see... :)

..recovered from a dust of time directly from 3dsmax..love this..
(https://i.postimg.cc/zG8ZfKhT/Screenshot-11-14-2018-8-59-46-PM.png)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 15, 2018, 02:42:59
..i have managed to convert some of my ancient b3d files back to FBX/DAE, thanks to this online conversion utility (http://www.greentoken.de/onlineconv/), and then imported to Unity with no issues at all. I have even managed to write my very first script (Fly Cam) which worked out of box and perfectly smooth...quite nice...here is conversion of my ancient level now brought back..now many more to go but its not a trouble..interesting..  ;D

(https://i.postimg.cc/fRFL9JWB/Screenshot-11-15-2018-10-34-26-AM.png)

(https://i.postimg.cc/dtsLMbSm/Screenshot-11-15-2018-10-32-51-AM.png)

(https://i.postimg.cc/pLyrrDvm/Screenshot-11-15-2018-10-33-53-AM.png)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 15, 2018, 08:14:40
You're practically flying now ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GaborD on November 15, 2018, 08:39:31
We lost another one to the dark side  ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 15, 2018, 08:48:21
Like i said, horrible.
But it is only a qurestion of time till he come back....nothing is better then pure coding ;)

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 15, 2018, 09:28:30
Quote
We lost another one to the dark side  ;D

Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on November 15, 2018, 10:29:52
...looool... :D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on November 15, 2018, 10:34:13
 ;D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on November 15, 2018, 16:27:23
He's just dipped his toe into the murky pond of Unity, he'll pull it back out again soon to revert to the comfort of B3d.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: LT on November 15, 2018, 22:52:51
Late to the party, but...

I've been coding my own (OpenGL) engine for quite some time.  My original plan was to commercialize it, but Unity and Unreal have made that unlikely at this point.  I'm currently making a puzzle/programming game with it that I hope to finish and publish next year.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: plenatus on November 15, 2018, 23:03:05
and now we would see something about your own engine ;)
right now I'm thinking about to make my own (2D-)engine too....but that takes so much time(and i have to be much better with c++ first)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: LT on November 15, 2018, 23:48:30
https://www.youtube.com/user/martianthinker

I posted some of this before on the old Blitz Research website, but here's my youtube link.  The game video is a show of progress meant more for me than for public consumption.  The engine demos are all quite old, as you can see from the time stamps.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Qube on November 16, 2018, 02:40:08
@LT - Looters Logic looks really nice, I like the look of that one.

QuoteI've been coding my own (OpenGL) engine for quite some time.  My original plan was to commercialize it, but Unity and Unreal have made that unlikely at this point.
I wouldn't worry about that. A good product done well stands a good chance of finding it's own market. Don't forget that there are a whole load of developers out there that wouldn't touch Unreal or Unity with a barge pole. Give it a good shot as you never know until you try :)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: LT on November 16, 2018, 17:27:58
Quote from: Qube on November 16, 2018, 02:40:08
@LT - Looters Logic looks really nice, I like the look of that one.
Thanks.  Lots of work still to do, but it's coming along.

Quote from: Qube on November 16, 2018, 02:40:08
A good product done well stands a good chance of finding its own market. Don't forget that there are a whole load of developers out there that wouldn't touch Unreal or Unity with a barge pole. Give it a good shot as you never know until you try :)
I appreciate the suggestion.  There's a lot involved in marketing and business and meeting customer expectations that isn't worth doing for a few measly dollars and that's what I would expect in a world that has free(ish) Unity and Unreal.  The nice thing about using it for my own games is that I only have to put in features I need.  I've already spent too much time anticipating things that customers might want, but I know I'll never use.  Import/export, for example.

If I don't turn it into a commercial product, I'll most likely open source it and then other people can extend it.  How soon I do that will depend on how well my games do.  I'm using them to improve the engine, but I need the games to be at least moderately successful so I can keep doing this and not go back to working for some big game company.  Freedom, baby!  ;)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on November 18, 2018, 04:34:39
@Amon,

That's part of the problem!  They all click with me. Some more than others, but all are fine.  There are points each one has that I like. (Too numerous to list here though).

As for Blitz3d, I use Protean as my IDE.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: MagosDomina on November 27, 2018, 01:44:45
Where can I download protean? I like using Ideal but I wouldn't mind trying out another.

Blitz3d is still my favorite because of how simple it is. But I am starting to dabble with AGK and also a Liberty basic as possible replacements.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: MrmediamanX on November 27, 2018, 03:48:03
blitz3d granted I have a ton of other engines and SDK's .... blitz3d is just one of those tools which is interesting to push 'coding wise' in ways unintended.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Santiago on August 27, 2019, 02:32:28
Blitz3D, my one and only love. like leaving las vegas.

i try others, 20 minutes and bored, i born with commodore 64c.

i try Unity, Lumberyard, Leadwerks, Crye, bla bla bla, but, no one make me feel like Blitz.

B3d y fast, to create, to compile, to test, is good to make good quality works, is stable at 100%, and no have limits than dx7 :p

i know, this is and old topic.... but now i trying to communicate with this community :) so.. B3d allways!
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: GrindalfGames on August 27, 2019, 16:32:02
I don't see any reason that DX7 would be dropped anytime soon
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: 3DzForMe on August 27, 2019, 16:42:44
Still Blitz3D here, albeit sporadically these days.... :o
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on August 27, 2019, 16:51:42
Reminds me at someone who blamed this summer that my game (TVTower) did not work anymore under his Windows 2000 - and that I disabled DX7. Needed to build with 32bit legacy to satisfy this particular user.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on August 29, 2019, 06:33:50
I have recently added Godot to my list of 3D engines to develop with.
After Unity and Lumberyard it is my 3rd choice for x-platform development!
I'll use Torque and 3D Gamestudio, as well as Blitz3D for Windows only games.

As a general note to all Blitz3d users wanting a more powerful version of Blitz3d.  Look at Cerberus-X.
It is not a direct successor to B3d, but since it was programmed by Mr. Sibly as well as MonkeyX and MOnkey2, it has severla of the features you guys are craving for in an updaed version of B3d.  Of course for 3D support, you need to add the Vortex module to it to create 3D scenes.

@MadJack

Cerberus X supports DX9 and if I'm not mistaken DX11 as well.  I'm not sure about physics.

@ RemiD

What engine is Bobysait working on?  Is he still working on it?  Is there a website I can log in to see a demo?

@cOd3r9

CerX definitely expands on the B3d language. Its OOP functionality has been vastly improved over B3d.  I like it, b3ecasue you can now add Methods (embedded functions) to Types.  Give it a try!
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on August 29, 2019, 07:03:39
Cerberus X is a fork of the open sourced and left dying Monkey X. Meanwhile MikeHart and some fellow coders enhanced it more and more while also fixing stuff.
So it is not another option _next_ to Monkey X but almost _the_ option to choose if your initial choice fell to Monkey X.


bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amon on August 29, 2019, 07:43:56
I loved Monkey-X. It pretty did everything I needed. TheRevills and, I forget his name, had the diddy framework which was an absolute beast of a framework. It had everything from object pooling, Tiled map loading, delta timers, helper functions for pretty much everything. The community was thriving and people were having fun. I'm not sure why it was killed off but it was a sad day when it was.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Pfaber11 on August 29, 2019, 09:28:31
I'm using AGK2 and think it's pretty awesome . Been using it about 18 months and before that Blitz3d which I wrote a couple of programs with but found AGK more to my liking . Had a go at python for a month or two and although it was not too bad to learn I felt more comfortable with AGK and if you want to write 3d games then Panda 3d  is a must in python and I did not want to invest the time in that. Python is also pretty slow and as far as creating moving 2d graphics using pygame it was not nearly as smooth as AGK2 . So there you go . That's what I'm using.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on August 30, 2019, 07:58:10
..me slowly rediscovering Pure basic, and it feels very much as NB/NF...so far, i like it..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on August 30, 2019, 10:30:26
@Darron

Could you be a bit more explanatory when you claim that Cerberus X is not another option than B3d.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Derron on August 30, 2019, 10:41:26
I did not say that.

Cerberus is based on Monkey X. Monkey-X is no longer developed or maintained. Cerberus still receives updates and enhancements. So if you chose Monkey-X you should better try to move on to Cerberus-X now.


Bye
Ron
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on August 30, 2019, 18:38:18
The only thing Pure BASIC shares with Nuclear BASIC is lightening fast logic and 2D speed.  For 3D it has Ogre3D bolted on, rather than it's own fast engine like Nuclear BASIC did - and the syntax is horrible in Pure BASIC!  Nuclear BASIC was superb; a real shame it died.  It was far better than Blitz3D too, by quite a margin.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: MikeHart on August 30, 2019, 18:40:50
Quote from: Derron on August 30, 2019, 10:41:26
I did not say that.

Cerberus is based on Monkey X. Monkey-X is no longer developed or maintained. Cerberus still receives updates and enhancements. So if you chose Monkey-X you should better try to move on to Cerberus-X now.


Bye
Ron


That would be a reasonable choice.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on August 31, 2019, 01:04:41
..yes, syntax is a bit 'weird', but overall feeling for me is very similar to NB, regardless underlying rendering system...basically, it works as advertised and it works very well...that was my point of view when comparison with NB has been made..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: RemiD on August 31, 2019, 09:39:19
Quote
What engine is Bobysait working on?  Is he still working on it?  Is there a website I can log in to see a demo?

here :
http://mojolabs.nz/posts.php?topic=105764
http://mdt.bigbang.free.fr/
http://mdt.bigbang.free.fr/doc/index.php

but since, apparently, there is no money earning potential for this, bobysait has most likely moved on to others things...

but knowing how good he was, he could have replaced mark no problem (imo)
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Amanda Dearheart on September 01, 2019, 05:10:54
@Derron

Thanks for the clarification.  Thats why I asked, because you were confusing me there a bit!
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Kryzon on September 04, 2019, 12:52:52
This thread reminded me of Josh Klint's engine, check it out: https://www.leadwerks.com/engine.php

Interesting to see that it's now Windows-only, the other platforms probably weren't worth the cost of supporting.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Coder Apprentice on September 04, 2019, 13:51:20
Josh and his Leadwerks engine...wow. Looks nice, looks nice. I remember him abandoning one of the Leadwerks engine. Was it v2...when he wanted to go all mobile? I remember him saying on the blitzbasic.com forums that desktop was dead and the future is mobile and he was pretty stubborn about it. Oh well...

:D
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Xaron on September 04, 2019, 13:53:37
To be honest, Josh committed that he was wrong with going mobile. It's just not maintainable for a small team.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on September 04, 2019, 14:03:39
Quote from: Kryzon on September 04, 2019, 12:52:52
This thread reminded me of Josh Klint's engine, check it out: https://www.leadwerks.com/engine.php

Interesting to see that it's now Windows-only, the other platforms probably weren't worth the cost of supporting.

..i havent check, but i thought its desktop based(Win,OSX,Lin) ??..
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on September 04, 2019, 14:05:22
Quote
Made for the PC

Leadwerks Game Engine is designed specifically to take advantages of the PC, the number one platform for games in the world. We don't water down your game by porting it to niche platforms.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Coder Apprentice on September 04, 2019, 14:16:32
Quote from: Xaron on September 04, 2019, 13:53:37
To be honest, Josh committed that he was wrong with going mobile. It's just not maintainable for a small team.

His stuff looks much more focused now. I wish him the best with his current engine.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Naughty Alien on September 04, 2019, 14:32:34
..PC is considered windows only ?
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on September 04, 2019, 15:02:06
Yes, and he clarifies with "PC, the number one platform for games in the world."  That would not make sense to have PC (Windows) Mac OS and Linux as also number 1.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Xaron on September 04, 2019, 15:47:16
Yeah I think he created quite a lovely engine. Personally I use Unity atm.
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Kryzon on September 04, 2019, 16:37:11
Quote from: Steve Elliott on September 04, 2019, 15:02:06
Yes, and he clarifies with "PC, the number one platform for games in the world."  That would not make sense to have PC (Windows) Mac OS and Linux as also number 1.
I didn't see that, I just assumed it was Win only because people use "Windows" and "PC" interchangeably (despite "PC" meaning any computer that is... personal). 

@Leadwerks it does look nice, he's found a niche of making it an engine "for people of all backgrounds", giving priority to ease of use. 
Title: Re: What 3D Engine are people using now?
Post by: Steve Elliott on September 04, 2019, 17:10:50
Yes he clearly doesn't like to use the word Windows.   ::)