BGE vs OGRE

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
#1

I am working on a flight simulator, and have got to the point where I have to make a decision about what game engine to use. I was planning to use OGRE, but now having seen some BGE demos I am not so sure.
Here is the list of things that OGRE seems to have that Blender doesn’t:

  • Both OpenGL and DirectX support.
  • Ability to dynamically change LOD.
  • Ability to use procedurals.
  • A C interface - which means it is practically decompile-proof.

And here are BGE’s advantages (as far as I know):

  • Integrated development environment.
  • More active community.
  • martinsh

So what is your opinion? What have I messed in these lists?

#2

Well , i don’t know too much about ogre eventhought at first i was thinking the same like you but now
i will work only in Blender .

and the comunity in Blender is very active in the few times i’m here

#3

if this are your reasons for use blender i think that you should use ogre, because only one of them is totally related to the software!
I dont know if this ogre is free or not but if it is, your reasons to use it are way bigger than use blender. I ll check ogre to see how good is it.
ogre have alpha shadows or global shadows?

#4

OGRE won’t handle input, physics or sound like BGE, it’s a rendering engine and only that.

#5

OGRE is an open source 3D engine.
The Blender Game Engine is a open source Game Engine.

3D Engines are part of Game Engines. But Game Engines contain much more that that, see Hendore’s post.

My opinion: The OGRE is better than the 3D Engine of Blender 3D. There where tries to intgerate OGRE into Blender and/or To run BlenderGames with OGRE. I have no idea what state they are.
You might even look at crystal space. There was also a port to play blend files with that.

#6

There where tries to intgerate OGRE into Blender
Yeah, there were tries…
I don’t know much about OGRE too, but afaik every serious commercial indie developer will choose OGRE Engine before Blender Engine.
OGRE is for serious developers…you know “Torchlight” - ex Blizzard team. If you ever consider using it you should first learn C++ 3d programming, and become a guru,then OGRE will works for you too.

OGRE is an open source 3D engine.
The Blender Game Engine is a open source Game Engine.

True, most people here think of OGRE like it is something like Blender 3D software…OGRE is nothing like Blender, there is no editor, there is no user interface, its mostly just c++ code.

#7

Once you are out of the basics of programming within a GameEngine you have a need for tools/editors. Ogre has no tools at all, therefore you must write all tools by your own from scratch first. That’s not funny and costs lots of time. Still it would have been nice if the Ogre integration in blender had worked… :frowning:

edit: I don’t know why people often mention Torchlight… it looks “OK”, but nothing more, the graphics are not really AAA, it’s more like Warcraft3 which is possible to accomplish with any game engine available…

Regarding flight simulators however you might not need many tools, if the only purpose is to have some heightmap, an airport and a plane.

#8

Go with your strengths. If you are good at coding try out OGRE, if not the BGE might be for you. You could even prototype in the BGE and do the actual sim using OGRE.

edit: I don’t know why people often mention Torchlight… and looks “OK”, but nothing more, the graphics are not really AAA, it’s more like Warcraft3 which is possible to do with any game engine available…

People mention Torchlight because its a fully fledged game made by professionals, not because its graphics are on par with WC3. Which its not in any case (Torchlight - WC3). The style is similar.

#9

Since you’re aiming to make a flight simulator, i’m gonna presume you already know how to code fairly well, or are willing to learn and learn quick, then i’d suggest OGRE. But yeah, it does take a lot more work to set up.

The BGE is really nice though.

#10

Maybe Panda3D would be of interest to you?
It has python and c++ interfaces, most of users use python side, its complete game engine, graphics, sound, physics, controls, GUI, networking…

It is very simple to use, and you have good exporter from blender to panda 3d model format.

#11

I dont know, maybe are the artists or maybe I didnt look for it harder, but, the ogre isnt is a big deal, my graphic card crashed with one of its apps and the quality isnt is mutch more thean blender, about the panda i say the same, if you want to create a free game use unity, it gives you mutch more graphic quality and you can import the .blend files without problem, but you cant sell the game unless you buy the program.
I ll stay on blender, I just want the alpha shadows and soft shadows to work, when that happen I ll be 100% sactisfied with blender, now Im about 70%.

#12

:slight_smile:

skykooler: I’d just stick to BGE, a built in engine is much more handy then having to export it to any other engine.

#13

Has there been any work on using procedural textures in Blender?

#14

there is something about procedural textures that make them essential??? i think that you can simple create an usual texture with procedural elements.

#15

check out OGRE’s heightmap terrain feature. Combined with LoD and paging, you can have infinite terrain in any direction.

also try Caelum and SkyX (OGRE libraries), they can automatically create realistic skies/clouds/stars/weather, etc

#16

Amen to that.

#17

The thing about procedural textures is that an infinite amount takes up almost no space. Texturing the world with images either will take up many gigabytes of space, or will have tiling (which looks awful in my opinion). Also I want to use procedurals for the clouds, something like Alan’s Cloud Generator (http://www.blendernation.com/alans-cloud-generator-beta/) only in realtime.

#18

Also is there a way to do dynamic subdivision in the BGE - like this:
http://www.alsbonsai.com/john/PlanetEngineLOD.jpg

#19

(That is from the OGRE forums.)

#20

Moguri is working on geometry shaders, which should make that possible in the BGE.

That said: I think we would all be better off is someone just managed to integrate OGRE or Irrlicht into the BGE.

Then we wouldn’t have to play catch up with the latest in graphics technology, and the few developers that we actually have wouldn’t have to waste time developing what someone else already did.

I mean, I don’t want to presume on people’s talents, but I don’t think the current BGE developers (all 4 of them) could do better than the OGRE/Irrlicht folks.

And even if they could, it would make more sense to integrate either OGRE or Irrlicht, and then contribute to those projects when appropriate.