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I NEED SOME REAL GOOD ADVICEHERE REGARDING LIGHTFEATHER

Moderators: Matthias

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Juggernaut

Sun Aug 02 2009, 03:15PM

Registered Member #305
Joined Sun Aug 02 2009, 03:07PM
posts 1

Hello,

I am a self taught programmer who knows how to program using C and Win32 API. Is my knowledge good enough to start learning Lightfeather and making games with it or do I need to learn something more before I begin ?
Secondly, I have been going through internet to find a suitable opensource/free game engine that can be used to develop a commercial quality games such as Half Life 2 Or Quake 3.
These engines have caught my attention so far -

1. OGRE (Though I know it is a graphic engine not a game engine) - It has got great screenshots in the galleries but the learning curve seems very steep.

2. IRRLICHT - not so good screen shots with low learning curve.

3. Open Scene Graph (It is also a graphic engine)
- Good screenshots with high learning curve.

4. Delta3D - Screenshots are not eye catching but seems to be used by many government institutes.

5. Light Feather - Feature list is very long but screenshots are mediocre.

My question is where does Lightfeather stands in terms of
performance and quality of graphics rendering ? Can it be used to build something like Half Life 2 or Quake 3 ? And what types of built in special effects like snow, fog , lightning , realistic water, trees/ foilage ,destroyable environments etc. are achievable in Lightfeather ?
Please help me if you can.

Thanks and regards,

Matthias

Mon Aug 03 2009, 01:48PM

Location: Hamburg, Germany
posts 399

we cant and wont help you making your decision wrt any graphics engine. you have to make that decision yourself or you will later not be satisfied with anything.
as to your knowledge - lightfeather is written in c++ , so you definitely need to know c++ to use it. and since object-oriented programming is quite different from procedural programming as you did with c, id say you should try to learn about that first.

sengoku

Mon Aug 03 2009, 05:40PM

Registered Member #299
Joined: Fri Jun 05 2009, 07:45PM
posts 21

Juggernaut i can probably help with your answer. As i tried Ogre, Irrlicht and looked at particularly every well own graphic engine before using Lightfeather.

In terms of documentation Ogre and Irrlicht are mediocre at best with the wiki for them being more confusing and time comsuming than long. Took 2 hours to firstly initailise Ogre and that was with the help of an external website. 50 line tutorial vs 400+ on Orge wiki. Similar issue with Irrlicht.

Delta3D for me looked good but documentation was too brief, it seemed more geared toward experience coders not those nw to game engines.

Your finally question is it is do able. If not pick up GPU Gems and work the code on the disk into the engine.

By the time you get from C to C++, you should have an idea whether you want an engine that is scripting or C++ coding.
What i know physics such as destroyable is something you would code in yourself or possible script in.

Just in-case you don't know already start off with some small then expand. For instance title screen, small environment with model moving around. It is easy to lose track of what is possible for a one man team and except to put in loads of hours

I think i may have ranted on a bit