I had to watch some youtube tutorials ot understand the workflow and what menus and steps to do :
-Drag and drop Blender or Obj file in the Model editor panel of esenthel
-Assign a material
- Choose a physic body or use the mesh as collision etc ...
- Auto make the normal map
- Choose a shader and adjust parameters for the material
- Import in the world editor with the Object menu and use "Insert" key to insert it

But Once you do it one or two times, that's really logic and simple workflow to follow ; and no coding required at all

Here is my imported model on the scene :


Next test : Custom animated model import !
this is the final step that will tell me if i can really use Essenthel with my own custom 3D art or not ?

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License :
Until you don't sell anything, it's really free to use, you don't have to pay.
Once you pay the "Personal license" for 150$ , you can sell a title and publish on Android and Apple !
that's really a big great deal i find specially with all advanced stuff in it

I 'm really thinking of using it to make some small turn based RPG game to test all i can do and what i can't do with it for the style of game i have in mind !

animated models are stored as separate mesh, skeleton, animation (using the same skeleton), texture, and material files, plus a physics body needed to be created, but there are easy video tutorials.
but all of these were generated automatically for me when I imported an animated ms3d model (except physics body which is one click).
really simple, and the only feature limitations is that no custom shaders can be created. and for 150 USD you get 2 complete game source code with MMO client/server codes.
and definitely good for a couple of purposes

For shaders it has already lot lot of good and standard for most game without needing to write your own !
(and i never programmed shaders and don't want to do it , so it's ok)

Some indie mmo using kinect made with esenthel :
indie mmo
It shows, multiplayer or coop games can be done with it, and it can handle good complex scenes without frame rate problems.

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Ok for FBX, i just loaded in BLender 2.62 , a animated model i made under Blender 2.49 , then exported to FBX , than i dragged it on Esenthel editor and i could see the animation on the animation panel

I edited the textures, materials, added a capsule collider and adjusted it in some clikcs, preview the animations with the cursor on lower time bar.
All is perfect.

But when i went on code : all is on predefined default animations.It's lot of code, and no tutorial on how easily control an animated character ?
Im' not sure it can be done or done easily as some other 3D engines using simple functions calls ?

the coding is not so straightforward like Lite-C, it is practical to check the C++ tutorials, and meanwhile look into the header browser too, what belongs to which class... because there is no reference list of functions or similar. but it has a certain logic.
there is also a built in script editor using an own format, what I have not really checked.

Yes , animation don't seem trivial by code at all !
Why don't the author make some hight level calls like :
character.animate("walk", 10,20,100) for example ?

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Coming to 3DGS one example of something that makes me very unhappy and makes me loose all my time



Working with Esenthel editor is too much better indeed in all areas aven to simply choose and apply shaders or apply and adjust a capsule physic for some character etc ... etc ...

But each engine has it own weak points, and with Esenthel i just can't look at all that page of code to just code some
basic character animations

@ratchet, it should be my.material=mtl_bump; not fx_bump

@Painkiller :
Thanks , in fact i tried your version , the only thing is that the include was not in the good file
It compiles and launch , bu i don't see the normal effect, even dynamic light only affects don't show any normal map effect.

I have an old example where i succeeded with normal map, i'll have to try to find it , it is hidden somewhere in some folder ?
I really need this normal map/specular working with 3DGS also.
I hope 3DGS to really quickly improve the workflow for shaders, it should be priority 1 for any one to use models with normal maps ,specular, glow, reflective , at least these very basic ones quickly from a menu instead of coding !
(Add the header for shaders and add material code)

I've just tried importing terrain from L3DT to Esenthel, and it is really simple (import a heightmap image just like in MED). Covering it with tiled textures is also fine (materials should be made first from texture images if new ones are to be used), but have to be careful not to set, but blend them onto existing texture. Blending is based on L3DT texture alpha images (similarly to 3DGS terraintex.fx ffe). Blending strength can be fine tuned. Final tweakings and modifications are much easier than in MED/WED/GED/SED.

Blending strength can be fine tuned. Final tweakings and modifications are much easier than in MED/WED/GED/SED.

Indeed, you can't compare the workflow or the terrain features !

But if i want to use some other engine for a terrain base game, Unity come first, simply because character animation is too much complicatd to program in Esenthel without hight level stuff
Unity keep the scripting very easy for animations, and it seems lot more easy indeed than Esenthel C++ !

You should test the character animation part and make your own character and animations controller
Than we'll talk about it !
But perhaps you don't plan a game using characters with Esenthel ? (Portal, Monkey ball and other ball platform game style, space ship game ) ??

I know and like the features of Unitiy, but its pricing is not okay for me. I would need the full version, but I cannot buy that, similarly to 3DGS Pro. Esenthel offers a cheaper solution with full graphics feature set. I love Lite-C, and I like Unity-Script too (both are easy and logic for me), I should learn a lot to use Esenthel with its C++ scripting environment.
I need character animation for sure, so I make some trials. If it is too messy, I will not use Esenthel. Then I will simply upgrade to 3DGS Commercial instead of buying Esenthel Indie (approx. the same price, and I'm more or less familiar with 3DGS workflow).