I''m vaguely planning a game (the holy grail of computer games no less!). I''m familiar with C++ but I am by no means a skilled programmer and am not about to write my own 3d engine. So I am wondering how far these free, pre-fab 3d engines and level builders can get me. The only one I know of it the genesis 3d engine and its various accessories which all sound wonderful but I''m sure it''s no Unreal Engine. Thanks, LF

You are right it is no Unreal
Try out Jet3D (www.jet3d.com) which is a public resuruction of Genesis3D when it was taken over by WildTangent or whoever

i haven''t seen Jet3d in action but i have seen Genesis3d and it is nothing compared to the UT or Q3A engine. why don''t you just use the UT engine? all the tools you need are there, you have plenty of tutorials that show you "how" to do a mod/TC. plus, if your idea is revolutionnary like you said, epic will be there to help you with all sorts of problem...another thing, you''re sure to get plenty of coverage with sites like www.planetunreal.com ,just go here http://unreal.epicgames.com/ , you''ll find info on making TC''s and links to big UT site

thanks for the links.
I would prefer to use the UT engine, especially considering how good UnrealEd is, but I don''t think the gametype mod is flexible enough. Friggin hell. I wish I was in compsci. To make massively multiplayer work (which it doesn''t, although starlancer is a step in the right direction even though it isn''t "massive") you need to be an economist, a sociologist, a psychologist, a political scientist, and maybe a bit of a biologist too. I think I''ve got it. s''all up in my head. You need to consturct a world with simple rules, a dynamic system, and let it find it''s own equilibrium, one which resembles our world due to ingenious definition of those fundamental rules. Otherwise it''s just a game - not the holy grail of gaming. And me, I''m in this for the holy grail. How about you? Want to join me? (snicker... I realise what I''m asking)

Thanks again for the links. I''ll just have to get this project underway on my own, once you see what I''m doing, then you''ll join me. heh. see you in a few years.

LF.

P.S.: IRC is the key, it has all the elements: social contract (chans), rank (ops), economy (warez my friends), a dynamic universe, war, assassination, love? hell... everything human.

That would be a great idea if you had over half a million that you wanted to spend licensing it. Epic makes money off of their engine (as well as the game), so in order to create a massive multiplayer game, you''d have to license their engine. Last I checked, this is quite expensive. The best bet, in my opinion, would be to try out the Jet3D engine because it''s free and complete. In order to get a full game up, you''ll need some experience, but you don''t want to pay anything for it.

Just my opinion, though.

You won''t get far even with a prefab engine unless your committed to go hardcore... Sitting around thinking about games is a hell of a lot different to making them.

My FIRST game is a 3d team \ class based multiplayer game. I went for a prefab engine only to cut my dev time. I chose wildtangent as it was the best hybrid indoor\outdoors engine I could find. So far little of my code actually interfaces with theirs. Most of my time goes in to creating flexible and scalable networking code.

Before I started I had written only a two hundred line file copying util in C. I think the most important thing is not only to love games but more to love coding. You''ll be doing that more than anything else....

I had a playable demo up within a week but to add multiplayer and do it well..... well i can say it was easter when i made the demo. I''m close now... It''s a long road ahead.