I’ve been trying to look for a game engine I can learn C++ with while learning game development. I ended up narrowing it down to Panda3D and Crystal Space 3D. Ended up choosing Panda3D…but anyone know how it compares ?
I never used crystal space so it must sux and be completely inferior engine.
I tried Crystal Space 10 years ago, and it was dog slow, so clearly it can’t have improved since then 
If you want to bite deeply into C++, though, I would highly recommend the C4 engine. It costs $200, but it’s really high quality, and has really good support. I find that Panda is more for you if you want to learn Python 
adding irrlicht to the list of c++ engines. last time i tried it was quite ok to use. it seems to be continously improving,too.
if your choice is between panda and crystal … well then panda. last time i tried crystal …which was like… maybe 2 or 3 years ago. it was comparebly slow. hard to get running and the such. out of fairness i should add that things might have changed a lot. but panda was and is and will be a great choice especially in combination with python.
For learning C++: Irrlicht. Very nice API, active community and continual improvements.
Choosing between CrystalSpace and Panda3D: Panda3D. CrystalSpace has always seemed “slow” and awkward to use. P3D is much better designed IMO…
I never tried crystal space.Ive heard its used in some way with blender(?).Too bad,why wont blender developers support panda3d? 
like you said. they are BLENDER devs not panda3d developers. that would be our job. the chicken exporter already is quite good. but noone wrote a complete scene editor exporter for blender->panda . feel free to do so.
There was (is?) some discussion about integrating CS into Blender to replace the existing Blender Game Engine (BGE)… But, I think that’s gone by the wayside as there has been renewed interest and development in the BGE as of late…
OK,im shure i saw Blender+Crystal Space in many places.But then i knew BGE existed(Yo Frankie!) so i got confused.I thought BGB is Blender and Crystal Space wrapped together(lol)I also thought BGE would be inside Blender in future releases,but it didnt.Yo Frankie doesnt look bad,but i rather stick with Panda3d.
Thanks for the response guys =)
I looked more into Crystal Space 3D and it didn’t seem to be all that well from reviews. For learning C++, how about Irrlicht compared to OGRE3D?
I’m still considering learning Python while learning Panda3D, but I’m don’t see many game developers using python.
I’m a college freshman majoring in Computer Science. I’ve taken AP CS at high school, so I only know programming equivalent to 2 college semesters of java. Due to the availability, prequisites, etc. I won’t be really learning anything new this year, so it seems like I’ll have to teach myself to get anywhere for now. Panda3D looks sooo nice but it’s in python, which I don’t hear much of in commercial game development =/
Programming is just a hobby for me,so i dont care about those stuff actually.
You can use Panda in C++,but not much tuts out.
Im not shure,but i think Ogre is a graphics engine: no physics,sound(i think) etc.
If you really want to use C++ then you might take a look at DarkGTK from thegamecreators.com.But its only on Windows and requires Visual Studio.
From a “learning C++” standpoint, not much. Both use C++ as the primary coding language. If you want to actually get something DONE, I would choose Irrlicht. Ogre is very cool, but geared more towards programming teams, and that means more work IMO. Irrlicht allows one to get more done, more quickly.
BTW, if you’re wanting to learn C++ primarily, I’d suggest Irrlicht or Ogre over Panda3D anyway. The Panda3D devs have a cautionary warning in the P3D Programmers Manual concerning C++ and Panda3. It’s worth reading… 
Ahh… you see it’s a secret! There is quite a bit of Pythonish game dev going on… Look at what CMU and Disney have done already. Very impressive in my book and one of the reasons I’m using P3D. Besides, don’t worry 'bout it at this point. Have fun and learn. (And Python IS a fun language… trust me!) You’ll have plenty of time to do drudge work later… 
I’ve been a programmer for 20+ years and now I’m semi-retired… (Finally got time to do some game programming!) If you want to work in “The Industry”, learn C/C++. Period. If you want to fill out your resume, learn a good scripting language. I suggest Python. Python is an incredible work language and fit for many, many domains; system administration, game scripting, web services… etc. Second after Python is LUA, another very useful and usable language IMHO.
Just my opinions. Cheers!
Pirates, Toontown, and EVE online are three well-known games using Python.
(EVE doesn’t use Panda AFAIK)
I just finished up a fairly extensive job hunt in the Atlanta area, and the general consensus is that everyone is looking for .NET programmers, specifically C#/ASP. I have a pretty sweet PHP/mySQL based resume, and it got me absolutely nowhere.
I live right next to Microsoft and companies here are looking for java/php developers . I even whent to nerd convention where task was to build a site and we slatted on python because it was less hated. They might be looking for java/php/C# people now but tech like python, ruby and erlang is where exciting stuff is moving.