Back to General and Gameplay Programming

C++ Alternative to Unity?

Saint Squireen · 2013-03-05T18:42:48

Hello, Today, I ,for some wierd reason, was all excited and gun-ho to start researching and programming with a game engine. The first game engine that popped into my head was Unity because, well...... C'mon its pretty well known. Anyways I go to google type in Unity and click on the website and I get suddenly amazed at what I see! Theres all this stuff that means nothing to me!! But it looks high-tech and smart!!! Anyways, 5 minutes later I start to question whether or not if I should go and download it or see what languages it can be written in. I obviously go with the smarter of the two decisions and went and checked the languages. Good thing I did that because I found that it doesn't carry C++! I was pretty sad after that, so I did a little background checks to see if there was a plugin or anything of the type and found that it would be somewhat difficult to do and it just would not be the same. (Next thought that came into my head.) "Maybe I should go to GameDev and see if they have any suggestions on what I can do now that I know what I can't do!!". Thats where you guys come in. I haven't done any work at all with game engines so I have no idea what to search for or even know what to type into google (hahaha). What do you guys suggest if the requirements are: 1. Has to be programmable in C++. 2. Doesn't matter the difficulty. 3. Has to have at least the very basics of a game engine (I don't know everything that is included in game engines soo......) 4. Oh, and it has to be free. [I'm not made of money here;)] Thats it for the requirements and thanks in advance!!

General and Gameplay Programming Programming Unity

Started by Saint Squireen September 15, 2012 01:43 PM

24 comments, last by Serapth 11 years, 1 month ago

JamesTheNumberless

121

September 17, 2012 03:05 PM

[quote name='JamesTheNumberless' timestamp='1347749369' post='4980498']
C#, used by Unity, is a fully fledged OO language that has far more features than C++ and is therefore more complicated

Number of features of a language != how complicated said language is...
[/quote]

Yes it does ;)

C++ is simple and powerful, and difficult to use properly when dealing with high levels of abstraction. C#/Java and the runtimes they are coupled to lend themselves better to software engineering because they are more advanced OOP languages that have concepts built in that the C++ programmer has to take time developing themselves. More complicated programs, less complicated language.

James

JamesTheNumberless

121

September 17, 2012 03:13 PM

+1 irrlicht.

I've used orgre3d and irrlicht. I like irrlicht the best, easier to use, the api is more consistent and easy to use. Speed is great, and it comes with a free level designer. It also compatible with LOTS of formats, ogre3d only supports its .mesh format. It also has an optional audio library too.

Irrlicht also gets my vote. Actually, it comes second to Havok's Vision engine (used to be Trinigy) but that costs money! However, I think possibly only UDK has the same sort of IDE approach as Unity does, and even then it's not quite the same. Where I work we've all (C#, Web and C++ developers alike) been blown away by Unity, both in how sensibly it works and the level of performance you can get out of it without even trying. If what you're after is a good way to learn C++ - don't start with a large 3rd party engine! Get yourself some good C++ books and try writing your own engine from scratch following the NeHe or directxtutorial.com (my favourite) lessons.

James

swiftcoder

18,997

September 17, 2012 03:25 PM

<Moderator voice>
[indent=1]The next person to argue about the relative merits of different programming languages in this thread, will be dealt with severely. You have been warned.
</Moderator voice>

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

mike613

131

March 04, 2013 05:15 PM

Wow! http://www.gamertogamedeveloper.com/home is a awesome web page! I have been using Unity for about a year and a half and have done dozens of tutorial series and have never found one more comprehensive that this one.

*If you are looking to make your own fps with c++ and unity 3d; this is the site for you.

Calexus

245

March 04, 2013 07:53 PM

Have a look at shiva3d http://www.stonetrip.com/

Its basically the same concept as unity3d.

C++ and Lua, exports to pretty much every platform. On the downside the GUI is a bit aged and the new version is about a year behind schedule.

Exitus Acta Probat

Serapth

6,672

March 05, 2013 06:42 PM

<Moderator voice>

The next person to argue about the relative merits of different programming languages in this thread, will be dealt with severely. You have been warned.
</Moderator voice>

... that's kinda like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Must... resist... temptation... :)

Huge Collection of Game Development Tutorials || Getting Started? Start Here

C++ Alternative to Unity?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

C++ Alternative to Unity?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines