RenderWare Torque TV3D SDK 6 3D Game Studio C4 Engine Unity Cipher 3Impact Reality Engine Deep Creator Beyond Virtual Or Something Else (Please Note) Please note some pros and cons of which one(s) you choose as the best. [Edited by - Murdok on November 25, 2006 1:41:23 PM]

Could someone please respond? 23 Views and no replies is rediculous, please, someone tell me what you think.

What is ridiculous is this question. There is no way to answer since there are so many factors, do you want something affordable to a hobbyist? Do you want something which everyone can get if paying enough? (You can't just buy engines like Renderware) Is cross-platformness important? To what extent? Do you need to use some special third-party library or scripting language? Do you only want graphics? How much support for higher-level tasks are needed? How about flexibility? Do you use your own format? Do you want a data-driven engine?

If you answer these questions and many more, we may be able to reduce the list a little, but there is no definitive best engine, so don't expect a reasonable answer.

Could you tell us why? If you're looking to use one, Torque is the only one i've heard of that is cheap enough for an indie developer. Reality Engine looks pretty good but i'm sure is pretty expensive. If you're just talking about what looks the best, i've never heard of 70% of the ones you listed so i couldn't say.

-RenderWare: RW might be difficult to get ahold of for a garage indie. I've used a (really old) beta for v3 and it wasn't all that spectacular, though it wasn't too bad either.

-Reality: Reality Engine is no longer licensable. For a period after Epic's purchase you could still nab it, but that's long gone. Were that not the case, I'd recommend this engine. It's got a lot of cool stuff - the editor being one, as well as licensees getting access to the CellFactor and Monster Madness codebases.

-TV3D: I've wanted to tool around with this, but never did. TV3D still hasn't released the advertised update from 6.2 to 6.5 for over a year or more (AFAIK).

-C4: Of those choices, my top pick for the moment is C4, awesome well-designed codebase - the only issue is that it's not quite ready for primetime (IMO).

-Cipher: I really like Cipher, but the author has dropped support for the engine; I don't know if it's possible to get new licenses or nor.

-Torque: I also kinda like the Torque Shader Engine (I think it's got a new name), but it's got a lot of baggage as it was birthed from the original Torque. Torque is certainly primetime ready - the issue being it's been primetime ready since Tribes 2. TSE shares a lot of the same codebase, so while it's not officially at a 1.0 release (AFAIK), it's close to being production-ready.

Not much intel on the others.

Quote:Original post by CTar
What is ridiculous is this question. There is no way to answer since there are so many factors, do you want something affordable to a hobbyist? Do you want something which everyone can get if paying enough? (You can't just buy engines like Renderware) Is cross-platformness important? To what extent? Do you need to use some special third-party library or scripting language? Do you only want graphics? How much support for higher-level tasks are needed? How about flexibility? Do you use your own format? Do you want a data-driven engine?

If you answer these questions and many more, we may be able to reduce the list a little, but there is no definitive best engine, so don't expect a reasonable answer.

Excuse me, I didn't know.

I would like an engine that looks really good. Cross-platformness is fairly important. It may be ported to a console. Price should be affordable for most people. I don't know anything else honestly, because I am the developer, not the programmer. I just want an engine that will be easy for programmers to use, but will have amazing graphics and will be able to make games that function and perform well. I like the engine used here (http://www.projectoffset.com/game.html), but it is not for sale and was made independently, if you could tell me either how to make one, or what is needed, or if it would be easier to just buy one, that would be great.

Quote:Original post by Murdok
I would like an engine that looks really good.

This have very little to do with the engine.

Quote:Cross-platformness is fairly important. It may be ported to a console.

This might be a pretty big problem with most engines, since you don't just have access to the consoles' APIs.

Quote:Price should be affordable for most people.

Torque and C4 are as far as I remember both $100 engines, while Renderware is a "if you have to ask, you don't have enough" engine (> $100,000).

Quote:will have amazing graphics

This have very little to do with the engine.

Quote:and will be able to make games that function and perform well.

Most engines listed will be able to do this, but it might be easier with some than with others.

Quote:I like the engine used here (http://www.projectoffset.com/game.html), but it is not for sale and was made independently,

Do you like the engine or the end-result, they rarely have much to do with each other.

Quote:if you could tell me either how to make one, or what is needed, or if it would be easier to just buy one, that would be great.

Much easier to buy one, since you aren't a programmer you'd either have to spend many years learning programming and then after >5 years produce something below the quality of other engines. Or you'd have to pay programmers to work full-time on your engine for years (you do the math, they need a decent salary, computer, programs, etc.). You want to create a game, not an engine.

I suggest you read Wikipedia's game engine entry and then do some further research in other places.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what exactly does the game engine do? I thought it helped to make the game, but I don't know exactly what it does. Is it better to make one or buy one? What all do I need to have to make a game? Before I get programmers, etc. I would like to have what I need so things will be fast and easy.

Quote:Original post by Murdok
Sorry for my ignorance, but what exactly does the game engine do? I thought it helped to make the game, but I don't know exactly what it does. Is it better to make one or buy one? What all do I need to have to make a game? Before I get programmers, etc. I would like to have what I need so things will be fast and easy.

Game development is rarely if ever 'fast and easy', game engine or no.

I think it would be helpful if you were to provide some more information, such as:

- What type of game you want to make (2D, 3D, FPS, RTS, RPG, etc.).

- What your eventual goal is (freeware, shareware, retail).

- What sort of resources you have at your disposal (i.e. budget).

- What skills you yourself bring to the table.

As it stands I get the feeling that you're in a bit over your head, but I could be wrong about that.

Also, 20+ views with no replies is perfectly normal. People read posts for all sorts of reasons (curiosity, interest in the subject matter, looking for an answer to the same question), but usually only reply when they have something in particular to contribute. Therefore the view to reply ratio is usually pretty high.