Game engines for free (or really cheap)

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:16 pm

***********EDIT****************
This is a split topic from a total coversion thread that got out of hand

*******************************

Conversions that DO work start off small with a very small team that makes something cool, then they attract more followers as the potential can be seen by others.

But considering the work needed to make a TC, I dont understand why people dont make a game from scratch instead? There are 4-5 free game engines and some pretty cheap ones out there.

Like:
Torque Game Engine: http://www.garagegames.com/
Chrystal space: http://www.crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/
Irrlicht: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/
NeoEngine: http://www.neoengine.org/
...to name a few cheap/free engines.

Elgan · Post by **Elgan** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:28 pm

exactly what ive been trying to say to u.

talking on engines i found this great site last night with some good engines. sort them by rank. u can see what are free and whatever

http://www.3dxtra.cygad.net/list/566/1.htm

also has some ncie info on other section.

people use ready made games mainly because - people are already playing them. they get help./ less coding. just have to replace some things for some TC's.

Also the engine is usualy better.

im trying to decide. spend more time modding more games then i do atm. try a free engine. or learn every single bit , including making the engine.
i think ill just do all 3.

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:43 pm

Sorry to hog your thread here ghsthunter23, do you wamt me to make a thread split to clean it up?

Anyways: Elgan, if you want a quick comparison go here http://www.devmaster.net/

Click on the 3D engines tab for a top ten in the categories "Top Commercial Engines" and "Top Open Source Engines". Or just click "3D Engines Database" to browse them all by feature.

Elgan · Post by **Elgan** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:48 pm

ohh nice. thank you!

you use tourqe dont you?

did you ever use any others?

EDIT: that site is great thanx!.

been reading for ages.

when im done with my main projects i was planning to slow modding down and focus on tutorials. c++ ,m modeling, and storyboarding , planning/desigining a origional MOD. and to carry on like that for say a year or less until the unreal 3 engine is out. Then start with that. Its the most impressive engine i have ever seen. The mod wouldnt be like TC's like hitp this. It would basicaly be a whole game., sp and mp. of my own thought and ideas. What i want for no one but myself to learn and enjoy creating.

however.. I was thinking. if im going to do all that. i Could use a engine and maybe learn more then i would modding. but i would seriously miss the high specs of the unreal engine as i would want to push the engine as much as i could.

however.. i was also thinking. I want to go to some schooly thing and learn some c++ properly and maybe start tutorials. and build up a game and each section of it myself. i know it would be so stressfull though. Expecialy when i dont know enough c++ to do anything off the top of my head. but i may not find a school. I downloaded the DX sdk but it is all .net grr. would like find DX8 but then again i would so miss them things DX9 offers. I dont know if it cud be done using VC++6. i dont know enough. i read more and think to much. ups and downs for everything. but in the end i guess iw ould most like to know c++. but like the idea of a engine to start off with.

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Tue May 10, 2005 11:25 pm

Yes, I use Torque in the game Sentinel Song that I'm working on right now. And as it is the standard engine used at my school: a lot of projects there are done in it as well.

Check out the site to browse the projects produced so far: http://www.gamemaker.nu/ ( Swedish education, bit the site is in english ).

Elgan · Post by **Elgan** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:14 am

hey thats looking good,m ur a clever man .

im going to be putting more research in. I think maybe even though it would be harder maybe i would learn more.

Torque costs money

. if any1 used any free engines i wudnt mind hearing how u found the trip.

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:33 am

Yes, Torque costs 100$. This is nothing compared to what you get.

I was involved in selecting this game engine for our school. It had to be free or very cheap and it had to be good.
We looked at Torque, Irrlicht, NebulaEngine and Chrystal space.

All but Torque are free, but only torque was mature enough. The other ones are very good, and in some parts better than Torque, but Torque is complete.

One thing that helped us decide was the large amounts of tools included in Torque. It has lots of ingame editors for mapping, lighting, GUI construction, emmitter editors and some more. It also supports multiple external editors like Blender, Milkshape, Maya, Max, Quark ( Think you can even use Radiant actually

). It also compiles on Windows, Unix, Mac ( And XBox with a little work, I think marble blast was ported to XBox in a week ).

But one thing is probably the best choice indicator: how many full, complete, sellable games have been made in the engine. You figure that out, you go for that one.

lizardkid · Post by **lizardkid** » Wed May 11, 2005 1:31 am

www.blueprintgames.com

good enough company, iused to be in it but it just wasnt how i was hoping it'd go. they're using Irrlicht last i knew.

Elgan · Post by **Elgan** » Wed May 11, 2005 1:33 am

you should be a sales man for them. Sounds v.nice. $100 hmm. if i just modded a game like unreal i get all the same tools and support for free, Well, cept for buying the game and i dont play unreal much at all.

maybe they have a demo. ive donwloaded some that had demons before but without knowing c++ it dont help much.

maybe i sud just work on c++ and DX making lil triangles and things.

I wouldnt be planning on selling anything. All just for fun and learning.

okok. looking at the Torque site and

, alot of v.,nice tools and c++ tutorials. and starter kits. Thats nice. $100 though. eek. i will have to look arround first of course. Though it is my brithday soon.hehe. not that it would cover the costs. still thats like half a week wages.

Starter Kit for only $49.95.

#

# Educational: One of the best ways to learn programming is to read code written by other developers. And if you are going to read code you might was well have fun and read game code and learn a few tricks in the process.
# Resume Building: MOD and/or modify the engine to show off your skills to future employers.
# MOD Makers: How many times have you got stuck trying to MOD other engines because it did not support feature X? Now you have the source and can easily add that feature yourself and truly differentiate your MOD from the rest.

the engine rendering gfx capabilities dont sound v.impressive though. bump maps? normal mapping? doesnt mention much. physics ?
grr.

Torque seems to have everythign to offer. but maybe a free engine has some of them things? none of them seem to give any info out on the engine's tools. just screen shots of cartoon's.

Post by **Rookie One.pl** » Wed May 11, 2005 10:32 am

We at Call to Arms chose NeoEngine. It's very flexible and relatively simple, very well documented and has a great community.

M&M · Post by **M&M** » Sun May 29, 2005 3:31 pm

lizardkid wrote:www.blueprintgames.com

good enough company, iused to be in it but it just wasnt how i was hoping it'd go. they're using Irrlicht last i knew.

Nah, we're using the Ogre 3D engine. www.ogre3d.org . You can download a 20mbs demo pack featuring alot of demos for different aspects of the engine. However, its just a rendering engine. But there are many plugins for other API's like physics and networking done already