I’ve been an avid user of Blender in general for a year or so, but I’m particuarly interested in the Game Engine.
What annoys me about it, however, is its inability to run decent graphics/effects at a smooth framerate.
At the moment, a new and beautiful feature has been added to the engine, called parallax bump-mapping, and this will go to waste since we cannot use it effectively.
How far are we from a new Blender release? And does anyone know if the Game Engine has been significantly upgraded?
Sorry if this has been done before.
Yes frame rate stutter is vastly improved. My games jerked a bit before, but in the preview they run really smooth.
I don’t know if bump mapping is available outside of python scripting, but the texture baking will be put to good use. Things are definitely moving ahead again. Many things that could be implemented have been put off until the Ogre switch, and that makes sense. Why do the work twice?
The next upgrade is looking to be around Christmas. I think the only way you are going to know whether it meets your needs is if you play around with it a bit. I know how you feel though. There are some projects that I have in the line that BGE isn’t quite up to the task of. I’ve looked at Ogre, Crystal space, Irrlicht as well as others to see if they might better meet those needs, but for what I am doing now BGE is working great. If at the point I am ready to do those projects BGE is up to it then that is what I will use. Right now, with the latest upgrades I am hopeful that it may just be.
I would just like to say that just about every kind of surface shader that can be written can be made to work in blender and have that shader run effectively. The main factor is the assets you use. If your model/textures are crap then no amount of parallax or any kind of special shader will ever make it look good (by my standards). Your assets need to be good very good and made knowing what kind of shader will be used on them.
I agree with this statement, but the key word you used is written. Anything can be written in blender, but the question posed was is it already there. If you are talking about bump mapping then it isn’t already there and you will have to code it.
At some point, if you already have a lot of straight coding to do, when considering bugs that have to be worked out, you have to ask your self why not use compilable code that is optimized for you specific needs. I think it is valid to ask yourself before a project if the package you are looking at is right for that project.
That being said, you’re right, the BGE is vastly underrated and I think that Mike Pan’s work just did a great job of showcasing that. Check it out if you haven’t already.
thx…
I know I have said this who knows how many times and I will say it again. If Blender’s engine does not fill yours needs then write your own engine. I’m serious. Honestly I never use blender anymore except for anything not related to games.
My current job requires me to write an amazing engine and so I have nothing to worry about 
Oh btw I am spike1907 (I bet it’s a real shock to some I know)
SUPRISE!!!