You haven’t seen it, hence it does not exist!
I think if you’re planning on actually making games, BGE is not a whole lot of use, unfortunately. Where it IS useful, however, is things like… well, on one animation I used it to build a traffic jam. Cars were simple physics boxes, and they had a sensor in them so that if there was a space in front of them they moved forward. BGE is really good for that kind of thing, and it will be a shame to lose it. I think that I’ll be keeping 2.79 running alongside the current version for a while what with the end of both this AND BI.
How many BGE projects have you seen featured in the feature row of this forum in the last year?
That might give you a sense of the amount of users producing worthwhile content with the BGE.
How many archivis, or product rendering, or character development, or environment rendering projects have you seen up there in the last year?
That might give you a sense of the amount of users producing worthwhile content with everything but the BGE.
Sources not cited.
Watching BGE users is like watching someone try to dig out a pool with a stick while a gassed up excavator with a users manual in the cabin sits right next to them. You can’t help but want them to choose the better option, and you recognize that there is going to be a bit of a learning curve to use the machine, but you can’t help but laugh when you realize that the only reason they won’t switch is because they’ve named the stick, carry it everywhere, and consider it a part of their identity.
5th most viewed documentation of Blender past year or in 2016 (don’t remember). (And most people who use bge goes more often on http://www.tutorialsforblender3d.com/). Heard on #blendercoders from a guy who were not a fan of bge.
BTW, if BA does statistics, I’m quite sure past years, BGE section was one of the most viewed.
But as I said, I don’t defend BGE anymore. I defend future interactive mode, and the better game engine promised by Ton, task which was assigned to Campbell Barton. But there is no hurry for that, and this might takes several years before interactive mode become really interesting.
From a practical standpoint, the Blender Foundation operates on a shoestring budget, and with this shoestring budget they have a software that is just starting to show signs of industry …tolerance (Acceptance is too strong of a word but attitudes to blender are starting to thaw) and with this budget and software in their care it is on them to not only look at their software but to the field in which it is going to compete.
As a modeling software, blender has some features that makes it sexy as hell and on those grounds it can compete, and with upcoming standards and file formats it is quite possible that blender may begin to achieve some pipeline integrations, and this is something that can impact the standard of living of blender users and freelancers who have trouble affording autodesk softwares.
As an animation and vfx software blender, blender while I would tell anyone to use natron or other low cost softwares for casual greenscreen and video splicing, it is still to be noted that if one wants to do motion tracking and the likes that blender is a potent software that is able to deliver real world useable results. I can put my sisters kids in powerarmor using blender when they were playing make believe and give them bitching videos to take to school
Now as a game engine…blender is horrifically behind the times, in the above examples blender is a software that is in a position to deliver results that are not only worth the time investment of the user, but it is well worth the return to the blender foundation. With the game engine on the other hand…what games have been made with blender? With blender the workarounds you need to go through to publish a game from a copyright standpoint are obnoxious at best, the foundation the engine is built on is something that is all but out of the 1990’s and the power that the engine can deliver when compared to any of the dozens of dedicated and free engines out there is laughable at best, seriously I just hand held some middle school kids though learning ue4 for 2 weeks and they now already have an internet capable game with functioning chat and server authenticated combat mechanics.
Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to see what could happen if someone picked up the torch and make a fork (something that we are all free to do) and made a fork of blender focused around its game engine. But understand, it is not that the community hates those who use the game engine, such self perceived victimization while an enjoyable fantasy is that, it is a fantasy, just because someone has an opinion that conflicts with yours does not mean they intend to harm you or kill you or rape you or burn down your village, and it does not mean that they are a bad person who is the spawn of a demon and a strawman embodiment of all that you perceive to be wrong in the world. This is not politics.
But quite frankly the blenderfoundation is at the point where it needs to focus on what can give them a viable product and as none of blenders users have produced anything with the game engine of note. And this is something that needs to be said because it is a painful truth, what games produced by blender game engine has been a success? A success by indie standards? Or even something not riddled with bugs?
I’m sure if we sank 100 mil into the engine that it would rival ue4 and unity but…who has the 100mil to donate?
I can say for sure, that it can’t reflect well on the BGE if its users feel the best defense is the derailing of threads and attacking those who don’t praise it as the best solution of all time.
Back in the early days of Blender, this type of thing was how the program was defended (because it was far behind the commercial apps. at that time and the reaction of its users to critique really exposed just how weak it was in many areas). I don’t see so many flamewars against commercial users now after the great leaps Blender made since 2.59 (perhaps it could be true that people get more encouraged to discuss objectively as major weaknesses disappear).
In one of the writers chats I’m in we tend to group people into two large groups, those that bitch and those that do. And while some of the ones who bitch may have a better foundation to build their skills on to start with, those who do quickly pass them up in a year or so.
Part of art, like science and technology is that point where the artist of it hones their mind, eyes and body to the trade. I’ve never met a good engineer or researcher that did not have the heart of an artist and to bring this home, if people are not producing finished content with the game engine, then the people who are tasking with refining the code have nothing to give them feedback, they don’t know what direction to go and rather than them being able to talk to someone who is passionate about doing they are talking to someone who is bitching. and the problem with those who bitch is that they do so in order to distort their own world view. it helps no one to bitch.
In the last 30 years of my life, whenever I’ve gone to someone and brought up a problem and had a solution or at the very least a detailed description of the problem in hand, I’ve had maybe a dozen instances where nothing was done. This is how one enables the change they want to see.
And the problem with bitching, which is something I’m starting to see overtake the ue4 and unity communities is that people will go into bitch mode when others come asking for a solution to a question and all they get is an ear full of toxicity.
ALL my content that I have made with Blender has been worthwhile as I don’t make small games but following along the coastline of the UK at 25km size maritime routes set in an era of c1800 to c1850…age of sail. Blender has not touched reality as far as I know as I seemed to be the ONLY ONE making maritime routes.
It’s a very big world and if Blender expands the user interest to consider the wider aspects, the multitude of variety it could create away from just small games, artistic views, comic films, etc is hufge. Archaeology recreating lost cities, underwater and submarimes, maritime stretching from the age of sail to modern day liners with the vast expandse of the world to choose from. Mining with perhaps narrow gauge simple rail with network of underground tunnels…the list is endless but appears to be ‘ignored’. Not forgetting Canals and river systems. In Trainz I offset the engine couplings and made the horse or barge the engines pulling barges along the canals. I made working locks in Blender at Ellesmere Port.
Finally to get started it just needed satellite data and the Belnder .hgt script…which I use. So the only answer I know is keep 2.78c and 2.79 and take it from there.
Sailing flat withhcolision properties using rigid body.
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That does sound interesting, Barry. But I advise you to evaluate other options. While the blender game engine is working for you, there may be another engine that works even better.
The blender game engine is crippled by a lack of development over its entire lifespan. It really isn’t a good engine.
I spent years drawing in MS paint, I resisted moving to a different tool, because I knew MS paint so well. Once I stepped outside of my bubble, and really gave some more advanced software a try, I never went back.
Again, I encourage you to explore other options, you might be surprised by the limitations you didn’t realize you were just living with.
xDDDDDDDDD
+1
Edit PostSterlingRoth
There arn’t any other options as time/age moves on in this life. Spending possibly years with new procedures not practical for me. Also it needs open source and the options to use srtmt/.hgt satellite data which is very easy and stocking up on them. Blender and the Blender Game Engines as it is now can certainly create the world and any era. Just needs people to look further than the small games, etc. If the immediate future brings advancements for making serious simulations well and good, If long term no.
The link in the last paragraph is all that’s required and the Blender script srtm in last two Blender versions
P.S The Gimp can help a lot with Blender real photo textures.
https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
Thanks
Barry
Insults are wrong but attempting to ridicule BGE users is right?
Then some people take their hands to their heads because of insults…
Barry; Simulating a maritime route isn’t exactly something that could see as even close to the complexity of a modern AAA-quality game.
You have a boat, you have locks, you have maybe a few other key objects, but the total amount of logic and graphics involved isn’t near as high.
You could possibly do the same thing in Unity, or Godot, or Unreal (even with the visual scripting solutions they offer). As I mentioned before, anyone who gunned for AAA quality over the years ultimately hit the wall .Even the moderately complex projects such as the games from Haidme had to do a truckload of optimizations and tricks to make everything run well (far more so than the majority of other engines, even among the ones that are FOSS).
I’m not trying to ridicule anyone, but it’s the image I’ve had of BGE users since I’ve been using blender.
Using BGE in 2018 is a bad decision, and virtually all its advocates defend it not because of the tool it is, but because of the feelings that bind it to it. Reaching extremisms that I have not seen anywhere else in the blender community.
Quite happy with Blender but how to explain… age…not young… and life rolls on, so stay with Blender, so not yet becalmed in a backwater. I am not making a ship simulator. but use Blender for helpling to portray past ages and bygone times…except problems wuth the Internet SP as regards further downloads.
Last time following along the coastline from Solway Firth to the Thames Estuary. sevearl hundred miles. Maybe aout 40 to 50 seperate routes at 25km as the basics to work on. It is more to do with rivers systems, coastal estuaries and tidal if required to start at any section of the tide…all with the timeline, and sailing ships on preset routes for which can be set to run for an hour or so. Sailing ships and barges only move slow.
Drivable ships arn’t really required, more like a model railway simulater as the timeline could be set for them to stop for 10 minues then continue on to the next harbbour etc adn run for say up to an hour at 5 to 10 mph. Any amount of scenarios can be created with the Blender Game Engine if wanted. Collect cargoes, crew, launch ships, travel through minefield or whatever, lighthouses. Depends what interests you…but any improvements to any similar functions would be useful in Blender… whatever they wish to call it.
Barry
Bge projects don’t go in the feature row even with 5 stars*
Yes, it is an intent to ridiculize them/us.
Using BGE in 2018 is a bad decision FOR YOU.
I use, CURRENTLY, the BGE in an internal department of the company (and it is a big big company) where i work because it is MORE MORE productive for us than Unity/UE4 (we tried them before). But hey, we are wrong. I will send to unity/UE4 the near 100000€ we have saved up.
With Unity/UE4 we need a team of 5 people. With BGE we are 3 people and 1 person in half time. Doing exactly the same work.
I know that the better workflow of BGE is something ethereum but for me this something ethereum represents 100000€/year.