I see why this engine died.

So, I've spent the last couple days trying to get my bearings on how to do something - *anything* - productive with this engine. It's not possible. Every manual, tutorial or other form of instruction I find is based on out-dated versions of the engine. YT videos? Well, what I could find in English aren't helpful at all, either.

I tried setting up a super basic level earlier, to find that neither the sky, nor the water, worked as expected. I learned it's because - at some point - those technologies were removed as far back as A6. Then why are they still in the engine/editor in A8?

I learned that instead of those WAD textures, I now have to use Materials. I tried looking up how to setup Materials. Couldn't find anything, except references to editing text files. If material creation in this engine is based entirely on editing text files, then.. Wow, is pretty much all I can say.

I decided to open up some demo projects to poke around and see what I could learn. Downloaded Warehouse and a couple others. None of them open. Worse, the editors don't even recognize them. Tried to open one in GED, didn't recognize any of the files. Tried to open one in WED, wouldn't recognize the files. Further, why do I have to go online and search for the download links for these sample projects? Why aren't they included in the download? Why would the included Manual instruct you to open a demo file that isn't actually included in the installation?

And on and on and on. I've not had a positive experience with anything I've attempted to do. Not one. Nothing but walls and roadblocks.

I only bought the Extra version, and I'm at least grateful for that. Would hate to have wasted $200 for the other version.

If this is the way Conitec "supports" this engine anymore, then it's no wonder it's dead.

The road that leads to the Knowledge is paved by blocks.
OK, just joking. Maybie you should try another way to reach your goals?

I do not know what engine you tried, but if it was Gamestudio, you can find the manual and all tutorials in your Gamestudio folder and on the download page. All 100% up to date with the latest version. If you don't know what to do with a game engine, just start with the lite-C tutorial. But if you then still make no progress, maybe a different goal than doing games is indeed better.

I've been using this engine for almost two decades and have released several games with it.

I started just before the time A6 came out. Everything worked back then, but I start all my projects with a blank script right now, so I'm not sure how the tutorial levels are working.

Materials, and pretty much every other thing in this game requires editing a text file. That's called scripting. If you do not like, or are unwilling to learn scripting, then I would agree that this is not the tool for you.

If you're interested, I would be willing to help you set up a basic level. I do think this is a great game engine, even after trying Unity, Gamemaker and others, it offers a kind of direct approach that the others do not have.

I must to agree with Dooley, the approach is different.
Maybe this is one of the things why I like the tool, the approach.

You are comparing basically an 10 year old engine with modern tools.

I just with they open sourced it already for nostalgia's sake. scrap the non-opensourceable parts(Lite-c), and let it be free(free as in freedom)

I still love it. From A3 to now. As long as things are working...a great hobby.
But it was a hard fight to get into thats for sure. Now i wish i solved some "secrets" earlier.
Sure the tools are a "bit" outdated. But iam impressed those days what you still can get out of this old (tiny) engine.
I cant say a word about source-prefabs. Only looked into stuff like Knights on Wheels etc. which worked great.

Maybe theres only loving or hating acknex, nothing in between.


moved to Rants section.

+1 better too late then never.

Even though A8's last Update is from 2016, and based on DX9, the Engine still provides as a good
tool for making game as a hobbiest. Sometimes things are unnecessary hard, but that is something
I somehow learned to live with.

You can have a more modern workflow when programming with Visual Studio Code instead of the SED.

Once again, it's not perfect and the time will come when I will switch over to another game engine,
except A9 comes out...

But for now, Gamestudio is alright. If you know how to use Gamestudio (they are several tutorials online, even in english)
you can still do impressive things with it.

you have to set priorities and know which game you want to develop! And I think GS still delivers everything that is important as an indie developer,
otherwise I can only underline the contribution from freezernew

Hi Preypacer,

I started with the motor in the A5 version and I have to say that it is simply great for people who mainly want to be programmers.
But that is also the problem at the same time. You have to grasp the programming code, i.e. master a programming language.

You mustn't compare this engine to Unreal or Unity.. These primarily rely on visual design, but 3d Gamestudio is primarily a script / code-based design engine.
for one it's an advantage, for the other it's a disadvantage. Of course you have to be able to program in Unreal or Unity in the end to design games, but the connection between the GUI and the Motor Code is more directly linked.

At 3d Gamestudio you only have the blank SED editor at first. If you don't know what you have to or want to do here, it is of course difficult to develop a game with it. As @Dooley wrote, the approach is simply totally different and very directly.

So here is the first question to ask yourself. what do you like are you the coder or the designer.
If you are more of a designer and want to work visually, 3d Gamestudio is not for you and you should look for a different engine.
But if you are a real scripting pure code writer, then 3D Gemstudio is for you :-D

3D Gamestudio is a software package collection. The 3dGS tools like WED, GED and MED unfortunately only support programs. In Fahl von MED, any other modern 3D modeling tool is better, but you will need it to convert models to MDL format as 3dGS cannot work directly with FBX or other models. In theory, you don't need a single tool from 3dGS to program a game, just acknex.exe (Engine) itself.

If 3d Gamestudio can directly use FBX models in the A9 version (hopefully the upcoming version), this will in my opinion be enough to actively play in the Motor League of the greats again.

@Preypacer
If you are still interested in 3dGS you can ask any of us about help and I think everyone will be happy to help.
Search also in YouTube for 3D Gamestudio or 3dGS and you will surely find something useful in English.

If you haven't worked with 3d Gamestudio at all, take a look at my youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlqktPOyGp8&list=PLZUR_qMkRMVhhV2R_mpImi_vMhw1Dsqo5
It's only in German, unfortunately, but you can use YouTube's automatic subtitle translation to understand at least a little what I'm saying.
My Videos are for total 3dGS beginners and therefore slow enough to be able to understand them all without knowing the German language :-)

I myself am unfortunately not the mega programmer and also not the 3dGS freak, but that is simply because I have too little time for it.

I apologize for my English because I don't speak the language very well
cu Roman

https://www.youtube.com/vufDummies

The engine is definitely dead if there is no plan for A9. I think at lease provide 64-bit support.