SPECIAL LIMITED PROMOTION: Full source code to the first 500 developers for only $100!!!!! Don't miss out on this amazing deal! Power Render 6 is a commercial quality 3D engine and normally we license the source code to companies for $5500. A lot of work has gone into this engine but at this price we feel that not many people have a chance to see it. We would like to have a LOT MORE people using and sharing content for the engine. We would like you to help participate and build this community. In this special promotion the first 500 developers can buy the engine with full source code (that's 300,000++ lines of stable DirectX9 C++ code, previously used in several commercial titles) for ONLY $100! This special offer is only available to new customers. Existing customers may also purchase a copy if they wish. Check the website http://www.powerrender.com in the next few days for information on how to order.

Maybe I'm just missing it, but I can't find any demos anywhere on your site. Do you have a demonstration of what the engine is capable of? You say it has been used in commercial titles. Which ones?

A set of screenshots and a features list just barely whets the appetite :)

1)You mention your engine is used in published games, but I need to see proof.
Here are a few off the top of my head that I know about:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/freakytuner/index.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/takecommand2ndmanassas/index.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/takecommand1861thecivilwar/index.html

2)Videos/demos of stuff using the engine are pretty important
3)Is there any trial version possible, without paying? Like a 30 day trial or a money back guarantee within 30 days or something?
8)If you want to increase the number of people using the engine, why did you pull the free version?!

We had a trial version for many months. Over 15000 people downloaded and it was using up a lot of bandwidth with little return for us. I think enough people know the engine by now and the first 500 will go quickly.

4)This version allows commercial deployment of a single game, right? So If I buy a license for it and make my game, great. Then what if I want to make a 2nd game? For $500 I can get a multi-game non-source-code license but I already have the source code... or I could spend $8000...

This needs to be decided. It will depend on the success of this promotion and the quality of games your team produces. If the demand is high enough we'll continue offering this deal.

5)What kind of level of tutorials and demos/samples do we get with the engine? API docs are no good by themselves...

There are over 60 examples showing how to render different effects commonly used in games.

6)Is there a GUI built in? And support for joypads, mouse, keyboard, etc?

Yes there is a GUI available from scripting or native C++. It supports joypads, mouse, keyboard, wheels, and lightguns for input devices.

7)Is the engine still in development, and does buying a license get me updates to the source in the future e.g bug fixes?

The next version of the engine (PR7) has been in development since last October. It will be done in a few months. If this promotion is successful I may continue $100 licenses for PR7 and make it available to those that already purchased.

9)Maybe I missed this, but what level of shader use is built in, and is it possible to add new shaders without delving into the engine too deeply?

The engine supports assembly, CG and HLSL shaders, up to SM 3.0. You can use .FX files as well as store shaders internally in our custom file format.

10)How many teams are actively using the engien, is there a decent community?

I don't know how many teams are actively using it. I know roughly how many people have downloaded the engine over the past few months. People have not been happy with the size of the community in the past, that is why I'm offering this promotion to give it a boost.

You can now order this online! I've also reposted the demo version (256 mb) in case you missed it earlier.

Direct link:

http://www.powerrender.com/2007/powerrender/specialpromotion.htm

11)What versions of Visual studio will it compile against, do the sample projects come as .dsw or .sln and will they work with both?

You should have the latest MSVC 2005. Workspaces use .sln. There is a slight difference in STL between old and new versions of MSVC which make the DLL incompatible. However with the source code there is nothing stopping you from recompiling the DLL and converting the solutions back to an older version of MSVC.

12)Any chance you can keep us up to date as the 500 get used up? I'd like to think about it but I'd like to know how long I have...

Sure.

13)I noticed renewal licenses on your site - does this mean a license expires after a year?

A license doesn't expire, you can use it as long as you want. However we offered engine updates for a year, so if you want the latest code you had to renew. This really doesn't apply to PR6 any more with PR7 coming out later this year. If the community submits changes to the code I'll make it available for free.

14)Can you tell us approximately how many copies of cheap/expensive licenses have been bought for version 6?

Enough for us to make this offer available to you :)

15)What does "commercial" mean? Can I use this license for 10 different games if I don't sell any of them?

It means you can sell one product derived from the engine. If you're making something free, you can release as much stuff as you want.

The entire heightmap is stored in memory. As the camera moves around every once in a while the terrain mesh will be regenerated and a quadtree produced for fast culling. Splatting is used which is independent of heightfield size, so the heightfield can be very large and overall the terrain will use very little memory. The amount of vertex buffers needed to view the terrain is constant regardless of the heightfield size since it is generated on the fly.

The system was designed for smaller worlds used in RTS, arcade, and driving simulations with deformable terrain.