Ok, I played around with WinterMute for a couple of hours. While it seems like
an interesting 2.5D engine, the documentation is just to poor to really getting started
with it. To make things worse, the few games I looked at and that are using this engine
didn't work all that well. If you need ctrl-alt-del to exit a game, that's bad..

I think I'll stick with GS to develope my game for now. I'm sure that I can figure out how to
make a good looking 2.5D game with it.
What does it take? Slapping a pre-rendered 2D image on a ground plane and have
a 3D character move around on it, aided by hidden geometry? That can't be that hard!

Or is it..

Be sure to read my last post for one method of creating this type of game in 3DGS. What you mentioned is the easy part. The "walk behind" areas are the tedious part. It's all covered in the thread I linked to above.

Back to Wintermute...

You don't have to ctrl-alt-del to exit. If that is what you had to do, then that's the fault of the developer of the games you tried and not the engine. Most games require you to press Esc which is the standard and pick the Exit button. Like any engine, the user demos vary from garbage to stellar. The engine has a scripting language, so if you can think it up, you can probably pull it off via scripting. However, the templates that come with it are already setup and mimic you typical traditional adv UI. There's not much you really need to do beyond personalizing it for your title.

Check out Project Joe. It's a canceled project, and full 2D, but it's the "flagship" title made with WME. It's a stellar title and showcases the engine nicely.

Here's a link to the demo of Project Joe:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_7287.shtml

Also, I think the documentation is top notch, and the engine has a solid gold reputation in the adv. development field. If you have any technical questions, the developer will answer them personally on or off the forum. Also, the editors are going to be overhauled eventually to make them a bit more modern, however I think they're more than adequate as is. At least the package includes editors...a lot of the adv engines don't.


Here are a few more WME games or tech demos to check out:

01. Until I'm Gone: http://www.farawaystudios.com/

One of the best looking 2.5D games made with it. It's not finished, but the screenshots speak for themselves. This is AAA+ quality.

02. Restless: http://www.restlessgame.com/

Another 2.5D game. What's scary is that those prerendered looking backgrounds are actually hand drawn/painted.

03. Fairy tales about Toshechka and Boshechka: http://www.dtf.ru/project/gallery.php?id=595

This is 2D and Russian and beautiful

04. Chess-Worlds: http://www.schach-welten.de/

My personal favorite. It will also be 2.5D, but there is no info on characters, yet. Check out the section discussing how they do the backgrounds. The site takes a bit to figure out but it isn't too much trouble. Be sure to download at least the first two tech demos available in their news section. There's no interaction beyond clicking some menu options, but it showcases the awesome lighting effects they're using. The 3rd one is a bit different and a daytime exterior, but those first two are great. Here are the direct d/l links to them:

Demo 1: http://www.schach-welten.de/download/techdemo_1.zip
Demo 2: http://www.schach-welten.de/download/techdemo_2.zip

In regards to character creations, it's no different than what you'd do with 3DGS. I wouldn't expect the WME manual to offer any information on art creation. It's purpose is to address engine functions and maybe a quickstart if you're lucky.

If it's 2D, you can draw out your animation frames on paper and scan them in and color them in a paint program (or color them by hand and then scan), or you can create it all in software with a paint program or an animation package. You assemble the individual animation frames into an animated character in the WME editor called SpriteEdit.

For a 3D character, you create it in a modeling application and export to the X format which is the one the WME uses. The key is to find a program that exports to a version of X that the engine can open. There have been some problems with compatibility depending on what you use. There's an entire section in the WME manual that covers 3D characters and WME 3D functions and usage.

All of this, as well as info on other engine functions and editors, is covered in great detail in the WME manual. What you're wanting (I'm guessing) are character creation tutorials. That has nothing to do with a technical manual. You can use Google for that or even search this forum.

A free modeling program is Blender, and there's a free Blender plugin on the WME forum (scripts sections and I believe it is a sticky/pinned thread) that will export your hidden 3D geometry, camera(s), lights, and pathfinding waypoints (for 2.5D games) to a version of 3DS format that the engine can read (hidden geometry and other 3D specific info is also covered in the 3D section of the manual mentioned above). Cinema4D's 3DS export can also be opened by the engine (most model programs' 3DS export don't support all the elements required by WME, namely cameras and lights). A good animation program for 3D models that also has a sprite creator is fragMotion ( http://www.fragmosoft.com/ ). You could export individual frames from a 3D character animation to 2D files and assemble them in SpriteEdit if you were making a 2D game. fragMotion also exports to 3DGS MDL formats, so it can be used with it as well.