I'm on my 4th engine now so hopefully I'm starting to get things right. Getting some game logic in there too now, so it's coming together nicely.

sounds like we're working the same issues. but you're doing a full engine / game, while i'm playing with a testbed just to implement different architectures and code organization. the testbed program is yet another app of mine, and it's not yet up in my gallery. but already you can move around and shoot stuff, with about 200 lines of user code. implementing the user collision handler in the demo program is next. right now its just displays a message saying "target x collided with (whatever)" for testing purposes. the nice thing about the testbed is you can try things quickly. I've done 4 engine designs in the last 2 weeks with it.

now i need to figure out the best way to implement an optional ground drawing routine. i already have both chunk and dynamic mesh technology working. but i need to figure out what's best for all types of ground: shooters, flight sims, RTS, etc. one ground drawing routine to rule them all.

any suggestions?

i've got about 6 titles on my short todo list (beyond CAVEMAN, AIrships!, Armies of Steel II, and CIty States) , so i'm trying to get my library / boilerplate code / engine whipped into shape so i can use it for all of them. but the REAL problem is content. all those models required. as coders, we can use libraries, engines, and good old copy / paste / edit to get the coding done quickly. but i see no speedups for the typical week+ required for a fully rigged and animated character model with matching equipment.

other types of models also take time to create. until there's a good supply of ready to go content available free/cheap, it will be a barrier to those without artists on the team or deep pockets.