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Firlefanz
11-01-2006, 11:36 AM
Hi!

When I finish my project (very soon) next thing I want to try some 3D stuff and maybe I'll do next game in 3D.

But I am not so good in D3D to do all this by myself, a 3D engine or at least a good sample or collection of functions or something would be cool.

I need terrain with trees and houses, animated humans and collision, maybe physics.

Does anybody know something for me to try out and play around with? :wink:

Thanks,
Firle

WILL
13-01-2006, 01:36 AM
Why Direct3D? Why not try OpenGL? McCLaw's RageGL engine is very good. And he is writting tutorials to help explain it all. It might be fun to play with and you can help to build a support community that will be a part of it's direction and development. But I'm only suggesting that because it seems like a great entry point into the project at this moment.

I know that this may seem like an anti-DirectX or anti-Direct3D post, but in reality there are more engine solutions with OpenGL right now: GLScene, The DelphiGL German community(which I assume is your mother toung) RageGL, GLXtreme, etc... there are just more support mechanizims in place for a beginner. Why start out slow and by yourself? If you want to move back to Direct3D and make a public engine for the community then that might be in the cards, but for now I'd recommend getting your feet wet first, but in a bucket rather than a spoon. ;)

LP
13-01-2006, 03:43 AM
I have to agree with Will on this. In my experience, I learned most capabilities of Direct3D (pre-shader era) in two years, while it took me only a week to learn most of OpenGL (in fact, there once was OpenGL-based version of Asphyre which we didn't publish ;)).

If I would start a 3D game development and would have no "framework" at my hands, I'd definitely go with OpenGL. The reality is different, since I have Asphyre to back me up now (it provides limited high-level 3D support already), so Direct3D is the only way for me now. However, your case is different and I think you'll have more luck if you go for OpenGL (you can use GLScene to get started).

Firlefanz
13-01-2006, 05:32 AM
Hi!

Nothing to say against OpenGL, I just thought about D3D because I am experienced with DirectX and D3D a bit, and never did anything with OpenGL. This is the only reason. :wink:

Thanks for the suggestion, if I find nothing in D3D, I will of course look for OpenGL, maybe better I keep an eye on both, so if you have any OpenGL suggestions let me know of course. I would only like to have it open source in Delphi so I can lay my hands on it, but if it is already perfect, who cares, then I would also be willing to pay some money (money I can afford, not thousands of $). :D

@Lifepower: I already downloaded and took a lok into Asphyre latest version two weeks ago. I thought I saw one or two basic 3D samples, but nothing special. What does Asphyre support in 3D, what is finished or maybe in the 'pipeline'? :wink:

Thanks,
Firle

JSoftware
13-01-2006, 06:10 AM
There exists many d3d engine out there. Look at devmaster.net engine db. or wasn't there a engine on these forums called leaf engine?
I only use OGL myself. I can't figure out how to use those silly interfaces with d3d :wink:

Firlefanz
13-01-2006, 06:29 AM
Leaf engine is not bad, but supports DX8 only. But I'll keep an eye on it, it is also here in the projects section. Thanks for the info :D

Firle

Firlefanz
13-01-2006, 01:22 PM
Rage GL does not work on my notebook.
It would be nice to have something that works on older PCs or PCs with old or cheap graphic cards also.

Firle

LP
13-01-2006, 05:09 PM
@Lifepower: I already downloaded and took a lok into Asphyre latest version two weeks ago. I thought I saw one or two basic 3D samples, but nothing special. What does Asphyre support in 3D, what is finished or maybe in the 'pipeline'? :wink:
First, latest Asphyre version is barely a week old. Second, Asphyre has limited 3D support meaning that it can display only static 3D meshes (no animations). Since Asphyre does not require any DLLs (D3DX and so on), we had to write our own 3DS and ASE loader. The time is short so we never figured out how to load animations (and Soulhab left our team, so it takes more time for me to maintain Asphyre). Other than that, it supports 3D cameras, billboards, "facing" primitives (like billboards, but can have any orientation) and some more stuff. It's not a 3D engine though.

WILL
14-01-2006, 06:05 AM
What kind of card/GPU are you using?

Well if you want to learn about 3D in it's truest form, why not use something like SDL(DirectX/OpenGL unspecific) or DirectX/OpenGL as a 2D screen and make your own software rendering engine. It's how they used to do it back in the day. ;)

Of course if you are talking about a GeForce or a Radeon I'd have to laugh because my system with it's ATI Rage Mobile 1 w/ 8MB on-board can run WarCraft 3. :)

What about GLScene?

Firlefanz
14-01-2006, 07:28 AM
I am using a ATI 9700 Pro and an Athlon 2,4 ghz.
But it should work on every (or at least 64 mb graca and 1 mhz cpu) system and look very well on a powerful system.

Nope. If I am able to do so, I want to create a 3D game next.
Should looking better than our other games and in tre and full 3D.

Because I am not so experienced with 3D I need some engine, source or components. Should be D3D because I know it a bit, or OpenGL but nothing else. Most important is I need it in Delphi.

I want to create a medieval 3D world with trees, houses, a castle and of course people.

Firle

WILL
14-01-2006, 09:10 AM
Ah... I know what I can suggest then. It's OpenGL, like I said Direct3D is hard to find...

Delphi3D. Tom released a ton of demos and the source you can play with. Well the suggestion is until you find a decent 3D Engine try just familiarize yourself with other techniques and 3D methods used.

If nothing else when you do find a decent 3D engine to use, you'll know some things about what it may or may not be capable of doing.

Failing that maybe try pullingthe ear(or eye) of tux. He may be able to give you some hints. He's fairly new into 3D aswell if I recall.

NecroDOME
14-01-2006, 11:08 AM
I wrote a 3D engine in DirectX. It's working good, but it's not finished... Maybe I post some screenies on my site soon.

Firlefanz
14-01-2006, 11:52 AM
Sounds good. I want to see a screenie :D

In the forum here and especially at DelphiDev.de I think sometimes there are more people taht write engines than games (in the german forum this is a fact). :wink:

So I hoped I can find something useful and perhaps somebody helps me out so I don't need to re-invent the wheel. :D

Firle

NecroDOME
14-01-2006, 12:10 PM
I have put some shots of my engine (Editor) on my site...

http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Project.nss?project=App_Necro3D

[edit]
It's still under development and far from finished, but you can actualy make a fully working game in it.

tux
14-01-2006, 01:32 PM
will, rage isnt really usable yet ;) but were working hard to get it going for the competition :D

Firlefanz
14-01-2006, 02:34 PM
@Necro: The screens look promising, go ahead. :D
I also played your game once, was very nice.
@Tux: No problem. :D I only tried it on a notebook with shared memory graphic ship...

I already found lots of stuff.
This is really interesting.

Firle

LP
14-01-2006, 04:20 PM
I have put some shots of my engine (Editor) on my site...
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Project.nss?project=App_Necro3D
Nice screenshots, but even though you talk about lightning (http://images.google.com/images?q=lightning&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images) a lot, I couldn't find one. :)

NecroDOME
14-01-2006, 05:38 PM
Thanks for the replies. I'll make a shot with lightning just for you :)