Choosing a game engine

[vncnt]

I want to buy a game engine that supports web-browsers on all platforms, can run standalone and supports mobile platforms. It´s for training purposes. Students can be anywhere on this planet.

So far I checked the websites of Unity and ShiVa but I get the feeling there are many more.
Unity pro 3 seems nice.

I´m using LW as a source for objects and animations.
Reliability is a plus for me. Player compatibility also.
How can I make a choice?

Any pitfalls? File format issues?

[Red_Oddity]

I'd say to go with Unity, development is active, friendly and helpful community, and it practically support everything you seem to be looking for.

I have not tried character animation with LW and Unity (we do all character animation and pretty much all other work that goes to Unity via Maya as it has a nice live connection with your ma/mb files)
I have had good results though with LW and Unity on my own personal little projects.

At least i didn't have to manually edit a collada or fbx file to get anything to work (like i had to do with pretty much every other 3d engine i tried using.)

[Danner]

I spent a month researching all of them, trying out demos, reading forums and I also settled on Unity. And you can't beat the price of the light version (free) wich has minor limitations.

Which are Basically:
No shadows (easily baked in most cases)
No post effects (computational intensive eye candy you don't usually need)
Not for large companies.

[vncnt]

ehh, actually it´s a large company ...

I´m going to use LW and U3 only - no Maya.
Do FBX and Collada support the same features?
Should I stay away from certain plugins?

Btw thanks for your input. Glad I can check experienced users before I dive into this.

[Danner]

ehh, actually it´s a large company ...


But since you said it's for training purposes, students can download their own copy for free and practice aywhere.


Do FBX and Collada support the same features?


The problem is not so much in the object format but the implementation of them, there are lot flavors of Collada and FBX, each program does it's own version seems like.

FBX is the internal format of Unity and the LW exporter works reasonably well, it does have limitations like only having one UV per surface, but that has been fixed by the community, someone wrote an exporter that supports two.

You need to reassign your textures in Unity once you import the objects but over all is not a big hassle.




Should I stay away from certain plugins?



Don't see how a pluggin could give you trouble. Keep in mind the export to fbx is relatively basic. You will need to give the scene it's beauty pass in Unity tweaking surfaces, lights etc.

[robertoortiz]

Ditto on the kudos for Unity.
it is a really cool engine.

[tyrot]

if you want something OGRE based... take a look to NEOAXIS ENGINE... (LW to oGRE converter very solid)

[vncnt]

if you want something OGRE based... take a look to NEOAXIS ENGINE... (LW to oGRE converter very solid)

Looks good (www.neoaxisgroup.com/neoaxis/features) but supports limited number of platforms.
For training it´s essential it can run on everything that looks like a computer connectected to the internet, so students can use it everywhere.

[warmiak]

I want to buy a game engine that supports web-browsers on all platforms, can run standalone and supports mobile platforms. It´s for training purposes. Students can be anywhere on this planet.




Well, It depends what you are trying to teach ..
If you are trying to teach people what goes into developing a game engine then Unity, being a "game engine for dummies", is a terrible choice.
It would be like trying to teach 3d graphic programming with Lightwave - it won't work.

On the other hand if you trying to teach people how to develop simple games with the least amount of effort then I guess Unity (along with Flash) would work just fine.

[vncnt]

We´re trying to teach them how to use safety equipment.

What I basicly need is to view equipment from every angle, push buttons, view meters and panel lights, playing sounds, etc.
The next level is to train were equipment is located.
Another level is to select the right equipment in certain situations.
And the next level is to determine what the situation exactly is and what needs to be done, including communication to crew members.

[robertoortiz]

Check Unity 3d then..
And it plays nice with LW content.
You can play with the demo here: http://unity3d.com/

[vncnt]

Check Unity 3d then..

I am!
After I watched this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqCy9Aa1jCw

[jasonwestmas]

Wow, I hope that is axis rotation issue is fixed, that can cause a lot of headaches with more complex setups. It just shouldn't be that way to begin with.

[shrox]

if you want something OGRE based... take a look to NEOAXIS ENGINE... (LW to oGRE converter very solid)

Thank you sir! I am working on a Lightwave to Orge project right now, I'll check it out.

[vncnt]

Currently I´m trying to use IK based animations in Unity.
Even manually adding keyframes for each frame does not import very well in Unity - still weird positions and movements for the legs. See also http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113469
However, the feet and body are fine.

Is there something extremely obvious that I should check?
Or maybe a tutorial.

I suspect LW could use some improvement here.