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Joined: May 31, 2002 Posts: 409 Location: Flower pot Down Under
Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:56 pm Post subject:
I think it could be of benefit to the forum to begin a listing of Game creation Software available ~ Commercial and otherwise - with program details to help all current/future would-be creators consider as many programs available as possible.
Please feel free to add your own personal favourites to the list. The more we have, the better informed our choices become!
without further adieu
~NEW PROGRAM INFO~
GAMESPACE 101 ~ by CALIGARY ~
Caligari recently released gameSpace, the leader in high end, 3D game-graphics authoring, designed to give game developers, mod-makers and enthusiasts absolutely everything needed to create characters, worlds, weapons and more!
A free trial copy of gameSpace1.1 is now available for download. This is fully functional, including the ability to save and export to game formats, so you can start using gameSpace right away!
Designed to be accessible for independent game developers (who are often on a tight budget!), gameSpace is based on the latest version of award winning trueSpace. Extra modeling tools, and compatibility with game formats, has been added, to bring the
functionality and ease of use of trueSpace to the gaming community and also to those interested in a world class modeler!
gameSpace is available for $299 and can be purchased at any time during the trial period or at the Caligary website!
Joined: May 31, 2002 Posts: 409 Location: Flower pot Down Under
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:14 am Post subject:
Radish Works Cosmos Creator
A 3D Modeler and 3D Engine all in one program
3D Scene Maker
A 3D scene or 3D objects may be created with Cosmos Creator without the use of any 3rd party application. Scenes may be edited with a variety of very powerful 3D editing tools.
The Radish Works Cosmos Creator is the first 3D modeler, 3D engine, and texture creator all in the same program. It allows for the creation of 3D interactive scenes, games, objects, walkthroughs, or anything else 3D. Once the scenes are created all the necessary information to use those scenes can be compacted into a single .RWD or .EXE file and delivered to the end user. All the end user needs is this .RWD file and the Radish Works Viewer (RWViewer.exe) or .EXE to play the final game or 3D scene. Final scenes and games can be distributed royalty free!
One of the most powerful aspects of Cosmos Creator, is its ability to create and edit 3D and 2D scenes while "playing" the game or walking in scenes. There's a simple set of VCR like buttons that allows the scene to be played, stopped and paused without ever leaving the editor! The user viewer (RWViewer.exe) is virtually the same code that's used by the editor itself. No exporting from one application to another, no conversion, and no hassle. Cosmos Creator a true What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) modeler.
Another unique aspect of Cosmos Creator is since many of the scenes assets are created procedurally. These procedurally created geometry and textures only require the saving of the “procedure” of how they were created, not the individual polygons or pixels. This makes the finished .RWD files extremely small. For example, it is not uncommon to have a very complex scene (or game level) with 250,000 polygons, and hundreds of textures in an .RWD file less than a 50k in size! This makes it possible to fit very large scenes in a very small space, making 3D content deliverable over a slow modem possible, without hours of download time.
Basic Feature Summary
Full 3D editing environment including a very powerful modeler
Over 60 primitive 3D objects (including lines, spheres, boxes, stairs, gears, arches, etc.)
Over 50 3D object alterations (bend, twist, taper, etc.)
Over 50 built in 3D object animations
Royalty Free distribution
Character animation, including key framing
Create stand alone executables or screen savers
Skinning and bones
Procedural Image creation for 2D menus or 3D textures
Texture creation by mixing and blending 166+ procedures each one with an infinite number of possible settings
2D geometry drawing including Line, Polyline, Arc, Circle, Ellipse, Spline, Rounded Rectangle, Polygon, Star, Triangle
Infinite 2D pen adjustment including the adjustment of Width, Density, Skipping, Hardness, Pen Shape, and Line type
Gradient Color Editor
Grid, Object Snapping, and Grid Snapping
Extensive 3D object settings, including opening, thickness, etc.
Axis transforms for easy object Moving, Scaling and Rotation
Shape Editor to edit the “shape” of animation, selections and objects
Objects selection by window, circle, polygon, inside, outside and crossing
Anti-aliasing
MipMapping
Point, Spot, Directional and Ambient Lights
Cameras
Gravity objects
Level of Detail
Shadows
Light Maps
3D Boolean operations
Real time physics with rigid body dynamics
Atmospheric currents (wind, water, etc.)
Single or multiple 3D views of the scene
Lisp scripting language including 133 built-in functions
Built in script editor
C++ interface to 3D scenes and 2D menus, via a linkable library
Particle Systems (planer and point)
Explosion animations
Reference object copies
3D Sounds
Unlimited Undo/Redo
Full clipboard support (Cut, Copy, Pasting)
Shapeable object selections
Bump Mapping
Collision testing for all object types
Player selectable objects
Image pushing for fast terrain creation
Mesh simplification
Texture Blending
Vertex Coloring
User pickup-able objects (inventory)
Scene Reports
Object, Face, Edge, and Vertex Editing.
Scenes may be “Played” directly in the editor without creating a .RWD first
VCR like commands for game play
Asset Browser
Easy 3D tree creation (the kind of trees with leaves)
Frustum, Bounds, Tree, and Distance Culling
Fog
Material and Object Opacity
Automatic UV Wrapping (Planar, Face, Box, Sphere, Shrink Wrap, Cylinder, Cylinder Capped, XYZ to UVW, Object Defined, and Face Center
UV Editor for manual manipulation of WV mapping
Reflection Maps
Powerful object grouping tools, including drag and drop in and out of groups.
Extremely compact user files
W and Z buffer support
Object helpers ID and Distance
3D Scene Maker
A 3D scene or 3D objects may be created with Cosmos Creator without the use of any 3rd party application. Scenes may be edited with a variety of very powerful 3D editing tools.
2D Image Maker
Whether you need bricks, wood, marble, trees, stained glass etc., the Image Maker can make it for you. With 166 different procedures, each one with infinite possibilities of settings and colors, the combination of image possibilities are endless. Cosmos Creator also includes many pre-made images that you may modify.
Joined: May 31, 2002 Posts: 409 Location: Flower pot Down Under
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:56 pm Post subject:
~ SILO ~
"We're proud to release our new modeler, Silo. Silo is a 3d subdivision surfaces modeling package based on proven high-end modeling tools and a soul of fluid, efficient simplicity. Powerful, fast, and fully customizable, Silo lets you work and play on your own terms."
There is a demo available on their home site. The Silo demo is worthwhile, and comparitive with most demos. *It has a 40 save limitation* That being said I think is pretty cool, as a lot of other modelling app demo's have a lot less, eg Rhino is limited to 25 saves.
About Silo
Silo is a 3D modeling program, a program that focuses on the construction and sculpting of shapes in 3D for use in design, animation, videogame creation, and idea communication.
In its short existence, Silo has already made its way into some of todays biggest studios, as well as into the hands of talented individual professionals, passionate hobbyists, and beginning students.
As of version 1.16, Silo can be linked directly to several external renderers for one-click rendering. Silo also allows export to most major 3D animation and rendering packages through obj, 3ds, dxf, rib, and pov export.
Joined: May 31, 2002 Posts: 409 Location: Flower pot Down Under
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 1:06 am Post subject:
3D RAD Lite
NOTE: FREEWARE VERSION INCLUDES
ALL FEATURES ALSO PRESENT IN LITE VERSION,
EXCEPT THOSE LISTED IN Italics, BELOW
GENERAL FEATURES
* Object oriented, user-friendly interface
Mouse driven, full-screen panels and powerful WYSIWYG virtual editor for level editing
* Stand-alone executable compiler
Resources (3d models, textures, images, sounds) are 'grouped' to a unique folder, ready for distribution.
* Compiled resources can be protected, so 3d models, textures, images, code, etc can't be easily grabbed.
* Compiled executables are independent (stand-alone) applications that can be run on any computer
* Screen Saver support Your 3d project can be compiled to standard Windows Screen Saver format (.scr).
* Fast rendering Core engine is based upon Microsoft DirectXTM, which directly links your code to the graphics hardware device (video card).
Resulting games are at least as fast as top quality DirectXTM-based commercial games.
* Windows 9.x, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP compatibility Both the editor and your distributed compiled works will work on any Windows based platform.
* Support for all graphic cards on the market Both the editor and your distributed compiled works will work with any 3d video card.
* Full-screen 640x480 display Up to 16-bit colors, up to 30 fps (frame rate).
* Multiple cameras Free-size 3D rendering windows and support for 1st person views, 3rd person views, custom views, multi split-screen, multiple viewpoints (both switchable and simultaneous views)
* Dynamic, colored, ambient, directional, point and spot light sources Including specular highlights.
* Fog effect Color, distance, thickness, can be changed real-time.
* Automatic conversion of scenery geometry to collision capable structures For easy implementation of non-flat ground, solid buildings (including complex, multi-floor structures), racing tracks, working bridges, ...
* Built-in Newtonian dynamic system Easy simulation of inertia, momentum, acceleration, friction, gravity, rotational attraction, repulsion, ...
* Euler orientations/rotations Zxy order.
* Simulation and racing game support Dedicated functions allow you to perform flight simulation, land vehicle simulation and implementation of racing game logic with just a few lines of code, or even just using pre-made resources!
* Synchronized playing of any kind of media .avi, .mpeg, .mp3, .mid, .wav, etc, both in background and subroutine mode.
* Launch of any external application and data sharing Both in multi tasking and subroutine mode for additional computation, special game sessions, etc.
* Compiled projects can be launched/coordinated by your own applications written in C++, Visual Basic, etc, and share data for unlimited flexibility
* Built-in multiple save/resume option for compiled games
* Mouse, keyboard and joystick support Simultaneous keypress detection, 3D mouse picking (including exact 3d location of picking), 2D mouse picking, direct access to i/o hardware ports for custom devices input.
* 3D sound effects Including multiple sound mixing, 3d conversion of mono sounds and Doppler effect.
3D ANIMATION
* Direct support for .3ds file format 3D models can be directly imported if they are in .3ds file format.
Exporting to .3ds from your favorite 3d modeling application (Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Truespace, Milkshape, etc, including freeware modeling tools) is always possible even by just using freeware 3d converters.
3D Rad includes a specific step-by-step tutorial showing how to convert from any 3d file format (.md2, .3ds, .cob, ...) to .3ds, apply textures to bare models (using built-in 3D model Editor tool) and combine them to animated models.
* Frame-by-frame animation A sequence of 3d models in .3ds file format, quickly rendered at the same location, one after the other. The easiest way to perform classic animations of any complexity.
2D GRAPHICS
* Sprites Direct conversion of 2d images (.pcx file format, any size) to sprites, with black color rendered as transparent.
Sprites can be BIGGER than the screen, for wide 2d scrolling effects, movie-like titles, ...
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
* Fast, easy-to-learn, Basic-like language The best learning curve ever!
Basic-like statements and data types, plus built-in library of powerful functions specifically designed for 3d game developing.
You can use the built-in code editor or any text editor you like.
Basic code is directly compiled to machine code, for maximum performance. Resulting code is, at least, as fast as C++ compiled code.
Code under construction can be immediately tested and debugged (extra-fast compilation & run).
* Conditional structures, loops and labels Basic-like statements, for maximum simplicity
* Subroutines Runtime execution of external scripts
* Global and local variables
PRE-MADE RESOURCES
* Pre-made special effects Like flames, fire, smoke, trails, atmospheric effects, dynamic fog, water surfaces, underwater sight.
* Pre-made special behaviors Like land vehicle simulation, aircraft simulation (helicopters, airplanes, submarines), floating, bobbing, etc.
* Pre-made modular scripts Advanced behavior implementation. For example, execution of specific animations according to user input, walking, running, jumping, climbing, swimming, etc.
DOCUMENTATION
* Step-by-step tutorials Including images for best readability
* Examples Rich collection of fully commented code examples, covering almost all available techniques.
Working projects and working resources (source code).
* Reference Complete language instruction reference.
For an additional $12.95 (plus $2.00 shipping) you can also receive the full installation file on CD and have it mailed to your home address, anywhere worldwide.
3D RAD FREE Version ~ more information including the download link information can be found here:
THE COMPLETE GAME DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION!!!
The Torque Game Engine (TGE) is a fully featured AAA game engine with award winning multi-player network code, seamless indoor/outdoor rendering engines, state of the art skeletal animation, drag and drop GUI creation, a built in world editor, and a C-like scripting language. Unlike most commercial game engines, as part of the low cost license, you receive all C++ source code to the engine, so you can make any additions you need for your game.
Torque is a complete cross platform gaming solution which greatly increases your money making ability without additional development costs. Create your product on the PC, then port to Mac or Linux within hours. To further reduce development costs, support of Open Source and free tools are at the heart of the Torque development philosophy. For instance, Quark is the preferred level and building development solution.
The Torque Game Engine started life as the technology behind Dynamix/Sierra/Vivendi´s products Tribes, Starsiege, and Tribes 2, and is an industry proven engine. It is currently being used by thousands of developers around the world with shipping titles such as Marble Blast, Orbz, Think Tanks, Tennis Critters, and the upcoming mecha game, Lore. For more information about the history of the engine and licensing issues, please check out the Torque FAQ area.
Don´t spend your limited time reinventing the technology wheel. Instead, use an industry proven game development engine that can enhance your creativity and productivity. Believe the $100 per programmer price for the license, too. As long as your company has less than $250,000 in sales, you can publish your game anywhere, for any price without any royalties or further commitment to GarageGames. There is no better game development deal in the world! Commercial Licenses Available
TECHNICAL
Development Tools
Torque supports many industry standard content creation tools for 3D modeling and animation, and comes standard with exporters for 3D Studio Max on the high end and Milkshape on the low end. Community members are creating exporters for other popular 3D modeling programs such as Lightwave, Maya, and Blender.
Buildings and levels are created with the industry standard free program Quark.
TorqueEdit is a powerful terrain generation and object placement toolkit for easily building game scenes and structure. This editor gives you control over all elements in your game from a graphical viewpoint.
TorqueGUI is an easy to use, drag and drop graphical user interface creator. Don´t spend time stressing over small changes in your interface. Exercise your creativity without breaking your development budget.
TorqueScript is an easy to use C++ like scripting language that ties all of the various elements of your game together. Most of your game can be programmed in TorqueScript, with engine additions such as physics or intense AI coded in C++ to be called from script.
Documentation
GarageGames and the Torque development community are always hard at work expanding the documentation and tutorials for the Torque Game Engine. Torque Documentation Page (NOTE: SDK owners actually see more documentation than this page shows.)
Tutorials
New tutorials are constantly being added to the resource list for the Torque. Tutorials Page
Code Snippets, Resources
Here are some examples of the latest code snippets and development resources added to the ever growing Torque development resource library.
Example Programs
Torque ships with a simple First Person Shooter demo program that gives you a great start for your FPS product. In addition, there is a great bonus racing "mod" with state of the art car physics that can get you started on a realistic or arcade racing game.
Community/Support
As part of your $100 license to the TGE, you receive access to private SDK forums in one of the largest and fastest growing on-line development communities in the world. _________________ Be Lucky
Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 8:05 am Post subject: Re: Thinking of changing your Game Creation Software?
Y'all might want to check out Adventure Maker. They currently have two versions - Standard and Pro. Very easy to use for those who are not programmers or coders. This one is best suited for adventure type games that use pre-rendered graphics - like Myst and others of that sort.
- Easy-to-use software creation package
- No scripting or programming required
- User-friendly innovative interface
- Creation of single, compressed, stand-alone files
- Support for multiple-CD distribution
- Built-in Load Game / Save Game functions
- Customizable inventory system
- Full-screen transitions
- Multi-channel sound system
- Dialogue wizard
- Real-time rippling water / smoke effects
- Playback of unlimited number of looping videos
- No limitations in the number of frames, hotspots, items...
- Support for more than 30 file types (mp3, avi, mpg, wmv, wma, ogg...)
- Support for DivX and XVid files (codecs required)
- Support for Flash SWF files (Flash player required)
- Advanced support for any custom ActiveX components (OCX)
UI Features:
- Thumbnails view
- Easy organization of frames (scenes) into subfolders
- Project resources management, with instant preview of graphic and audio files, estimation of the overall project size, and more.
- Drag-and-drop support
- Immediate frame preview
- Debug menu during run-time
- Easy hotspots creation and editing
- Context menu commands such as "Duplicate Frame"
- Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+S and Ctrl+L keyboard shortcuts during run-time.
- "Follow Link" command to easily navigate through the frames
- "Runtime Frames Merging" function, to share hotspots between frames or to create hotspots that are common to several frames.
Hotspot Features:
- Possibility to:
* Specify the appearance of the cursor when moved over a hotspot
* Create transparent hotspots or hotspots with a picture on them
* Stretch pictures
* Change the speed of an animated-GIF (if no speed information is found)
* Set a hotspot to be automatically enabled or disabled depending on the value of a variable (without any scripting)
* Change the value of a variable on hotspot click (without any scripting)
- Transparency support (GIF)
- On hotspot click, possibility to (without any scripting):
* go to another frame
* play up to 7 sound files at a time
* fade in / fade out / cross-fade sound files
* specify the volume of each channel and change it during run-time
* play a video file at a specified location of the screen, or full-screen
* display a text message in a popup window or at the bottom of the screen
* make the hotspot disappear
* add an item to the inventory
* and more
Frame Features:
- Use a timer to automatically go to another frame after a few seconds
- Display a transition when moving to another frame
- Tile or stretch background pictures to fit the screen
- Create text boxes on the frame background and specify their appearance
- Choose the location where the game must resume when the player has saved it in a specified frame ("set resume locations" command)
- Choose what must happen when the frame appears
- Choose what must happen when an inventory item is used on a hotspot
- Choose what must happen when an inventory item is used on another inventory item
Puzzle Creation Features:
- Possibility to create complex puzzles without any scripting at all, thanks to the innovative variables-dependent hotspots.
- Advanced easy-to-use VBScript support, for those who still prefer scripting. VBScript has the following features:
* Built-in syntax check and error-handling routines;
* Great stability;
* Easy to learn;
* Easy to debug, with immediate testing;
* Very similar to Visual Basic;
* Possibility to interact with the hotspots and the text boxes;
* Easy creation of local and global variables, as well as custom global procedures;
* Special commands to go to another frame, to display text messages, to bring up the "Load Game" and "Save Game" windows, to dynamically load a graphic file into a hotspot, to launch an external program, to open a file with its associated program, to read/write to a INI file, to make something happen every x seconds, and much, much more;
Distribution Features:
- Creates a single self-extractive exe file (for easy Internet distribution)
- Can split the exe file into several self-combining parts
- Handles floppy-disk distribution
- Handles CD-distribution (including multiple-CD)
- Allows you to specify which files must to copied to which CD
- Calculates the used space on each CD
- Automatically asks the player to insert the CD number XX when a file is required
- Creates an installation wizard, which:
* can be translated in any language (the current version includes presets for English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian);
* can be customized (possibility to change the license agreement, the background color, the program icon, and more);
* can distribute any other files together with the main project files (useful for including Help documents, registration forms...);
* can execute any files at the end of the installation (useful for installing video CODECs or the Flash player)
* allows the creation of a "Read Me" icon;
* automatically handles the creation of the program icons, the installation of the required system files, the software uninstall and more;
Customization Options:
Possibility to:
* create software in any language (the current version includes presets for English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Hungarian, Italian, and Dutch);
* customize all the message boxes and text, as well as the startup menu, the inventory background, the "Start New Game", "Load Game" and "Exit" buttons, and more (the current version includes several sample schemes);
* choose between the full-screen mode and the windowed mode;
* specify the default cursor;
* have the end-user display resolution automatically changed;
* and more;
Looping Videos Features:
Possibility to:
- Animate your scenes with as many looping videos as you want.
- Let the player interact with them by placing hotspots over them.
- Make them appear/disappear without any scripting.
- Move, duplicate and resize (stretch) them as if they were pictures.
- Get immediate preview of the final result.
- Change their volume.
- Change their playback speed.
- Make them loop forever or specify the exact number of loops.
- Have their audio track seamlessly mixed with the other sound effects.
- Place graphical hotspots both under and over them.
Supported file types:
- Graphic files: JPG, BMP, GIF (with transparency) and animated-GIF's (without transparency)
- Vector-based graphic files: WMF and EMF (with transparency)
- Icon/cursor files: ICO and CUR
- Audio files: MP3, WMA, WAV (any sample rate and size), OGG (codec required), MID, MIDI, AU, SND, RMI, MPA, MP2, WM, and ASF.
- Video files: AVI, WMV, MPEG, MPG, MPE, M1V, WM and ASF. Note that it is possible to include a video codec in the installation package of the software created with Adventure Maker, making it possible for example to play DIVX and XVID files.
- ActiveX controls: OCX.
Joined: Jan 10, 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Atlanta, GA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 8:33 am Post subject:
what about software to make old-school looking 8-bit games?? The ones I've seen look like crappy flash animations and that's not what I'm looking for... _________________ **************
sandmarine.com
**************
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:10 am Post subject: Re: Thinking of changing your Game Creation Software?
Hiyas Diane!
Good question sandmarine. I'd have to sift through my massive links collection, but I'm sure there's got to be something out there that would work for you. Would be easier to have an example of the sort of game you're talking about. (I'm not tech enough to know the diff between 8 bit and 16 bit and all that)
Joined: Jan 10, 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Atlanta, GA
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2004 1:57 am Post subject:
well, the best example of 8-bit would be Super Mario Bros. for the NES system.... or "Wonder Boy" for Sega Genesis... and 16-bit, best example of course would be Super Mario World for the Super NES. _________________ **************
sandmarine.com
**************
Blender game engine became obsolete and unsupported but I think that it is resucitating now. I remember having played with some old and amazing free games.
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I am currently using Adventure Maker Pro to create games
