Hi, I'm sure it's been asked before, but I just wanted to re-ask just in case someone has any new ideas or anything new has come out. What is the easiest-to-use 3d game development engine that doesn't require programming? I already know of 3d Game Maker, but that's so very limited (can't even import your own models/animations). I also know of: Virtools (I tried to get a demo of it to test it but I still have to buy it in order to gain access to the video tutorials and examples on the site, which I want to view to see whether I want to buy it) 3dRad- haven't really tried it Unity3d- can't use it as it's only for the macintosh 3dGameStudio- Does require some programming/scripting for the game I want to make. FPS Creator- seemed easy to use but I don't wish to make a FPS So does anyone know of any others? By the way, I am hoping to find something I can use for a simple fighting or 3rd person action game. I appreciate the help!

Most of the major PC games allow modding of their engines and ship with the tools to do so. For a 3rd Person action game the Unreal engine might be a good fit (go out and buy the newest Unreal Tournament; it comes with the UnrealEd which includes just about everything needed to make a mod).

Otherwise you can check out the Crytek engine (Go out and buy Crysis).

Heavier mods will require some programming (both use their own scripting languages). But if you just want to re-skin and change rules via triggered reactions and whatnot both would be ideal for your needs.

In either case you'll still need 3rd party tools to create new content: models, textures, sounds, animations and such. There are plenty of good & free (or nearly free) tools available for all of that.

-me

This probably isn't the answer you want to hear, but any non-programming game development is going to be very limited. If you want to make games, you're going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to program.

Stop by the local book store, and pickup a book on C or C++. Read it, do the exercises, then get one on OpenGL.

Download Eclipse CDT and MinGW (compiler), and try out some little bits of code. Learning a programming language isn't hard, it just takes practice and some sense.

I'm sure someone's going to come along and post some application that does exactly what you want, and I've seen many programs that let you create games without actually writing any code. The killer is when you look at the games created by that program; they're virtually all the same. You aren't going to make anything worthwhile if you don't want to put any time into it.

Again sorry, this post probably came of as pretty rude.

I don't think your post came across as rude, just because it's the sad truth. But I don't really mind too many limitations as I don't plan to make some big budget game for public release. For example, I enjoyed Fighter Maker 2 for the PS2 because you could edit the animations, and I would like something like that for the pc.
What I would really like is a 3d version of 2d game making programs like Multimedi Fusion, because learning the methods and "language" of it's point and click scripting didn't take that long.

Quote:Original post by Tom9729
This probably isn't the answer you want to hear, but any non-programming game development is going to be very limited. If you want to make games, you're going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to program.

False. Not only do the majority of professional game industry people not know how to program at all, but there are a bunch of great mods done with more or less zero programming:

1) Made with the Half-Life Source Engine

2) Made with the C&C3 engine

3) Made with Unreal

there are hundreds more examples.

To make a heavy mod you need to do at least some scripting in those engine toolboxes; but you can make significantly different games than those for which the tech was developed without having to know programming at all.

There is obviously a clear and central role for programming in games development. There is, however, an ass-ton of non-programming work that also goes into games development. By modding an engine you are using the programming created by other to make your own game; i.e. you generally don't need programmers.

Think of it this way: any given game engine occupies a large space of possible games. The particular content of the game makes the difference between the specific games. (That's how you get Unreal Tournament, Bioshock, and Gears of war all from the Unreal3 engine). [to be honest there is code difference between those games but it's a relatively small percentage. you can, in fact, make astoundingly different games with the exact same codebase as exemplified in the above links]

-me

I have played a lot with Unreal2 and 3 editors, Valve hammer editor, even Torque Engine editor­. I have to say yes, you can make any levels the way you want them, add texture, models, animations, sounds, trigger, create particles effect and everything in all of them, but to create custom gameplay (ie. change guns, game mode, camera position, etc) you NEED to code. These engine have what is called "scripting" which is specially for the non-programmers since it's a bit easier than plain C++. If you want to change the renderer and more advanced stuff you'll then need to rebuild the C++ engine.

I guess you would have hours and hours of fun just playing in the Unreal3 editor since it's big and nicely done, but unfortunately it don't seem included in UT3 (I might be wrong, might be a free download) so you'll need the 1million licensing money to have the Unreal3 source to see it :P.

Quote:Original post by Palidine
False. Not only do the majority of professional game industry people not know how to program at all

Yeah, but those people wouldn't be able to make a game by themselves.

Quote:
1) Made with the Half-Life Source Engine

Source mods don't require any programming? You could have told me that, then I'd have saved quite a lot of work when I made a mod for it...
I could have sworn I was writing C++ code the whole time.

Never tried modding the other games you mention, but I know Unreal mods require programming too. (That's why there is an UnrealScript, isn't it?)

It is pretty limited what you can do without any programming. Design new levels, sure, make new models or animations, yeah. But not sure if I'd call the result a mod. Mods tend to have new gameplay too.

Disclaimer: I know stuff like Gamemaker doesn't require any programming, and you can make some pretty decent games with that

I'm stupid, the Unreal3 editor IS included with the retail game... just start "UT3.exe editor" and it'll start. have fun.