What is Blender and it’s gaming engine capable of? Is it possible to create PS2/PS3 quality games with Blender?
The quality of a game depends on its programmer not on its engine. Good gamemakers can work around the blender game engines shortcomings
wow this is like the fifth time i heard this…we should make a sticky of blenders capabilities…which is endless! if you know what the f ur doing
look here for some peoples opinion
in my opinion, approx N64 or PS1 graphics,
**this is not 100% true, though
you can have two options, great graphics, or a large complex game, but not both. blender is really unefficient when it comes to processing power.
creating a game of a decent size/ complexity will prob let u smoothly run N64ish graphics, perhaps a bit better.
blender should only be used for recreation and possibly building up yourself a portfolio. its a good starter.
It depends on how hard you’re willing to work. If you want to work hard, you can make amazing things. If you want it to be easy, you can make mediocre things.
The He-blend’s project the Westerwind is a good example of the engine’s capabilities. Or, if you don’t mind me tooting my own horn here, you can check out my Zark game.
What about normal maps and height maps
No. They can be faked with Python, but that takes up a lot of overhead.
So it doesn’t really hold it’s own when it comes to commercial Game Engine.
Actually, you can make PS2/PS3 graphical games with Blender. I didn’t know how to texture map with high detail but I’ve discoverd a really nice technique to get that photo real look with characters in a game. No, you don’t have to use textures of real people faces or anything like that. Hell, if you’re a good character model, which I am, characters will look the way you build them to look, you just have to give them skin, shading and so on. Anyway, I’m sure you all know how well Blender can render realistic images…I can acheive that same quality with characters or any mesh now, during game play! I was damn surprised when I saw graphics that looked like Final Fantasy 10 after a practice mapping with my knew found tech, but I have a long way to go before I texture map perfectly. Right now I’m making professional 3D games with 2D technology (which is faster). Once I’ve built a game data base of 30 to 50 games, I’ll be moving on to true 3D technology with Blender. Man, giving my artistic talents and creativity, I’m going to have a ball some time next year with Blender’s power!
Peace,
The “Nugman” Nugster
well first off if you ask if its capable of ps2 ps3 games its obvious youre not really even close to knowing what its like to design a game… and the thing about large complex games and good graphics, well some people thought crescent dawn had nice graphics, and hopefully so, but anyways i think that its a nice little game engine and it doesnt have all the visual effects features of those games, but can do enough imho
ROnC
Doogs, how the hell your going to tell me I don’t know about making a game when I’ve done it already? Duh! You have to first tackle the world of 2D/3D before you can even consider fully intergraded 3D. Programming Concepts and Game Design Logic, ring a bell? Furthermore, I asked the question about Blender’s quality to hear what others would say, I already know what Blender’s platform is as far as an engine goes. Games with Blender will tend to look more 32 bit with low end texturing skills, but then again, that’s why software like Blender is attended for the Artist, like myself. After realizing Blender doesn’t support basic shading of meshes during game play, like other 3D software I’ve worked with, I thus concluded shadow rendered textures must be used if your not using real time lighting, which requires T and L.
If you wish to see some of my professional work, email me at [email protected] Most people who have seen my work really get amazed from the graphics alone. I’ll let you all know when my Software Development company opens up. Until then…
Peace,
The “Nugman” Nugster
you talking about gouraud shading? or shadows or what. “shading of meshes” covers a lot of ground.
Anyway for gouraud shading, click “set smooth” in edit buttons.
I think that radiosity might interest you
http://blenderman.free.fr/tut/radiosity/uk/
the tut is for the 2.2 versions though and I can’t quite remember how to put it into the GE
maybe this link might help
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=451567
if not just go asking around on elYsiun or #gameblender
(but seriously, you just loud mouthed doogs, one of the co-creators of one of the 1st working MMORPGs in Blender)
Obviously you don’t even know what I’m talking about. Basic mesh shading in a(n) 3D program has nothing to do with vertex paints, lights or any of that stuff. Blender doesn’t really support this, not in the truest sense. About this loud mouthed thing, dude, if you know what my level of programming and graphic arts are like you wouldn’t have made that remark. It’s a difference in trying to make a game versus already have, but then again, I write all kinds of softwares, not just games.
Peace,
The “Nugman” Nugster
%| Hehe, wow another strongly opinionated user…
Really I suck with game terms since I only do this as a hobby. Hmm… can you explain this basic mesh shading you’re talking about? Only thing I can link that too is realtime lighting (no shadows in the “stable” version of blender anyhows). Select object enter face mode, press w and select light. Now in game mode, the side of the mesh not facing the lamp should be darker while the side facing the lamp will be brighter.
We’re all pretty much opinionated here and it’s just that this question has been ask a lot of times before. As you probably know it takes a team of people to just create a game with PS2/PS3 graphics. A team of like 30-40 people each getting paid 80K+. So an opensource engine compared to the ones that are personally developed by a company for a PS2/PS3 game of their choice would pale in comparison. Lol after looking back on my PS1 games. I would say blender can have graphics better than that.
Well… Nugman Nugster if you do have all those programming skills you claim to have. I think you should take a crack at this then. http://crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-view_articles.php
No one will argue with me that crystalspace is more powerful than the blender GE at the moment. Only thing is to create a game in crystalspace takes a longer amount of time, but it’s pretty comparable to commercial engines out there.
I’d like to see some of your work. Do you have a site up?
Jason Lin
^I would venture to say that more often then you realise, most of your gaming houses will outsource their game engines. This is the typical choice, its often more cheaper as it eliminates inhouse testing, evaluation, and other costly tasks that an engine must face before seeing actual game play.
Goldentaifi it is, right? The basic object shading mentioned, you wouldn’t understand unless you’ve worked with many 3D software packages. In some 3D applications, even without having a light source in the scene or environment, objects are given shading to show there shape and detail. Without this, all you would see is texture with no cleavledge or detail. In other words, a head would appear to be a sack of skin with no mouth or nose depicted, that’s what basic shading is about. When UV mapping in Blender if you gave a character a detailed skin texture, all character detail is lost (no basic shading). Keep in mind, Blender’s Game Engine relies on UV mapping. This is not a problem for someone who has experience in game design and know how to render texture with basic shading. Plus, real time lighting with T&L (Transit Lighting) can be expensive, therefore it’s better to add mesh detail to the mesh’s vertexes and shading to the textures. If you know what you’re doing, your characters and environment should look equal to if not better than that of Final Fantasy 10 (with Blender’s power). I just can’t see Vicon’s Technology type of graphics with Blender though. You also want to scale down your characters and environments really small when finished with them (speed purposes).
As for the team of people to make a game (I've heard this quote so many times), that's true but not totally. In our current era in time, there are a lot of programs out there with pre built game logic. What these programs do is save time and money. Believe me, major companies to day are using these short cut technologies. If a company were to create every module (usually C programming is needed to take over PC hardware with speed) that defines game logic before they even begun scripting and creating graphic arts, they would be lucky to get finished with one game a year. Electronic Arts released 26 games last year! That would be impossible, even with a large staff, with no short cut applications used. You don't want to believe it? Then think about this…….John Madden Foot Ball…. Why is it, for the longest, that foot ball game always presented a new update every year that resembled the previous one (accept for some add-ins)? It's because the game modules were already written, and all the company had to do was add some new features (new mod or two) and upgrade the rosters. I read an article about EA once that stated the company was probable losing some creativity because of putting out the same title with a few add-ins (or add-ons) every year.
Using something like Blender (or 3D S max) is a blessing for a game designer. You don't have to code all the major game logic, you would never finish being one person, believe me, I've studied this. As for my website, it won't be up and running until my small company opens. Besides, I want to completely rewrite it (doing shopping carts are a killer, but fairly easy since I'm fluent with a universal programming language, scripting languages and HTML).
Give me an email and I'll send you some shots of how I modeled a character when I first opened Blender. It took me one day to go from not knowing enough technique to model in 3D space from the vertex, to creating my first detailed, full body male mesh. Anyway, let me get back to bringing this new PC Action Game to life.
PS. Killer graphics aren’t the key to a great game, it only adds to the overall fun factor. If I miss typed, sorry.
Peace,
The “Nugman” Nugster
Nugman, if you know so much about game engine and coding perhaps you would like to help out with the Game Engine features ? More logic and a AI would be good. Personally I think the GE should be separate so it can have alot more development and be use to make great game very easily.
But even if you do, don’t expect people to give you respect just because of your skills.
I don’t know what in the world your talking about, respect…? Man I respect myself, the hell with what others think. I grew up learning to servive on my own will. I’m just trying to share a few things with youngsters and answer some question if I may. I don’t want anyone looking up at me, because it’s better to be a leader instead of a follower.
As for helping with Blender or what ever you mentioned, my hands are full with my own work.
Peace,
The “Nugman” Nugster
That’s if you like EA, hehe. It does release a lot of titles, but as you said some says it’s lacking creativity.
Dunno what goes on there, but for all one might know they can be using the same base of GE’s that they’ve developed over and over again just with some slight improvments.
As for releasing 26 games in a year. You do know that they publish for other game companies right? For example, Black and White 2 was produced by LionHead, but was published by EA. So you see my point. Not all games that they publish in one year is created solely by that company. Granted they might possibly publish a whole lot of games from within their own company though.
But creating games of that caliber does take a lot of work and effort which I’m sure you’re well aware of. And great power in a GE means more work and attention to detail, especially with models/environment/textures if you want to achieve greater quality. That’s is why in semi-recent game talks they say it might be well near impossible to create games of great quality (I’m talking graphics wise) in the future. Because at the rate things are going we’d be able to render superb realtime graphics. It’ll take a lot of work to put all that detail in. Hence, a little game called “Spore” is in the works taking a different route.
Yeah I agree killer graphics aren’t what makes up a game. With blender if you know your way around it, you can create a pretty decent game with a small team or even alone in a relatively short amount of time.
Jason Lin
I love when people come here with no showing of their work but rant on about how good they are…1 out of 100 will actually show something.
Show what you can do, Talk is cheap and if your not afraid of showing it, just post the stuff already. None of this e-mail me crap. Use imageshack if you need an image host.
I HATE people who make posts like this.