Quote:Original post by snake5

Quote:so by any reasonable definition it is in fact a 'serious' engine.

Ok, fine. However, I haven't seen big games running on it. Only some fancy indie games or primitive techdemos.

You haven't looked very far, then, given all the projects EA has been using it for.

Quote:Original post by snake5
Btw, I kind of see where he's going with his game. 1 - A big project. 2 - Feature creep.

Not quite. I'm not planning on doing a MMORPG or anything similar. Just a 3D RPG with a big enough world, sandboxed.

I sent mail to the project Sneftel referenced, now i'm hoping for a reply.

Quote:Original post by snake5

Quote:so by any reasonable definition it is in fact a 'serious' engine.

Ok, fine. However, I haven't seen big games running on it. Only some fancy indie games or primitive techdemos.

What's wrong with fancy indie games?

Most AAA games have existing technology and/or engines in place, and are probably unlikely to be looking at new, third-party solutions when starting a new project (although that might change with time). Even so, Unity is not only used for indie and 'small studio' games. For example, EA uses Unity, and I'm sure you'd agree their products don't quite fall into the category of 'indie games and primitive tech demos', right? Also, Unity has been used for a lot of successful iPhone games, and that's a valid commercial market as well.

In any case, your assessment seems somewhat distorted by personal antipathy for the engine. The fact is, it is a 'serious' engine, and is used commercially in a variety of contexts (not just indie games and tech demos).

Quote:

Quote:Plenty of people use Unity and don't have any trouble at all with the things you mentioned.

You mean those people who try to make "games" from tutorials?

No, that's not who I mean.

Quote:From what I see, it's taking way too long for them to make something worth looking at.

One thing I'll happily concede is that Unity's low barrier to entry has created a large community of Unity users who are inexperienced as far as game development goes. I think many young kids, visual artists, and non-programmers pick up the engine in the hopes of making the 'next big game', struggle for a while, post some questions to the forums, and then eventually give up and disappear. (Maybe that's a little cynical and/or uncharitable, but it's just an observation.)

Maybe these are the people you're referring to, and maybe this is where some of your antipathy for the engine comes from. But, you shouldn't blame Unity for being easy to use, or characterize the user community based solely on those particular users. The fact is there are many highly skilled and technically adept Unity users as well who are able to use the engine to create quality products. Those are the people I'm referring to when I say that plenty of people have no trouble using Unity.

Quote:By the time they finished their games I could have built another Unity engine in C++... but that's just what I see.

Well, I admit I'd like to see that :) (Remember, said engine would have to run on a wide range of hardware, target OS X, Windows, iPhone, and various other platforms, and run in a browser as well in order to be comparable. If you can do that in the time it takes to make a single game in Unity, then you've got some serious skills ;)

Quote:

Quote:I don't see any reason to discourage the OP from checking it out.

I'm not discouraging him. (Since when a detailed description of problems is discouraging, btw?)

Saying that Unity is a 'toy for kids, not a serious engine' is pretty discouraging, IMO. Also, just about all of the things you listed are not 'problems', but just things that you, personally, didn't like for whatever reason.

Anyway, sure, the more opinions the better, I suppose. Just consider my posts an effort to balance the points you've put forth in yours :)

Quote:Original post by snake5
Don't underestimate the amount of work you're planning to go through.

I most certainly dont underestimate the ammount of work i'm planning to go through. I worked on this game for over 2 years from scratch with pure OpenGL and my own core library, a few tools, even got some cool stuff done.

But it was taking too long to even get anything playable, and with my job things are getting even harder to work on, which is why i'm seeking alternatives.

Quote:Original post by snake5
I could find only one. Btw, here's a funny quote:

Well, you seem pretty determined to focus only on any negative (or seemingly negative) things you can find - it's pretty clear you're predisposed against the technology.

If so, that's fine. There are many similar (and dissimilar) technologies available (Shiva, UDK, XNA, C4, Panda3D, etc., etc.) - they're all just tools, and everyone is free to use whatever tool suits them best.

But, I really don't understand your antipathy for Unity. No technology can be all things to all people, and Unity is clearly a 'serious' tool that meets a need and has its own niche.

Remember, Unity has some specific characteristics that set it apart from (at least some) other engines, in particular the fact that it can target a wide range of hardware and targets many different platforms, and can also run in a web browser. Comparing it to other engines that are PC-only and/or don't target handheld devices, web browsers, etc., is comparing apples and oranges, more or less.

Quote:Original post by Little Coding Fox
I most certainly dont underestimate the ammount of work i'm planning to go through. I worked on this game for over 2 years from scratch with pure OpenGL and my own core library, a few tools, even got some cool stuff done.

But it was taking too long to even get anything playable, and with my job things are getting even harder to work on, which is why i'm seeking alternatives.

I think most of us have gone through that. :-) We start out all "I am l33t! I will code everything from scratch! PH34R!!!" and sit down with our C++ compiler and try to recall the argument list ordering for WinMain. After a while, we realize that the effective developer is one who can leverage existing technology. At the time, the eight thousand lines of code I spent on reimplementing portal-cell visibility culling felt like something to be proud of. ...Well, actually, it still does. But it was also a distraction, time that could have been better spent on actually making a game.

Incidentally, even if you decide not to go with Unity as a technology base, it's also pretty decent for prototyping gameplay, especially once you build up a small library of useful behaviors. I've also heard good things about RPG Maker, although (a) I have not used it, and (b) it is, as the name should imply, pretty much for RPGs.

EDIT: Oh, and also keep Flash in mind for prototyping... the prototypes you get out of it won't be pretty, but it can be an effective way of getting ideas onto the screen quickly.

Well, my situation is a bit different from that. For one thing, i've been doing game development-related projects for 8 years now, so this wasnt a random "hey i'm gonna make a RPG and it'll be cool and stuff" moment. Also, i didnt give up all that easily, since i've been working on it for two whole years before i decided there's gotta be a better way.

I'll probably go with Unity, but i'll only finally decide as soon as i get a reply from that project you referenced. Hopefully all'll go well :)

Incidentally, as far as "unity-related editors" go, there's this guy I talked to at a conference recently who had implemented this rather interesting 2D platformer map editor in Unity... it allowed one to quickly build surprisingly nice-looking levels based on contextual tiles, then export back out into Maya to fancy things up a bit. I'll try to find his business card.