Shiva 3D :

Not so bad at all for that price
http://www.shivaengine.com/

For 200 bucks, it's a complete engine.
It has for little projects :
-some good advanced ligtening effects
-ready to use and apply standard shaders as easy as in Unity 3D
-some simple and ready to use obstacle avoidance system
-Ligths taken account with shaders already
-Terrain editor
-vegetation editor
-simple ready to use framework
- all mobile platforms publishing + web + some flash exporter now
-particle editor
-HUD editor

Some features link :

http://www.shivaengine.com/3d-game-engine.html

For that price if you can have IOS, Android, PC Browser , PC that's already a large target for your casual game

It's less known as Unity, but you don't have to spend 400$ just to a basic Iphone or Android mobile version.
I don't talk about Unity PRo that goes to 1500$, that price is lot more for serious success company ( or people gaining money for some sold game with Unity basic for example ! )

Really ofr the price , i find it's really good for 3D artists
that want to program gameplay only.
I mean for people that don't want to code custom tools or shaders, it's one great tool for a great price for 3D artists.

-----------------------------

For some casual turn based 3D RPG i have in plans, i will go with this engine and see what i can really achieve.

the only problem that it is LUA based, and it is converted to C++ before compilation. but maybe it is not a problem...

the browser only edition is free!

Version 2.0 should be around "soonish" which should add a couple of new features and overhauls which have been in development for quite a long time. I think it's a pretty good engine although it sort of has this focus on the mobile devices. Using LUA is a big advantage in my opinion as that really can be called "scripting" rather than having a proprietary language like Lite-C which is so close to standard languages that you're probably better off with learning C# or C++ which can be used elsewhere too. I also think that the fact that the Lua code gets wrapped or how you want to call it into C code is a good thing as things get more performant...

Personally Shiva's biggest downside is the performace. There's this "The Hunt" demo which either is awfully done or simply shows the lack of peformance tuning needed for good looking PC games. There are quite some situations in that demo where your fps will drop to a single digit value (one even being looking straight down and shooting the ground to your feet - especially with the automatic weapons the impact effect with all the smoke and stuff will even bring a very modern and powerful system to its knees for no obvious reason)...

Still - the bang for buck factor of Shiva is very high and anyone looking for a new engine should give this a try. It's going to be interesting to see what new stuff version 2.0 will bring along...

EDIT:
Oh and you have to like the editor. It's a quite unique approach which might look strange to many though...

There's this "The Hunt" demo which either is awfully done or simply shows the lack of peformance tuning needed for good looking PC games ...
My PC is not that incredible and the game really runs smooth without problem even on the game editor.

Not all 3D engines proposes some real game with complete HUD running, special effects, path finding, 10 or more ennemies at screen, good detailled 3D models and good level ?

And yes the engine, have already the pathfinding System editor and functions to call to manage that for you.

What i find is lacking is the terrain editor , there is no terrain editor tools, you have ot use some external tool
That's very bad when you have ot edit your terrain in real time to adjust for example house surrounding or ground height etc .....

So if i would go with it, it woulb be for non terrain based game. Or some game using instead some mesh as terrain made in some tool like Blender or other.

Another point that can be strong or weak is the framework.
It's great for people that are 3D artists than programmers, but it's not so easy to learn all stuff, all events you can find etc ...
But i think it's like Unity 3D you have to learn and try the basics on the editor, before making your own gameplay and game.
I have read some tutorials and i feel i need to test and make more tutorials before saying "i know the engine" !

I agree the editor is kinda special, but once you understand it, you don't loose yourself , and know when you have to manage new materials you go to material editor etc ...

The good feature is the object properties panels where you can adjust lot of stuff, and i like teh standard shader as normal map, Glow , lights working with shaders.

The performance i think can be good if you use cleaverly some LOD system and good distance to display objects etc ...
For small arcade games but candy looking it can do the job could it be RPG like FF10 style, turn based like King's BOunty , old Resident evil game style , 2.5D platform , shoot em up etc ...
And yes the buck factor is good , 200$ for such complete package could attract some bunch of 3D artists, or lonewolves more 3D artist oriented.
(Somewhat disappointing that there is no terrain editor ....)

It's not that it runs entirely bad. It's fine until you do certain things which will bring things to a crawl. Stonetrip also knows about this and also has said that some things weren't designed that efficiently. Still - some performance drops are quite "outstanding" considering what is shown / done...

BTW: The regular price is 400 $ - every christmas they offer a certain amount of purchases for a reduced price (so whoever wants to buy it might want to wait for such offers I he / she can)...

EDIT:
I mentioned the version 2.0. Here you can look up some of the coming features like DX11 support, custom shaders and much more...

http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/wiki/index.php?title=Release_Info

Just impressive, mobile is already supported, and PS3 , 360 are already done for the next version.

Well PC and mobile are the main platforms i target so i don't find interest.
Perhaps for indies making XLBA and PSN games ?
For shaders i just hope to find so easy to apply system as now.

Why not, they could really make a real terrain system for terrain based games.

okay I try out that Hunt demo, but I'm interested in terrain based games only...

Unity , Torque 3D , Esenthel engine, C4 engine, LeadWerks, Axis Engine etc ... have complete tools for terrain creation from scratch (terrain editing , multi texture, grass, vegetation ...)

If you look for terrain games can it be RPG or action games and some complete solution and tools Shiva 3D i think is not the solution for you in this case if you don't have some extern terrain editor.

I use mainly L3DT, its okay for 3DGS and Esenthel too, and probably for any engine that can import heightmap and textures
Another free tool (with hmp export) I use rarely is PnP Terrain Creator.
Unity pricing is not okay for me, free has no enough features, Pro is too expensive, but its terrain system is cool, and gave me a lot of ideas for the terrain manipulation part of my editor.
The other engines you mentioned are not for my taste or capabilities.

The problem is in game editor lot of times you need to adjust terrain height, repaint areas like paint grass ,ground texture after placing some house or structure : something you can't do with an external terrain editor.
So for me Shiva is not the tool for advanced terrain games.
Indeed if terrain is jsut in background or for some 2.5D game or a simple terrain to shoot ennemies it can be ok !
But for precise levels like advanced village , shiva terrain system is not the best or you could loose lot of time in workflow compared ot real time editing.

If you feel The Hunt demo performance is not so good, because Stonetrip stupidly turn the graphic quality to unnecessarily highest setting. In the game setting manual, try turn the setting to lower a bit, the setting screen nicely give you a real-time preview, you will found big improvement in performance and almost not obvious graphical difference.

I checked that demo with settings adjusted to my pc, and it run well. but that demo level is nothing special, relatively small area, a lot of waving grass, and only a few obstacles...

Iw opuld like to see lot of little 3DGS games as good and complete as this one

The graphics features are some standard and good ones !
The navMesh system is just great, no more worry about complicated path finding.
Shiva provides lot of simple to use already existing features to make your game.
And i find the scene pretty well done , with a good bunch of assets around the house, and with lot of animated with their AI, this is a complete game running pretty well

They could have put some large bigger terrain with zombies only, but i prefer a small level with lot of details and things and lot of zombies.

You can make a world if you use scetions of levels , like Zelda games indeed
Or you could make some Devil May Cry , Resident Evil game with good detailled scene without worrying.

Indeed it's indie engine and not to remake Skyrim with it, but i find it really great for that price ( All mobile , webplayer and PC publishing and more ...)

I just posted on the tools to says for more 3D artists than programmers: "Wow for that price, and all that mobile platforms !!"

For anyone interested in this engine: It seems Stonetrip is at the crossroads:
http://www.develop-online.net/news/43756/ShiVa-game-engine-maker-Stonetrip-in-liquidation

Actually after what they pulled off in terms of a wall of silence from the developers (even now there afaik isn't a real response on their forums) I hardly think Shiva will go anywhere. They might release what of their years behind schedule 2.0 release is finished but I don't think that'll give them much of a perspective. Sounds like the BeyondVirtual / GameCore story to me only that Stonetrip managed to acutally deliver something usable in the first place...