8 ms·

Maybe I'm just now getting aware of it but I just recently learned of Godot[1] and now this as well. Seems like we have the chance to replace Unity as the "Comm

Maybe I'm just now getting aware of it but I just recently learned of Godot[1] and now this as well. Seems like we have the chance to replace Unity as the "Community" game engine with a free open source version. [1] https://godotengine.org/ https://godotengine.org/

mikulas_florek 10y ago
See also http://atomicgameengine.com/ http://atomicgameengine.com/ it's quite mature too.
- cyborgx7 10y ago
  Will add it to my personal list of things to look at. Thanks.
- bluesilver07 10y ago
  Banshee3D is pretty cool too - https://github.com/BearishSun/BansheeEngine https://github.com/BearishSun/BansheeEngine. The vast majority of the work is done by a single person.
  - ttctciyf 10y ago
    There's also Urho3D: https://urho3d.github.io/ https://urho3d.github.io/ "a free lightweight, cross-platform 2D and 3D game engine implemented in C++ and released under the MIT license." It has an impressive feature list, including: "Cross-platform support using SDL 2.0 (currently runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Raspberry Piv1.3 including other generic ARM boardsv1.6, and Webv1.4 with Emscripten toolchain)"
    - floatboth 10y ago
      There's also OpenMW https://openmw.org/en/ https://openmw.org/en/ which, of course, works best for creating Morrowind-like games :) But you can make completely new games with it.
virtualritz 10y ago
http://polycode.org/ http://polycode.org/ looks like a possible contender too.
pjmlp 10y ago
A lot of work still needs to go into those engines to achieve feature parity, specially in regards to GUI tooling. Just check Unreal's 2017 roadmap.
- veli_joza 10y ago
  Are you claiming that Unreal still needs a lot of work to achieve parity with Unity?? No. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6Xx_jLXmg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6Xx_jLXmg Edit: BTW there's a very insightful feature comparison from UE developer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5wouuw/2017_features_unreal_engine/dec0zoy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5wouuw/2017_featur...
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    No, if you read properly you will see I am claiming these community engines have a lot of road to travel and tires to burn, before they can compete with Unity,Unreal,CryEngine and Cocos2D-x features and tooling.
    - mikulas_florek 10y ago
      I consider that an advantage, simple things have their appeal. Unity without any 3rd party plugins is very basic, and a lot of these community engines are at the same level.
      - pjmlp 10y ago
        I was arguing from the point of view of those that think "engine == code" and disregard these engines without everything else that surrounds the eco-system or understanding of how many studios work, which is quite common in the HN Web & FOSS culture. Good luck with your project.
        vvanders 10y ago
        Yup, back when I was in games our ~70 person team was about 10 developers and the rest were artists/animators/designers. Tooling cannot be understated and most of our goal was to be a force multiplier on the majority of the team who actually do the creative work. That's what these engines bring and while hobby engines are nifty they're not going to be making strides into that space until they have a compelling tooling story.
codelitt 10y ago
I sure hope so. I think one of the barriers may be the compatibility with a lot of the devices coming out in VR. For example, to build something for the Hololens, Unity3D is the only option. IIRC, for Oculus, the only OSS game engine that targets it is Torque3D. I'm not sure how much cooperation these engines need from the manufacturers to begin targeting them, but that can be hard for OSS projects to do.
- mikulas_florek 10y ago
  VR is so minor market at the moment that it's just not worth to support in general engine with limited resources.
  - codelitt 10y ago
    That makes sense. Just out of curiosity, to my point above, how much cooperation from the manufacturer of different systems (Hololens/Xbox/Playstation) do you need to be able to target builds for them?
    - mikulas_florek 10y ago
      From experience (old gen and next gen consoles) there is 0 cooperation from manufacturer that you really need, other than available SDK and docs. Yes there are bugs in compilers and the consoles themselves (firmware, HW) but you can usually work around them.
      - codelitt 10y ago
        Interesting, thanks for the insight.
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    On the other hand, adoption is usually easier in niche markets.
    - 10y ago

mikulas_florek 10y ago

See also http://atomicgameengine.com/ http://atomicgameengine.com/ it's quite mature too.

cyborgx7 10y ago
Will add it to my personal list of things to look at. Thanks.
bluesilver07 10y ago
Banshee3D is pretty cool too - https://github.com/BearishSun/BansheeEngine https://github.com/BearishSun/BansheeEngine. The vast majority of the work is done by a single person.
- ttctciyf 10y ago
  There's also Urho3D: https://urho3d.github.io/ https://urho3d.github.io/ "a free lightweight, cross-platform 2D and 3D game engine implemented in C++ and released under the MIT license." It has an impressive feature list, including: "Cross-platform support using SDL 2.0 (currently runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Raspberry Piv1.3 including other generic ARM boardsv1.6, and Webv1.4 with Emscripten toolchain)"
  - floatboth 10y ago
    There's also OpenMW https://openmw.org/en/ https://openmw.org/en/ which, of course, works best for creating Morrowind-like games :) But you can make completely new games with it.

virtualritz 10y ago

http://polycode.org/ http://polycode.org/ looks like a possible contender too.

pjmlp 10y ago

A lot of work still needs to go into those engines to achieve feature parity, specially in regards to GUI tooling. Just check Unreal's 2017 roadmap.

veli_joza 10y ago
Are you claiming that Unreal still needs a lot of work to achieve parity with Unity?? No. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6Xx_jLXmg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6Xx_jLXmg Edit: BTW there's a very insightful feature comparison from UE developer here: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5wouuw/2017_features_unreal_engine/dec0zoy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5wouuw/2017_featur...
- pjmlp 10y ago
  No, if you read properly you will see I am claiming these community engines have a lot of road to travel and tires to burn, before they can compete with Unity,Unreal,CryEngine and Cocos2D-x features and tooling.
  - mikulas_florek 10y ago
    I consider that an advantage, simple things have their appeal. Unity without any 3rd party plugins is very basic, and a lot of these community engines are at the same level.
    - pjmlp 10y ago
      I was arguing from the point of view of those that think "engine == code" and disregard these engines without everything else that surrounds the eco-system or understanding of how many studios work, which is quite common in the HN Web & FOSS culture. Good luck with your project.
      - vvanders 10y ago
        Yup, back when I was in games our ~70 person team was about 10 developers and the rest were artists/animators/designers. Tooling cannot be understated and most of our goal was to be a force multiplier on the majority of the team who actually do the creative work. That's what these engines bring and while hobby engines are nifty they're not going to be making strides into that space until they have a compelling tooling story.

codelitt 10y ago

I sure hope so. I think one of the barriers may be the compatibility with a lot of the devices coming out in VR. For example, to build something for the Hololens, Unity3D is the only option. IIRC, for Oculus, the only OSS game engine that targets it is Torque3D. I'm not sure how much cooperation these engines need from the manufacturers to begin targeting them, but that can be hard for OSS projects to do.

mikulas_florek 10y ago
VR is so minor market at the moment that it's just not worth to support in general engine with limited resources.
- codelitt 10y ago
  That makes sense. Just out of curiosity, to my point above, how much cooperation from the manufacturer of different systems (Hololens/Xbox/Playstation) do you need to be able to target builds for them?
  - mikulas_florek 10y ago
    From experience (old gen and next gen consoles) there is 0 cooperation from manufacturer that you really need, other than available SDK and docs. Yes there are bugs in compilers and the consoles themselves (firmware, HW) but you can usually work around them.
    - codelitt 10y ago
      Interesting, thanks for the insight.
- moron4hire 10y ago
  On the other hand, adoption is usually easier in niche markets.
  - 10y ago