• Features Index
• Submit Engine
• List All Engines

• List Recently Added Engines
• List Recently Updated Engines
• Frequently Asked Questions

Engine Details

Nevrax Library (NeL)

Show Details

Web page

Email author

Read Reviews

Review or Rate this Engine

Rating:

(3 votes)

Edit

NeL (Nevrax Library) is a toolkit for the development of massively online universes. It provides the base technologies and a set of development methodologies for the development of both client and server code.

Author

Nevrax

Graphics API

OpenGL, DirectX

Operating Systems

Windows, Linux

Programming Language

C/C++

Status

Productive/Stable

Documentation

Yes

Features

General Features

Object-Oriented Design:

Scripting

Built-in Editors

Physics

Basic Physics, Collision Detection:

Lighting

Lightmapping:

•	Static light maps: up to 3 layers of light map simultaneously
•	Dynamic lighting

Shadows

Shadow Mapping:

•	Static & dynamic shadows

Texturing

Basic, Multi-texturing:

Shaders

Vertex, Pixel:

Scene Management

LOD:

Animation

Skeletal Animation, Morphing, Animation Blending:

Meshes

Mesh Loading, Skinning:

•	Animation export plugins for 3DStudio Max
•	Skinning export plugins for 3DStudio Max

Surfaces & Curves

Patches:

Special Effects

Environment Mapping, Particle System:

•	Particle system with support for various representations, including dot, line, triangles fans, bitmaps, shockwave, ripples, meshes

Terrain

Rendering:

•	Bezier patch landscape modeling. Support for vertical faces and overhangs
•	The ROAM algorithm is used to provide adaptive subdivision of the landscape
•	Geomorphing is used between LODs (levels of detail) to eliminate popping
•	Landscape texture mapping at a constant 1.5cm/texel, with the possibility of a second complete additive texture layer. Texture continuity breaks due to bilinear filtering have been eliminated
•	Landscape is dynamicaly streamed into memory with background loading
•	'Snap To Ground' functionality allows objects that are on the ground to remain attached to the surface as it geomorphs

Networking System

Client-Server, Master Server:

Sound & Video

2D Sound, 3D Sound:

Features:

Ease of Use:

Stability:

Support:

Date Added

Tue, 28 Sep 2004

Last Updated

Wed, 3 Oct 2007

There are currently 3 reviews for this engine

License Name	Price	Source Code	Comments
GPL	Free	Yes

Screenshots:

Member Reviews

NOTE: The ratings and reviews below reflect the opinions of their respective authors and as such, do not reflect the opinions of DevMaster.net or its staff. The reviews are not moderated and some are completely inaccurate. Therefore, most reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. If you find any inaccurate or inappropriate reviews, let us know by stating in detail why you think the review should be removed and any links/documents that support your contention.

Nice concept, not done well

Posted by: Zardust at Nov 2, 2005

Without very good C++ knowledge move on to another engine. The source doesnt even compile out of box without lots of manual corrections. The documentation is not very complete as well.

Even when Nevrax is used by Ryzom it appears that the GPL version lacks lots of stuff used in Ryzom and isnt updated from the devlopers regulary.

Overall Grade:
Features:
Ease of Use:
Stability:
Support:

Excellent !

Posted by: Kervala at Sep 21, 2006

The NeL is a great library for developping games. It has a lot de possibilities and we can find some examples bundled with the library.

The only drawback is the documentation really poor (doxygen generated documents). We have to read comments inside sources and try several times before to get used to.

Nevrax forums are not very active and community who use it are really small.

But once we understood how to use it, it's really easy to do what we want.

Overall Grade:
Features:
Ease of Use:
Stability:
Support:

NeL - Fitting A Critical Niche In Open Source MMORPG Frameworks

Posted by: chew827 at Oct 3, 2007

While the support on NeL is difficult - it is community run - the community is always willing to pitch in and help whomever comes to the channel or posts on the new forum. The project has even recently received a new website (www.opennel.org) and all new software.

Being an MMORPG framework the ease of use of NeL is not very high - but you can't expect a framework for such lofty endeavors as MMORPGs to be easy to use. The on-going efforts in the community to document the engine on the wiki have made adopting the framework much more easy, though.

As for features - no other Open Source framework provides the total features necessary to build a full blown MMORPG. While OGRE3D might out-shine NeL in 3D and RakNet in networking - NeL is the whole package with all of the elements necessary working in unison. The fact that it is open-source and has a flexible community behind it means that any features lacking from it anyone can add.

Overall Grade:
Features:
Ease of Use:
Stability:
Support:

Write your own review for this engine