Ok, so I am interesting in creating my own game using Blender. An RPG, in the sytle of the Gothic series of games (if you have played those). I wonder if some of you who have experience using Blender’s game engine could help me form some realistic expectations of what I can expect from it, performance wise.
Is it powerful enough to make a game on the same level, visually and performance wise, as Gothic 3? Would it be more realistic to expect results more like Gothic 2?
Is Panda3d’s engine faster? I have looked into OGRE as well but I can’t program in C and I don’t really have the time to learn it either.
Any feedback and suggestions are very appreciated. Thanks.
I’d actually say Gothic 2’s graphics are easily realizable in the BGE. There’ve been a lot of improvements to the BGE’s speed, especially with the “Generate Display Lists” function. There are also a lot of tweaks to get the game running top speed, as in only making faces that are visible to the player (no faces for roofs, for example), using multiple scenes, and making some faces invisible while the player isn’t looking at them. LOD (Level of Detail) is also very useable in the BGE.
You know, I was doing some testing with Blender and I thought that seemed to perform pretty well actually. I guess in two years time that the Blender will likely get more upgrades to the game engine as well.
I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I can commit 40-60 hours a week to the project. So, I’m pretty excited about the idea. I guess if nothing else I can do all the modelling in Blender and then if I feel the engine is too slow I can always export the models to some other engine.
Panda 3D is probably somewhat faster than BGE but it is also a more low level solution. More code related work involved and you’ll have to understand a few technical concepts to use it fluently.
OGRE is nice. Maybe a bit bloated? Its a huge engine and needs a bit of practicing. There is a python binding for it if you don’t want to code in C++, but as always, C++ is the choice for serious development with OGRE. (dunno about the state of other bindings though…)
Blender is certainly a high class and above all cost effective modelling environment. BGE is at the very least a great prototyping platform.
The recent progress in the Apricot project is well on the way to making BGE a serious proposition for creating a complex, commercial game. The project has also stated that it would like to make the game engine a “plugin”. This introduces the prospect of using Blender as a developing environment and swapping between different “plugin” game engines.
Blender2Crystal is a way to export games created in Blender to the Crystal Space engine that broadens the possibilities. Crystal Space is more complex than BGE but has a lot of interesting features such as polygon culling and the ability to create portals between zones (scenes in Blender). These portals are a window from one scene to another that you can see through, enabling the creation of larger seamless environments.
Given the above, I’d say give it a go ;). At least you’d learn a load of new stuff, meet some interesting people on the forums and either realise or rule out some options…
And above all have some fun :yes:
Edit: Have a look at the apricot project (easy to find using google), and browse the starred works in progress in the games forum for an idea of what is currently achievable in BGE. I’m more impressed almost every day, and things are constantly improving.
Edit 2: Just checked out Gothic 3 gameplay videos. You should check out the Krum WIP here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=107108
Thanks to everyone who has replied. I had read a lot about how Blender has a great community and that was actually one of the reasons why I favored it over other programs.
I’ll definately be giving BGE a whirl. Probably by the time I get most of the models ready it will have even more features.
I must say that KRUM looks very good and definately on par with the graphical quality I would like to see my game reach. Very impressive!
