Shiva 3D vs. Unity

[Heldure]

i wanted to start creating some small,small games in 3d using what i know in lightwave. ive played games created on both engines and they are about equal to me, or so it seems. My question is, what is the fastest and most powerful of these two engine AND is there a better one i dont have listed?

[warmiak]

i wanted to start creating some small,small games in 3d using what i know in lightwave. ive played games created on both engines and they are about equal to me, or so it seems. My question is, what is the fastest and most powerful of these two engine AND is there a better one i dont have listed?

If your game is simple ( like you are saying) and you are targeting desktop machines then frankly it doesn't matter which one is faster ... ( the underlying hardware is so fast these days that it will take a lot more than a simple game to make it sweat)

You should probably look at their pipelines to see which one is more friendly in terms of direct ( or easy) loading of Lightwave based assets.
My understanding is that the only way to get assets into Shiva from Lightwave is thru collada files ( which are ok for static models but hardly ever work for animations).

[Heldure]

I did want to start simple but eventually get to a much more fleshed out game. and if unity can do what shiva cant then i guess I know what i will get

[warmiak]

I did want to start simple but eventually get to a much more fleshed out game. and if unity can do what shiva cant then i guess I know what i will get

Both of these "engines" are generic game engines which means you won't get top-notch performance you will get from specialized engines ( there is a reason why big name game companies create their own engines - a first person shooter will require entirely different engine and often entirely different optimization paths in terms of how you submit your primitives to the underlying hardware, than something like Starcraft)

Figure out what you want to do , translate it into how you would do it ( what kind of 3d view you will support, how big will your world be, how are you going to use particles etc) and then see which one of these engines is the best match in terms of built-in support for these features.

[Ernest]

Something to consider is that the $1500 versions of both engines are very evenly matched. However, the free version of Unity and the $200 version of Shiva are not. Shiva offers all its rendering power and effects in its indie version but Unity turns off a few features in its free version that affect the look (like shadows). Also Shiva includes smartphone development in the $200 version. If Unity had a version in between the $0 and the $1500 ones, the size of the community (and the Lightwave-using community) would make it the clear choice.

[Lamont]

I prefer Unity having used both. The interface in Shiva really put me off.

[Aquarian]

Does anyone here know how Unity or Shiva (I've never used either) would handle a space combat simulator?

Ideally if I were a C++ guru I'd like to use the Ogre3d engine but since my programming skills are a few light years behind I'm wondering about something like Unity to create a space combat simulator.

I'd be creating all of the content, graphics, animations etc. with Lightwave.

Thanks!

[Lamont]

It all depends on you for that. It's just a blank canvas. Space Station defense was done in Shiva.

[warmiak]

Does anyone here know how Unity or Shiva (I've never used either) would handle a space combat simulator?

Ideally if I were a C++ guru I'd like to use the Ogre3d engine but since my programming skills are a few light years behind I'm wondering about something like Unity to create a space combat simulator.

I'd be creating all of the content, graphics, animations etc. with Lightwave.

Thanks!

Sure, but there is no escaping from heavy duty programming regardless of which engine you will end up using.

These engines simply provide you with an API to operate in terms of 3d objects, materials and scenes as opposed to vertex buffers and texture units and you will still need to write a lot of code to "make things happen".

[Rayek]

Another option would be 3drad, if you want to do small games - (almost) no programming knowledge required, and it costs $5 - or $0 for the three month older version.

http://www.3drad.com/

Disregard the ugly looking website; the tool/engine is quite powerful (custom shaders, normal mapping, skinned characters,etc). However, both Unity (the commercial version) and Shiva (indie version) have a more modern 3d engine.

Then again, it all depends on the artist - this was/is done in Blender's game engine: http://deadcyborg.com/

[Heldure]

I tried using blender game engine, but i couldnt get used to blender, lightwave reminded me of the Hammer map editor for source engine games and i was fairly familiar with the tools. i played games on both engines and Shiva is pretty smooth but Unity is better in my opinion, using the free version at the moment, will be upgrading soon

[twkelsey]

As Earnest points out, you get more for your money with the Indie version of Shiva vs. Unity. However, Unity does have two significant advantages that influenced me to ultimately go with Unity: Unity has very good documentation, many tutorials and two published books to learn from, while the learning material available for Shiva is thin at best. Also, Unity has better support for importing art assets (great fbx support) including animation data.

Either engine is a great deal for the money.

[Elmar Moelzer]

Have you had a look at the Leadwerks engine?

[Svenart]

Have you had a look at the Leadwerks engine?

Have you tried it? Is it good? I remember this engine while "playing" with Blitz3d some years ago, but never tested it.

[Elmar Moelzer]

I have only had a briev look at it. It seems inferior to Unity in regards to editor/import an general handling, but it also costs A LOT less (199 USD).
The achieveable rendering quality is not that bad at all.
It has some nice features, but it sure is not as accessible as Unity, at least not from what I saw in my short tests with it. Unfortunately I do not have the time for more detailed tests.

[vncnt]

Recently we bought the Unity 3D license for development of training modules.
I´m still doing tests and I´m developing my first "real" project but so far it feels very good.
Glad to know we can extend to mobile and multiple users in the future.

[Rayek]

Recently we bought the Unity 3D license for development of training modules.
I´m still doing tests and I´m developing my first "real" project but so far it feels very good.
Glad to know we can extend to mobile and multiple users in the future.

Have you seen 3dbuzz's new free video tutorial series for Unity? Over 200 short and to the point topic-oriented tutorials. I've watched a couple, and they are great.

http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/content.php?176-Unity-Fundamentals

[twkelsey]

Wow, those Unity vidoes at 3DBuzz look great Rayek...thanks for sharing. All of the sudden it seems like training material for Unity is springing up everywhere. Unity really seems to be gaining momentum.

[ayaz]

Shiva 3D vs Unity.
I think both are power full but unity support respects ligthtwave very well.

ayaz tariq
www.AfaStudios.tk