My development team is soon to commence work on an undisclosed project... I was wondering what good 3rd person engines are out there that can handle dynamic lighting, vibrant colors, etc. etc? It doesn't necessary have to be a 3rd person engine (it could be 1st and we can change the camera codes to support 3rd). Or possibly do you guys think it would be better to design an engine from scratch? Any input would be appreciated! -Mitch

the unreal engine supports both 1st and 3rd person.

IIRC so does Ogre.

The Unreal engine was actually my first choice BUT we are developing a commercial game (based after a popular underground license) and the licensing cost for the engine are way over the funds we have available to us... Right now we are actually thinking about developing our own engine so we can fulfill our vision to the upper most extent. Any more input?

Also we need a powerful engine (up there with the likes of Unreal tech.). Orge is a fairly decent engine from what I've expereinced but it does not offer the capabilites we are looking for.

Ask yourself these questions:

What does it not have that you need?
Why do you need those?
What would happen if you dropped those requirements?

Now, when you ask these questions, you'll probably need to do a bit of research. Most especially for the first question (you'll need to see what others have done, and you'll need to read all the documentation). You will also need to be completely honest with yourself. Don't sugar-coat your answers, don't embellish them. You may be answering them for yourself only, but lying to yourself is worse than lying to others. (Wow, my personal life CAN relate to work!)

It may turn out that what you really want to do doesn't need what OGRE is missing, after all. Or what Crystal Space is missing. Or any other free or cheap engine. And if there isn't one that has what you need, then you'll just have to work from scratch.