3D options for BlitzMax vs. Blitz3D
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/3D options for BlitzMax vs. Blitz3D
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| Wasn't sure where exactly I should post this, so I chose here. I've been tinkering around with Blitz3D and I like it. But I was wondering if there is any compelling reason to use BlitzMax plus a 3D engine wrapper rather than Blitz3D itself? I looked at the Leadwerks engine and it seems pretty cool, but I'm just wondering what sort of benefits I'd have from using this rather than just using Blitz3D for my 3D game making needs. Any advice appreciated! Thanks. |
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| Benefits: 1. Cross-platform (depending which 3D module you use). 2. Hundreds of user modules available (not just 3D). 3. Object-oriented. 4. Still receiving updates. 5. Smaller executables. Disadvantages: 1. You already bought Blitz3D. |
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| another benefit of BM is that it does not insta crash if the windows tablet services are active like B3D / B+ does. |
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| Max is a much nicer language, IMO, but it does come down to preference. I'm also liking Leadwerks from what I have seen of it. I think it's the way to go, unless you want to support older hardware, in which case B3D may be your best bet. |
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| If you mean by older anything weaker than 8800 then thats right Otherwise Leadwerks is no option as half the shown visual features will kill the performance on normal systems (7400 / 8500 and weaker gpus) and are thus unusable in casual games. And that without considering the ongoing problems with OpenGL support. Realistically there are far less demanding engines and wrappers for such like Horde3D, Truevision3D, Flow3D, Irrlicht, Xors3D (then its really very much like Blitz3D), ... |
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| My experience has been some people will whine, complain, and even threaten you if their card isn't fast enough, but if you made something their card is capable of running they would have no interest in your product in the first place. |
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| it depends on the size of your project, if you want to push to make a game on a par with a big studio then leadwerks looks like a good bet. by the time you finish the project the system spec would have moved on a bit and more people will be able to run your game. If your making a smaller or casual game one of the other engines is a better bet as the more people able to run it the better. You just wont get the bleeding edge features that only the top end card at the moment can give you. |
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| If you have commercial funding and target AA+ visual quality I agree, then Leadwerks is an option. But realistically, if you have that budget you aren't here, are you, because you likely won't find many funding channels that fund a BM driven project with AA+ funding. Thats why I don't see leadwerks as a suitable technology for BM developers that want to do 3D development on a hobby / casual level, which is what I assumed to be the target from the starting post. Josh: Right, those with cards to run your engine prefer professional technologies, which offer more flexibility, potentially source code but which are specially done professional developers. Developers that like locking problem threads (even if they are straight problems with the sample provided by the tech) just because they don't feel like it and similar things don't qualify as such. Your tendency to that is pretty well known on the web. Do something about that and get a good reputation and the situation might look differently. As long as you handle such situation as if someone is trying to kill your "baby" (thats how you behave in various cases and how you always behaved), your reputation suffers but whats even worse, people will stop reporting issues which in the end will result in a product that isn't as good as it could be. |
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| ..well..I am big B3D fanboy, however, I did purchase Bmax, and i have tried a lot of things with it and so far, I can say that Leadwerks engine is really really nice and chewing very nicely complex levels i have on 7600GT what is really old card newdays...what Leadwerks missing is multiplatform nature, and some nice exporters for major tools such as Maya, 3DSMAX, XSI.. and that you can get with real beauty called Flow3D..its fast, simple to follow and it has loads of exporters including excellent Ofusion for 3dsmax..worth every cent..but I must admit, Leadwerks command set similarity with B3D, and beautiful rendering results i got really attracted me a lot.. |
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| Okay, my next question then, would be if I did get BlitzMax, how much more difficult is it to use these 3D engine wrappers than just building a game in Blitz3D? The features of BlitzMax and the features of these 3D engines seem worth the upgrade to me, but I'm just wondering how steep the learning curve is? Blitz3D was about as easy as it gets when it comes to 3D game making. And while on this topic, which of these engines would probably be the easiest to learn? From Naughty Alien's post, it sounds like Flow3D is the way to go. I'm also concerned with overall stability of the engines as well. If anybody could provide more insight, I'd appreciate it. Edit - Also, Dreamora you are correct, I'm doing this as a casual/hobby thing. Although if I could sell my games on a small indie level, that's always a plus. |
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| ..well..Flow3D is a multiplatform, stable and modern rendering engine with loads of exporters and very nice folks behind it who are humble and willing to help..they do have very nice tutorials as well as nice explanation 'how to' for B3D folks..nice.. Leadwerks is really easy to follow because it has almost identical command set as B3D, while for special stuff such as shaders you have to mess with GLSL, even guys from forum over there did provide very decent set of shaders already done and ready to use, and there is very nice and simple material editor fo just prepare your materials and everything is ready to go..Leadwerks does require a bit higher configuration than Flow3d and its not multiplatform (yet) , but again, as i said, on my 7600GT running smooth like a charm over my levels (180K polys) with al shaders and nice stuff so i say, its actually good..community there is nice and helpful, and many blitzers are there..eventually if community is unable to give answers, Leadwerks do it so its all nice if you ask me.. |
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| If you're jumping from B3D to Bmax and looking for an engine you could always try miniB3D... go back to the forum list and you'll spot it's forum. It was made with the intent of moving from b3d to bmax and in most cases you can just change the formatting if your code a little and you're set. It's basicly just a port of the b3d engine to bmax as such it's not super fancy, but it's easy to learn and cross platform friendly. http://blitzmax.com/Community/topics.php?forum=119 |
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