Just wanted to throw in that the term "next gen" more or less is pure marketing blurb.
Best is to stay at current gen.

i cant remember anyone here talking about "next generation" features at all.
since when are collision hulls, physics, shaders or word editors next gen?!
wer are complaining about basics here.

i agree gamestudio should be renamed. maybe to something like "almost a gamestudio".
i just doubt this would increase sales

speaking of sales:
all this indy games and simulatros mentioned can be created with gs of course. can be created with every single engine. but having to bypass every weakness of gs and having to write every single tool yourself will cut down your income dramaticly.
there is a huge difference if you need 4 months for a game or 14.

torque and other engines have realized that they need to provide tools to make game development possible today. gs hasnt yet.
all of them have weak points and drawbacks. but that doesnt make the gs problems dissapear.

having conitec creating small demos or games would open their eyes for a different part of gamedesign. jlc knows knows what he does code wise but games are not just code anymore.

chess

Only one example.



I agree that there are definately some problems - but they won´t prevent you from making a good game.

It´s always funny when people try to divide the world in black and white.

Speaking about basics - I don´t name it, but a highly praised indie engine can lock the framerate only since
a short time ago (~6 month).
Fps locking is, what I call basics - not a particle editor.




As I´ve prooven, a lot of serious developers are doing that. It´s nothing bad.
It fits their needs. They take ogre or another os-engine and get their work done.

Following your opinion, the farmer simulator can´t have much success.
However, both version (2008 & 2009) are very successful.

Yep

In fact that's to the lonewolf or team to see what indie engines exist.
See the problems, limitations, workflow and choose the more appropriate for them.
More appropriate in terms of coding (less or more), tools (less or more) , price, license etc ...

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and what exactly should the link be for?
i strongly support intensex ai btw. its a great tool!

nobody complains about the speed of the engine nor about the fact that you should understand basic leveldesign to create levels, basic coding to create good code and basic fillinwhatyoulike.

talking about basics: locking the fps is basic for coding. games need more then code.

if all you wanna create are some simple minigames or you want to spend ages precreating tools for some bigger project, gs aint a bad choice.
and if gs develops as fast as the last 3 years it will be fun to see people struggling to realize simple sudoku games with this engine pretty soon.

either do something for this engine or let it rest in peace.
the way the last 3 years went is unacceptable and wont work anymore.

and all of you know that this is the truth!

chus

Most times next gen is used it's meant to assume current gen. The phrase has transformed into something like Band-Aid, Scotch tape, and Kleenex. Those are brand names but most people use those words to describe the general item no matter who made it (I don't blow my nose with facial tissue I blow it with some Kleenex). Same with calling current games next gen. We've used it so many times and in so many situations that they are now synonymous. We need a new classification. :P

3DGS is a studio because (in THEORY) it contains all you need to make a game...modeler, world editor, script editor, language, etc. That's splitting hairs but it is what it is regardless of quality, features, etc.

"Most times next gen is used it's meant to assume current gen"
NO
Next gen meant = Normal mapping , bloom , dynamic shadows , i.e. , shaders, which today most all engines have , and are technically , next gen , even gamestudio.

Now back to the point , the thing is , some people , like myself , have been using gamestudio since A5 , actually from later stages of A4 for me, So , I've been messing around with gamestudio for a good deal of time already. And while I've always LOVED gamestudio , and praised it above all other engines , I'm now looking at engines a bit more seriously , and am thoroughly impressed by how much Torque is maturing , and by how feature rich Unity is , while being very disappointed at gamestudio's VERY SLOW progress. Truly gamestudio is focusing more and more on the programing side , while forgetting they have always catered to the NON PROGRAMMERS. Lite C is just a pile of garbage, wdl , then c script , then lite c , what's coming for A8 , lite C ++ ? Who cares about that ? If I cared about that why would I even consider using gamestudio ?

To the people here saying features don't really matter, are you all retarded ?
Why do you think people pay close to a MILLION DOLLARS for engines like Unreal Engine 3 ? Why not hire a programmer to just program their engines from scratch ? Now how about this , why don't they themselves program them instead ? It's a retarded argument. Yes , you can create almost anything with gamestudio , but as technology advances , this other engines are jumping in and making their engines as advanced as possible while maintaining good user friendly interface.

Have you all seen the Cry engine 2 in action ? One of the things the developers are very proud of is their real time deverlopment environment , with the ability to manipulate and edit everything in game and getting a real time result. Do you think if this wasn't important , and a great tool for the art developers , they would be so proud of it ?

Tools are IMPORTANT , gamestudio IS a tool itself. It is what we are buying , a tool to create games , that handles as much of the core programming as possible, kinda like windows handles DOS for us , I'm sure you all would argue that using DOS gives you more flexibility ? LOL. Gamestudio WAS the #1 indie game engine , with wdl being one of it's biggest advantages over torque.
Now , Torque and Unity are the top 2 , and I would say gamestudio is prolly around #3 , which still isn't bad , but , I can honestly say , I still have A6 , and don't plan on ever upgrading to A7 , or A8 (unless A8 actually shows improvement , which I HIGHLY doubt), but as soon as I get enough money you can be sure I'm buying Torque 3D AND Unity.

Gamestudio = toy studio
Torque and Unity = professional game development studios

@Why_Do_I_Die:
Yes i agree a lot.
And you don't have 5 years to create a game , technology is speeding up and tools also.

Game Studio was Studio, but no more Studio.
Each Beta is lot of programming functions for coders to play with.
Lite C is for Coders, and i was very surprised to find full code in Lite-C for coders to play with and re invent the whell !
What i would do about all that code like in the old old days of the 3D :
By coding 50 lines : craete a turning 3D face : what hell will i do with that ??
i just want a good world editor and today tools.

3DGS is becoming each beta lot more programming tool.

But that's OK !
I can do some cool things with it, even if i can do lot more more easily ones in Unity ;
i can do something with A7.

That's the point also !
Lot of us are not interested in coding or palying code but make a game at good speed.
A7 is not the best for 3D artists, but can be great for coders with some 3D talent.

I'm not sure Torque 3D would not have problems with compilation
that i hear a lot or if you can program something easily other else than their FPS templates.

A7 is A7 becoming lot more coder oriented each step,
that's IT'S WAY , people ask lot more for code than panels or tools.
So it's HIS OWN WAY to evolve to a more CODING TOOL approach.

I also know A7 don't have lot of workflow features Unity have,
but i accept that, it's OK.
I like also A7 , i steer with it also.

I just hope A8 to become more like Professionnal tools like Unreal 2 (or 3) engine, Far Cry 2,Unity engine etc ... not as professionnal; but like them , with an all in one world editor (world, water,physics,terrain, complete object properties etc ...

Long life to CODERS and to A7

A8 also should do away with legacies like fixed point variables. They suck! CPUs have fast floating point units nowadys. Because of the bad precision of fixed point variables we can't just use 1 unit = 1 meter which would be much more intuitive.