What do you look for in engines

[Dia Kharrat]

DevMaster is planning on providing some special section (we'll inform you soon). To get some user feedback, I would like to ask this question:

What are the 4 most essential elements you (or general users) look for in engines?

My suggestions were:

1. Features
2. Ease of Use
3. Support
4. Stability

How about yours?

[bladder]

I couldnt think of anything more important then those 4.

[anubis]

put stability on first, features on 3 third and support on fourth :)
but no, those are the 4 most important... well performace but that's hard to measure

[UnknownStranger]

Don't forget the tool chain(e.g. how to get your art and design assets into the game)...

[[DC*3]Jp^Uk]

Reusability...?

[UnknownStranger]

Platform independence...

[Noor]

screenshots, and videoclips.

[CyraX]

Tools chain is important. VERY important.
In addition to that the modularity of the engine comes into play a lot. If (say) you dont want to use the renderer or the physics or the sound or some other component in the engine you would want to replace that.
Also dont forget the simplicity part of it.
How does it help the artists to create and use assets? Artists are the ones who would make all the difference to the look of a game.

[Adrian T]

Tools chain is important. VERY important.
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I agree with this 100%. When developing a game there are generally 2 main areas that have to have equal priority. One being graphics the other programming. It's vital to have the right tools that enable the team to work together quickly and efficiently and at a high quality of finish.

there are a lot of engines out there, but at the end of the day, you need something that works and lets you finish a game. the best graphicsl features, or the most cutting edge technology aren't going to help you if it doesn't allow you to work in a flexible way and give people the freedom they need to make the creation process fun.

For me as an experienced artist the art path is vitaly important and I'd rather compromise on many things like polycount, if the engine I'm using gives me complete contro lof graphics without having to rely too much on coders. thats what I enjoy right now, since the platform were using has first rate 3DS max support :)

[donBerto]

besides open-modularity [tools chain?], scalability ... which I guess goes back to tools chain

mmm ... tools chain ... yummy...

:yes: