I've been working on getting a new Indie game up and going and have gotten to the point of needing to choose which game engine to pick. The game itself is an FPS, the vision of which is only just now being realized by the concept art... and I must admit, the bar it being set pretty high. By trade I'm a 3D graphics/AI/game/physics programmer so I've considered using a series of free engines (graphics/physics/sound/networking) and putting them together to create my own game engine, but it seems much more worth it to spend some $$ and get an existing engine along with tools to work with it.
My Requirements
- Up-to-date graphics (shadow maps/parallax maps/post-processing)
- Physics integration (I'm OK with implementing this part myself if needed)
- Sound Integration
- Tools (scene manager w/ lights, objects, etc...)
- AI would be nice, but I'm OK with writing that too..
Game Engines Compared...
Torque 3D (http://www.garagegam...ducts/torque-3d)
Pluses:
Proven History
Advanced Lighting
Complete Tool Suite
Modular - I can rewrite any part I want
Source included
Cross-Platform
Large range of hardware can be used
Minuses:
$1k per license
Still in Beta
Leadwerks 2.0 (http://www.leadwerks.com/)
Pluses:
$150 license
Advanced Lighting
Complete Tool Suite
Minuses:
Very new - no proven track record.
No source code.
Requires SM 3.0 (GeForce 6 series or better. Losing some potential customers.)
Windows XP/Vista Only (but future plans for possible XB360 & Mac support)
NeoAxis (http://www.neoaxisgr...om/company/team)
Pluses:
Free (kind of....)
Advanced Lighting
Complete Tool Suite
Minuses:
Very new - no proven track record.
Non-Commercial only? I need to have commercial...
If anyone has anything to add to this list or comment on, please let me know. Right now I'm planning on Torque 3D as it seems like the best bet. All funding for this project is coming totally out of pocket though, so I'd rather not have to pay $1k per license if it can be avoided.
** List of all engines mentioned in this thread [2/27/11]
C4 Engine - http://www.terathon.com/c4engine/index.php
Unity - http://unity3d.com/
Gamestudio - http://www.3dgamestudio.com/
Panda 3D - http://www.panda3d.org/
Esenthel Engine - http://www.esenthel.com/
3D RAD - http://www.3drad.com/
Gamebryo - http://www.gamebryo.com/en/Gamebryo/
Crystal Space - http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page
UDK - http://udk.com/
Delta3D - http://www.delta3d.org/
DarkBASIC - http://www.thegamecreators.com/?m=view_product&id=2030
CAFU - http://www.cafu.de/
SIO2 Engine - http://sio2interactive.com/
Maratis - http://www.maratis3d.com/
Best Game Engine for Indie Game?
Just a point about the NeoAxis engine, the free version is non-commercial. There is an indie license (Less than $100000 income from the product) as well as a commercial license (More than $100000 income from the product), which cost $95 and $395 respectively (http://www.neoaxisgroup.com/services/licensing).
Other than that, I have used one of the engines listed, Torque 3D or rather the earlier version, Torque Game Engine Advanced, however this was only brief so i can't really give you much of an opinion of it, but i suggest taking a close look at what you need, who you think your target audience is and so on, this should help you to make a choice.
Other than that, I have used one of the engines listed, Torque 3D or rather the earlier version, Torque Game Engine Advanced, however this was only brief so i can't really give you much of an opinion of it, but i suggest taking a close look at what you need, who you think your target audience is and so on, this should help you to make a choice.
Author
@Undeadragonslayer
Thanks for the input. I didn't see anything about a commercial license on the website for NeoAxis, so I'll have to go double check that. To address your questions...
My target audience is primarily PC users, probably more hardcore (thus better hardware) gamers who enjoy FPS games. Although I suspect that 90% of people who would want to play would be Windows gamers with decent hardware, I would hate to have to unnecessarily alienate potential players.
As for what I need, basically I just need a complete game engine including tools to setup levels. I don't necessarily need the best engine ever with an event system, AI, etc.. as I can program all of that myself. It would be nice to have an engine that doesn't require high specs and is cross-platform, but I have no idea how many potential customers I would be alienating if I went with a high-spec, PC only engine like Leadwerks.
Thanks for the input. I didn't see anything about a commercial license on the website for NeoAxis, so I'll have to go double check that. To address your questions...
Quote:i suggest taking a close look at what you need, who you think your target audience is and so on, this should help you to make a choice.
My target audience is primarily PC users, probably more hardcore (thus better hardware) gamers who enjoy FPS games. Although I suspect that 90% of people who would want to play would be Windows gamers with decent hardware, I would hate to have to unnecessarily alienate potential players.
As for what I need, basically I just need a complete game engine including tools to setup levels. I don't necessarily need the best engine ever with an event system, AI, etc.. as I can program all of that myself. It would be nice to have an engine that doesn't require high specs and is cross-platform, but I have no idea how many potential customers I would be alienating if I went with a high-spec, PC only engine like Leadwerks.
How many programmers do you have? With Torque 3D you only need licenses for the programmers that need the source to the engine. You're allowed to give a working build of your game to your artists so they can see their work (I'm not sure about leaving the script based editors in you'd have to ask about that), but either way, if they don't allow that there is a non-source license for $250 that you give to other members of your team, though I think they might be getting a little more lenient on this.
I haven't subscribed to it because I'm only a hobbyists and I now prefer C# over C++, so I'm working more with TX3D instead (which is not in the same league as T3D).
I haven't subscribed to it because I'm only a hobbyists and I now prefer C# over C++, so I'm working more with TX3D instead (which is not in the same league as T3D).
I recommend you take a look at the C4 engine: C4 Engine
Feel free to join the forums if you have any questions. If you ask here, I'll try to answer as best I can, but you will get more complete answers there.
A couple of nice points about the engine:
-$350 for standard license-no limits on features or how many copies you can sell. You just can't charge more than $100 per unit.
-Free updates for life
-You get the source
-Excellent community
-Extremely stable with lots of features
Feel free to join the forums if you have any questions. If you ask here, I'll try to answer as best I can, but you will get more complete answers there.
A couple of nice points about the engine:
-$350 for standard license-no limits on features or how many copies you can sell. You just can't charge more than $100 per unit.
-Free updates for life
-You get the source
-Excellent community
-Extremely stable with lots of features
Author
@blitzwing
So far I am the only programmer, I wanted to look at all the engines and decide on a technology before getting any more programmers. The only real need for the $1k license was to get the "advanced lighting", which is just parallax maps and shadow maps it seems like. However, I'm going to need level designers to actually setup the levels, and I'm fairly certain they would also need the $1k license to view their levels in the scene editor with advanced lighting enabled.
@zebeste
I tried looking at the C4 engine earlier today. It looked like a pretty attractive offer on the website, but when I went to test the demo things didn't go so great. A couple times I tried to load a level and it just sat there for a while, eventually leading me to have to turn the computer off manually. Also, the physics seem very hoaky.. getting stuck on tiny cracks in the ground, really weird feeling collision detection. I only tested C4 on my laptop so I'll have to try again on my desktop later.. but it just left sort of a bad taste in my mouth. (Sorry if you're one of the developers on it, it's still an impressive engine.)
So far I am the only programmer, I wanted to look at all the engines and decide on a technology before getting any more programmers. The only real need for the $1k license was to get the "advanced lighting", which is just parallax maps and shadow maps it seems like. However, I'm going to need level designers to actually setup the levels, and I'm fairly certain they would also need the $1k license to view their levels in the scene editor with advanced lighting enabled.
@zebeste
I tried looking at the C4 engine earlier today. It looked like a pretty attractive offer on the website, but when I went to test the demo things didn't go so great. A couple times I tried to load a level and it just sat there for a while, eventually leading me to have to turn the computer off manually. Also, the physics seem very hoaky.. getting stuck on tiny cracks in the ground, really weird feeling collision detection. I only tested C4 on my laptop so I'll have to try again on my desktop later.. but it just left sort of a bad taste in my mouth. (Sorry if you're one of the developers on it, it's still an impressive engine.)
Nope, I'm not a developer of the engine (that title is reserved for Eric Lengyel). I don't know why it froze you laptop, but the physics in the engine is getting a complete overhaul in the next release. Also, one of the members maintains a PhysX integration which supposedly works quite well. Currently, the character uses a collision capsule for physics, which probably explains why it feels a little wierd, but as of the next release users will be able to use the world editor to use combinations of geometric shapes on models to represent more complex collision volumes.
Author
@jyk
I had actually never heard of Unity before. I downloaded it and took a look, that's definitely a very nice, professional engine. I'll have to take a serious look into that one.
@zebeste
I don't want to take anything away from any developer that's worked on the C4 engine, I know it's a ton of work to do something like that, but I just don't feel like C4 is solid enough to use for a real game yet.
After doing a ton of testing, the NeoAxis engine is looking like the best option at this point. The downloadable demo is extremely impressive, and the ability to produce something worth playing with a free version definitely says something. At the moment, it is restricted to Windows only platforms, but in the future there are plans to expand to Mac, consoles, and web deployment which is a very promising feature.
On the other hand though, Torque 3D is still a proven, professional quality product and it's nice to know that there is a huge user community of support out there. My plan from here is to test out the actual programming of NeoAxis and see if it's suited for a real game. If not, I think I'll have to go with Torque 3D.
I had actually never heard of Unity before. I downloaded it and took a look, that's definitely a very nice, professional engine. I'll have to take a serious look into that one.
@zebeste
I don't want to take anything away from any developer that's worked on the C4 engine, I know it's a ton of work to do something like that, but I just don't feel like C4 is solid enough to use for a real game yet.
After doing a ton of testing, the NeoAxis engine is looking like the best option at this point. The downloadable demo is extremely impressive, and the ability to produce something worth playing with a free version definitely says something. At the moment, it is restricted to Windows only platforms, but in the future there are plans to expand to Mac, consoles, and web deployment which is a very promising feature.
On the other hand though, Torque 3D is still a proven, professional quality product and it's nice to know that there is a huge user community of support out there. My plan from here is to test out the actual programming of NeoAxis and see if it's suited for a real game. If not, I think I'll have to go with Torque 3D.
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