Which engine should I choose ?

[Aepriz]

First of all , I want to apologize for my Enlish .
I'm not that good at it , but I'm practicing.
I wan to ask some questions surrounding 3D game engines .

History :
I'm not 'really' new to game creation , but I am to 3D . I'm have used rpg-maker XP for over 2 years .
And when rpg-maker VX came out I used it until now .
But being a 2D game engine I couldn't really make what I wanted to make . It also used the coding language 'RGSS' (rpg maker Xp) and 'RGSS2' rpg maker VX).
But I haven't learned it because 'RGSS' was only used by that programme . So basically I have no coding ability . But I'm a fast learner on most things , So I hope also on Coding .
Now I decided I want to try out 3D engines , I'll try as hard as I need to for it to succeed .
BUT , There are so many engines that I didn't knew which to choose . A friend of mine recommend 'Unity' but I have windows that means I can't use it .
That's why I make this post , to ask this site (because it seems you all know a lot about this )for advise .

The use
purpose : And Action RPG (A mix of 'kingdom hearts' and 'castlevania : curse of darkness' ,for the battle system . ) I have no real need for multi player , though it would be great it was possible .
Engine : It should be possible to make 'descent' graphics . I am willing to invest a lot of time in it if that would be a question .
(If possible I would try to reach graphics such as these 'http://images.mmosite.com/feature/news/2008_01_19/screenshot/ned_01.jpg')
Price : The price doesn't 'really' matters but if possible the best for as small amount of money .
I'm really looking for the best , user-friendly egine .

Also , good shadows would be great .
Right now I'm thinking about the Engine 'Truvision 3D'


Extra :
Also , because I'm new to all this it would be great for some advise .
Until now I only know about shadows and stuff that are possible i 3D game engines .
But I've see words I didn't understand like 'Physics'.
Personal experience is also great .
Just like all possible advise I could get .


Friendly greeting ,
Aepriz .

[fireside]

There isn't that much difference in the engines so you really don't need to worry if you pick one of the top 10 or so. Most of them have down loadable demos to try it out. Art is going to be the big thing for you and you might want to forestall your purchase of a game engine for a bit until you learn a modeler. Blender is a good free modeler. It also has a built in game engine that isn't too bad to get started which has a very good physics engine. You also need to get started on a more common programming language. The blender engine uses python which is a good choice, but you need to get some good tutorial or a book and study the language.

[practicing01]

If you know C/C++, you can try 'Jolt3D!' (jolt-3d.sourceforge.net). I like it because it's so easy to use. The engine is in the database if you're interested in the features.

[Aepriz]

There isn't that much difference in the engines so you really don't need to worry if you pick one of the top 10 or so. Most of them have down loadable demos to try it out. Art is going to be the big thing for you and you might want to forestall your purchase of a game engine for a bit until you learn a modeler. Blender is a good free modeler. It also has a built in game engine that isn't too bad to get started which has a very good physics engine. You also need to get started on a more common programming language. The blender engine uses python which is a good choice, but you need to get some good tutorial or a book and study the language.

If all engine's use the same code language I defenly have no potest against learning a language .
I thought I saw a tutorial for it somewhere on this site so I'll look it up again .

Also I'll follow the advise of waiting ti buy a engine until I lean modeling .

Friendly greeting,
Aepriz

[Reedbeta]

All engines do *not* use the same code language. However once you learn to code in one language, it isn't too hard to pick up a second language, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect of it. As fireside says, Python is a good one to start with.

[Aepriz]

A friend of mine pointed something out .
He said that the programme I had my eye on.
TV3D is only used for making models , that is ISN'T a game making programme .

[ldrrn]

Blender Game Engine is the way to go, see it yourself
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_the_Game_Engine

[fireside]

A friend of mine pointed something out .
He said that the programme I had my eye on.
TV3D is only used for making models , that is ISN'T a game making programme .

No, he's mistaken about that. It's an engine for making games.
He might have been talking about Blender because a lot of people don't know that Blender is also a game engine. They think it's just a modeler, but it's also a game engine and a good one to get started on at least because it's so easy to import the Blender models into it. You may want to use TV3D or one of the other engines when you get your models looking pretty good, or you may choose to start right away but the trouble with that is then a year goes by and you pay for an upgrade again. Also, it's important to make sure that your skeletal models are going to import into the engine you choose because sometimes they don't very well or not at all. That's still a fair bit of money in my book so it pays to do tests and make sure it's what you want.

This is a good forum to ask question about Blender:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/

[alphadog]

Well, there are two "levels" of engines.

First are the 3D render engines. These give you basically your 3D game world graphically, and without any game logic. The popular ones in my experience that I follow (but not necessarily currently use) are OGRE, Irrlicht, Panda3D, CrystalSpace, C4 (Terathon) and Horde3D. Getting into a popular engine will help you since you have a good community to turn to for advice. Also, they usually have a wide selection of additional modules and libraries. For example although OGRE is C++ at its core, it has a wide number of wrapper in other languages.

The second level is the 3D game engine. This is a render engine, with some amount of extra functionality, like sound, UI, etc. These are usually more restricted, for example you must use C#, but get you going faster. And, a mature one that is open and/or free is harder to find. The ones I follow are: Gamebryo, NeoAxis, PySoy, Blitz, Gamestudio and Torque.

I'm sure there is more, but no one person can keep track of the entire industry...

[Aepriz]

Reall thanks for all the advise .
I've decided i'll go to the libary and look for a book about 'python' .
I'l also try and practise alot on blender before making any further decisions .

[vibhanshu]

Try Elemental Engine 2. Has all the features, but you better evaluate to identify how stable it is.

[elengyel]

First are the 3D render engines. These give you basically your 3D game world graphically, and without any game logic. The popular ones in my experience that I follow (but not necessarily currently use) are OGRE, Irrlicht, Panda3D, CrystalSpace, C4 (Terathon) and Horde3D. Getting into a popular engine will help you since you have a good community to turn to for advice. Also, they usually have a wide selection of additional modules and libraries. For example although OGRE is C++ at its core, it has a wide number of wrapper in other languages.

The second level is the 3D game engine. This is a render engine, with some amount of extra functionality, like sound, UI, etc. These are usually more restricted, for example you must use C#, but get you going faster. And, a mature one that is open and/or free is harder to find. The ones I follow are: Gamebryo, NeoAxis, PySoy, Blitz, Gamestudio and Torque.

You put C4 in the wrong list. It's a full game engine.

[alphadog]

Whoa! You are correct. How did I mess that up?