I have been looking for future investment into a more stable game engine which is easy to work with. I’ve been working with Blender
Game Engine for some time now. I enjoy the interface, modeling,
and python.
However, those who know Blender, support and learning curve for
this engine is not as easy. I’ve been having problems with certain
lighting effects, texture problems (surfaces), and physics engine.
I will be using Blender for a while because it curently works with
the Stereoscopic BGE that I have. Also, I enjoy modeling in Blender.
I heard about Panda3D through C4 Game Engine (where the engine
seems pretty overwelming from the demo they provide and I am looking
for something similar to Blender).
From what I read and seen from some videos, this engine seems
to be a good investment.
My main conserns are;
Does it support Stereoscopic? (Mainly: Hardware Page Flipping, Crystal Eye, Anaglyphic)
Does it support Blender models? (I read that is does)
How easy is it to animate model movements?
How easy is to modify physic meshes? (invisible mesh used for physics)
How easy is it to compile a game for solo distribution? (Windows/Mac/Linux)
How easy is to design a Multiplayer interface?
How easy is it to design Input Text boxes? (e.g. Forms)
Is it nessecary to script all in Python or does the Engine do a big part of it?
How fast can a basic game be build? (e.g. Cave Explorer First Person)
User in First Person View, walks into a Cave with a flash light
Random objects that has physics and some static
Spotlight lighting and a little fog/mist to make the environment darker
In regards to some other features that I read, I like the graphic optomizing tool. Which is something I look at when trying to have
a game suitable for most systems that doesn’t have latest high-end
machines.
Thank you in advanced for your support and responce.
Many of these questions are asked frequently, and they have no easy answer. “How easy is it to do X” is a difficult question to answer usefully; the only good answer is often “try it and see what you think.”
Panda does support fully stereoscopic rendering, especially if your OpenGL interface works properly with it. Crystal Eye is known to work fine.
Yes, you’ve read this.
Very easy to play back animations that you have created, e.g. in Blender.
Depends on the nature of the physics engine you are using, Panda’s native engine vs. ODE or some other choice. Also depends on the nature of the modifications you are making.
Search the forums for packpanda. It’s very easy to use and it supports Windows and Linux; Mac is not yet supported by packpanda. You can also roll your own distribution system.
This is a hard problem in any context. Panda provides a few low-level systems to make things easier, but mostly you’re on your own. Some people have used Python’s socket module as well.
Panda’s native gui system is DirectGui. People have expressed varying opinions about how easy it is to use. Other users have designed custom gui systems in lieu of this.
OK, this is a very important point. Panda is not a point-and-click system. It is a graphics engine for programmers. This means it is absolutely necessary to write everything in Python. Panda provides a very comprehensive set of Python objects and function calls that do a lot of very powerful things, but if you are not prepared to write quite a bit of Python code, you are not going to be able to use Panda effectively.