stephan360 Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Hello, i am fairly new to the whole game development and previously made the mistake of purchasing a sunburn 2.0 engine. there is nothing wrong with that particular engine it just is pretty complex and not new user friendly. Coding is minimal i have purchased a few books of C#, C++ and XNA. Also starting a intro to computer science in august which should introduce me to some basics. Anyways i just have a few questions before i purchase a game engine again i dont want to purchase something that will just end up being another desktop icon i dont know how to use. I wanna start out by saying I am very impressed with this community and how much everyone participates to improve Leadwerks. I must say it is very refreshing to have tutorials and tons of discussion boards that have answered many of my questions and will continue to help me. My questions are, If i have an Indie Game developement subscription through microsoft and i code my game in c# or XNA is there anything from stopping me from publishing through Indie Arcade or XBLA? I have seen a few topics that leadwerks is working on console portability? I also read a topic where it is not possible due to not having a developers licensed through Microsoft but i am curious if that is only for a shippable hard disk (cd game to place in console). Or can i still develop downloadable Indie games and publish to xbox live? My second question is about animation, character rigging and motion capture. I see that leadwerks has a built in animation studio. Does this animation suite also provide rigging of the characters? This seems like a dumb question to ask but i also wanted a opinion on project Messiah. I see it is almost at another price raise and its auto rigging is very appealing to someone who is also new to animation. http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/index.html Motion capture, i know this is not the same as animation but is it? Ok so that was confusing but what i really meant is in a video game when you program your game character for different stances, can that be done through animation or is it motion capture? Lets say my guy is programmed when i hit w on the keyboard he lays down in the prone position. Also does anyone have any experience with the kinect motion capture software from ipi. This seems pretty appealing since most major studios charge thousands of dollars per seconds of motion capture, and i already own a xbox360 and kinect sensor. http://www.ipisoft.com/products.php As far as i can tell 3D-coat is an excellent modeling program. I have tried Zbrush which was unique but wasnt as user friendly as coat. at least for me. Also i cant afford any of the max,maya except for student additions i qualify but cant use for commercial games. Any other 3d applications i should look into (not blender) ? Also 3d coat has a plug in for messiah very flawless to export rig and animate. And i guess my last question would to be if someone could please post all of the file types that leadwerks supports as far as importing and exporting audio, animation, motion capture,sound,meshes? ect. If there are any paid training available can you link me to where i can find it? What i mean is if there are any videos for purchase on using leadwerks,3dworld studio ect. Thank you very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canardia Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I have many engines, and I have even bought engines after I had Leadwerks (for special needs, like shadows on Android, which not even Unity3D can do), but Leadwerks is very different than other engines. Leadwerks is completely free of any restrictions in game and art design, while most other engines are usually limited with a too heavy GUI. Also the last engine I bought has that problem. You can't do freely what you want, but you have to follow the restrictions of the engine design, although the engine itself could probably be able to do what you want, but the engine GUI is what it is, limited. And when you try to program freely, you encounter lots of bugs in those other engines, because they are not tested and designed to be used freely. Exceptional in Leadwerks engine is also that the freedom of game design does not cause more difficulty in programming. That is so, because Leadwerks was developed after the syntax of the super easy Blitz3D engine, which still amazes me today (I played a little game which someone made in Blitz3D today, very short and simple code), but unfortunately it is very outdated, and supports only DirectX 7. Now the new upcoming Leadwerks 3.0 has a new feature, which allows it to act like Blitz3D 2.0, a very low-end capable engine, which works on every toaster and even Intel GMA chips. One of the biggest reasons why I never stop using Leadwerks, is the community. It's a very friendly and creative community, and everyone is offering free tools, tutorials, assets and code for everyone. No other engine community I've seen has done that. Everyone is someone in this community. Artists are rare and very well served in this community also. If you need some code example, you get it guaranteed almost immediately and for free, especially if you offer to do some little 3D model as thanks But many would also accept money if you need contracted support, even Josh. Or especially him, and other people should not take that opportunity unless Josh is too busy with other things Quote ■ Ryzen 9 ■ RX 6800M ■ 16GB ■ XF8 ■ Windows 11 ■ ■ Ultra ■ LE 2.5 ■ 3DWS 5.6 ■ Reaper ■ C/C++ ■ C# ■ Fortran 2008 ■ Story ■ ■ Homepage: https://canardia.com ■ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 If i have an Indie Game developement subscription through microsoft and i code my game in c# or XNA is there anything from stopping me from publishing through Indie Arcade or XBLA? I have seen a few topics that leadwerks is working on console portability? I also read a topic where it is not possible due to not having a developers licensed through Microsoft but i am curious if that is only for a shippable hard disk (cd game to place in console). Or can i still develop downloadable Indie games and publish to xbox live? Leadwerks Engine 3 is being coded in C++. As far as I know it is impossible for Leadwerks Engine to run on XBLA because they do not support C++ programing. Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephan360 Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Leadwerks Engine 3 is being coded in C++. As far as I know it is impossible for Leadwerks Engine to run on XBLA because they do not support C++ programing. Ok so with xbox out of the question and engine 3.0 being written in C++, what will be my most likely targeted platform? Or if i am shooting to create a commercial game what are my options for sales only computer Pc & mac? Where are most of the community publishing their creations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 LE3 will initially support Windows, OSX, and iOS (iPhone and iPad). Android support is planned on following this. Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty Alien Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Ok so with xbox out of the question and engine 3.0 being written in C++, what will be my most likely targeted platform? Or if i am shooting to create a commercial game what are my options for sales only computer Pc & mac? Where are most of the community publishing their creations? ..if you ever reach stage that you are about to hit consoles and need to get game out on console, relatively quick, and considering that you using LE2, PM me and ill back you up.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L B Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Where are most of the community publishing their creations? Haha, question everyone here dreaded, heh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephan360 Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Thanks for all of the replies. Naughty alien- i will keep you in mind Lazlo- i am new here do you mind explaining your comment in more detail on why everyone is dreading my question? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent Taylor Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Leadwerks Engine 3 is being coded in C++. As far as I know it is impossible for Leadwerks Engine to run on XBLA because they do not support C++ programing. Incorrect. XBLA supports C++ just fine. Don't confuse the Xbox Live Arcade with the Xbox Indie Arcade. The Indie arcade is open to anyone as long as you are using C# with XNA. XBLA does not have these restrictions. Quote There are three types of people in this world. People who make things happen. People who watch things happen. People who ask, "What happened?" Let's make things happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel Perfect Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Lazlo- i am new here do you mind explaining your comment in more detail on why everyone is dreading my question? I suspect he is referring to the fact that whilst many people have demoed game play of various types in Leadwerks no one has yet finished and published a full game. It certainly doesn't fill me with dread nor do I think it's a bad reflection on Leadwerks or its community; but more a fact that this is still a relatively new engine and has tended to attract a higher percentage of artists than programmers maybe due to the way it excels on the graphics front. It takes some programming capability to develop AI, good game flow logic, advanced animation control and path finding solutions which are the main factors holding back most peoples realisation of any thing but the simplest of games. You need good programming capability as part of your team to compliment the artists which is of course true of any engine. Imho, Leadwerks 2 is a very capable game engine API, certainly the nicest I have ever used, and I wouldn't let the current lack of a published game deter you in any way. It also has a very open and honest community, hence we can openly discuss issues such as this! Quote Intel Core i5 2.66 GHz, Asus P7P55D, 8Gb DDR3 RAM, GTX460 1Gb DDR5, Windows 7 (x64), LE Editor, GMax, 3DWS, UU3D Pro, Texture Maker Pro, Shader Map Pro. Development language: C/C++ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty Alien Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 @Stephan 360 Leadwerks is just fine..i highly recommend it..as for games, I have 2 games done with it (completed) and not published yet (idiotic paperwork i never ever thought ill came across, requested by publisher)...im sure some other folks crunching up something too, so dont be disappointed with lack of games right now..its relatively young system, but very capable if used properly.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephan360 Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Thanks for everyones responses and i am in no way discouraged that leadwerks doesnt have a page full of games published. Its just a matter of time. Im purchasing it when i wake up from may nap i worked grave yard last night so a wee bit sleepy. Thanks again and i look forward to chatting with you in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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