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What is the best alternative to Autodesk Maya?
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Blender
All
25
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Blender is licensed under the GPL. Some Blender modules such as the Cycles rendering engine are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
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Top
Con
Too many possibilities, no unified workflow
The operations are not optimized enough for specific tasks.
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Pro
Wide import and export format support
Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers.
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Top
Con
The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics
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Pro
Has a powerful rendering engine
Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time!
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Con
Difficult learning curve
Blender has a history of being unintuitive, but the 2.8 overhaul made the program far easier for beginners to pick up, and changes continue to be made to further improve the experience. However, there is still a learning curve.
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Pro
Python extensibility
Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks.
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Con
Not good for Industrial Design because it uses average vertex normals
You can not create a hard surface with a radius continuity degree along a surface using a specific radius value.
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Pro
Powerful animation suite
Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions.
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Con
Vertex normal issues on edges after boolean operations.
After creating a simple boolean operation the vertex normals are broken. A lot of work to fix the issue and you loos surface continuity.
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Pro
Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling
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Top
Con
Bad vertex normal after boolean operations
Does not handle well polygon intersections. And need tweaking by hand points or adding average vertex normals via modifiers.
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Pro
Regular release schedule
Releases are made every ~3 months.
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Top
Con
Does not handle NURBs
Is not capable of real hard surface for industrial design because is not able to reproduce surface continuity degree as a NURBs does and average vertex normal destroy surface radius.
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Pro
Sculpting and 3D painting features
Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it.
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Con
Poor particle system
The Blender particle system can at times be a little limiting and finicky (and buggy) to get working. Even if it can get most straight forward jobs done, it is far from the most advanced system, and could benefit largely from advancements.
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Pro
Includes video editing & compositing tools
Blender's node-based compositor has comprehensive video sequencing and post-processing features.
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Pro
Node based modeling support
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Pro
Keyboard shortcuts
Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse.
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Pro
Very useful for a freelancer
It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work.
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Top
Pro
Has a large community
There's a huge community to help you get started immediately.
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Pro
Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic
The trick with Blender is to get used to its usage philosophy, as it keeps consistent through all the application. Once you get it, every feature or addition is learnt naturally, almost effortlessly.
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Pro
Very versatile
You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Because modeling, sculpting, composting, video editing etc can all be done in blender.
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Pro
Generative geometry using nodes
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD
Technology:
C, Python
3D:
Yes
2D:
Yes (as of 2.8)
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Experiences
Free
663
95
Lightwave 3D
All
14
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Support for Python scripting
In addition to Lscript, Lightwave supports Python.
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Top
Con
Two applications: one for modelling and another for layout
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Top
Pro
Been around for years, and is still capable of good animations, and great renders.
The 3DS MAX version 5 days. So Lightwave will always hold a special place for me. It was ahead of the game back in the day, with its renderer. And was widely used for films, among other things. Though it hasn't advanced much in the modeling section, and UI over the years. You can still make some really nice things in it, and get some highly realistic results.
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Top
Con
Not beginner-friendly
Lightwave has mediocre tutorials and a complex multi-application workflow.
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Top
Pro
Powerful animation tools
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Top
Pro
Great value for the price
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Top
Pro
A perfect tool for freelancers
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Top
Pro
Powerful nodes shaders
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Pro
Plays well with other software
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Pro
Beginner friendly with a very smooth learning curve
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Pro
Very stable
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Pro
Great community support
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Pro
Production proven
Used heavily in famous Hollywood movies, TV shows, commercials and video games.
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Pro
Designed for individual artists
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Experiences
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25
2
Cinema 4D
All
9
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Easy to learn
Cinema 4D is heralded for its approachability. New users are not hindered by lack of familiarity with similar tools.
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Top
Con
Expensive
Starts at $995.00 with the complete version costing $3,695.00.
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Top
Pro
Clean UI
Customizable floating palettes and configurable view panels let screen space be dedicated to the artwork, not the interface.
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Top
Con
Doesn't make true Booleans like most other 3D Softwares.
It works in a parent and child structure, so when you subtract one object, from another, it remains there invisible, and can be moved around.
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Top
Pro
Great modeling and animation Software.
It's super easy to learn, and there are lots of tutorials online. What really ticks me off, is that it's always rated below Blender, by Blender fanboys. Sure Blender's UI is way better now, after it's 2.8 release but not better than C4D's. Blender is open source, and has really good 3rd party plugins, and is always being updated which is great.. But it's not better than C4D. Just because Blender is "FREE" doesn't make it a better Software, while again I repeat it is a good Software. C4D is also capable of the same things, and possibly even more. C4d is really underrated. And I don't understand why there wasn't a "YES" under the (3D) section on the list for C4D.
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Pro
Rendering
Is simple for making good rendering
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Top
Pro
Includes great tools for animation and motion graphics
Mograph is a set of tools in C4d that speeds up the process of making animations and motion graphics.
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Top
Pro
Useful content browser
Cinema 4D comes fully-loaded with an extensive library of preset objects, materials and scenes that make it easy to get started with your 3D project. Use this outstanding resource to quickly develop concepts without spending time modeling (or wasting money buying models), or dissect complete scenes created by top C4D artists to develop your own skills. These highly curated libraries are custom-tailored to specific markets, with a wide variety of assets including models, materials and customizable presets.
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Top
Pro
Sketch & toon
Very flexible toon rendering solution helps you to create amazing 2D cartoon style renders.
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Experiences
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40
9
Godot
All
45
Experiences
Pros
30
Cons
14
Specs
Top
Pro
Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks
Godot has a mature 2D engine with many features used by modern 2D games.
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Con
Primarily supports own language (GD Script)
Although C# is also supported by Godot, it is only supported by a separate version, and Mono must be downloaded separately. While GDScript is very accessible, and if you know Python you'll pick it up fast, having to learn a new language to fully make use of the platform can be a bit discouraging. And for those learning to code as well as learning Godot for the first time, many would rather learn a language they can 'take with them' when they explore other platforms in the future.
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Pro
Lightweight
The executable is portable and less than 40 MB in size.
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Top
Con
C++ Engine API not very friendly
The base C++ code from Godot is not documented, it's hard to set it up, to compile and hard to extend, it could use better programming standards.
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Pro
Under constant development
This engine barely released one year ago has more than 1000 forks on github and about 100 developers. Not only that just a bit of browsing trough issues you will quickly find out the dev community loves new esp free technology and does not shy away from completely rewriting parts of the engine. The audio engine is being completely rewritten to use threads and so forth.
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Top
Con
Annoying minor bugs
Minor bugs can go unaddressed for some time, due to it being a free program.
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Top
Pro
User friendly UI for all your team
Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
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Top
Con
GDScript is quite immature language
GDScript is copy of python and the real problem is, it is not python. Which means it cannot have all the power and new features that is available in Python or other programming language. It does have some good features but it is not good enough for what you need if you want to deep dive into game development. You can just feel that by the godot team is solving that matter by supporting mono version. Because C# is popular in other game engine and it contains all the new features that is available from new programming language. If i give you very simple example for why GDScript is immature, GDScript does not support asynchronous programming. Which is very efficient for performance of your game. You may mention about multi-threading because asynchronous programming is one way of multi-threading. However If you try that in Godot, you cannot multi-threading where you want to implement asynchronous system. For example, Autoload (Fake singleton) where you want to manage data in real time. Autoload is not real singleton. It is not a separated thread that manage data. Therefore everything is synchronous in autoload. Even though you create new thread from Autoload script, your game will just stop and wait for your thread to finish its task...
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Top
Pro
Editor and runtime are fully cross-platform
You can run Godot on all 3 major operating systems (Windows/Mac/Linux) and build your game to all available platforms from each without any platform-specific work needed. All platforms including Linux are supported first class.
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Top
Con
Godot 3/4 split
The recent release of Godot 4 brings new features, but isn't yet fully documented, and performance may not be as optimized.
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Pro
Free and open source
Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from here, and compile the engine themselves.
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Top
Con
No console targets
Given that you can target both desktops and consoles with the same code base in other engines, the lack of support for consoles in Godot is pretty hard to get past if targeting desktops for a game. But asking for an open-source engine to target consoles is probably too much to ask. But it would be interesting to see some legacy consoles targeted even if current ones cannot be.
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Top
Pro
The list of supported languages is growing
Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
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Top
Con
It's hard to learn
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Top
Pro
Can be deployed to multiple platforms
Deploy games to desktops (Windows/OS X/Linux), smartphones (iOS/Android/BlackBerry), and the web (HTML5 via Emscripten).
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Top
Con
Difficult to optimize
Godot has an OOP architecture. Everything is an object internally and data is spread among many classes, thus it's difficult to optimize (i.e. not cache friendly, difficuly to vectorize or paralellize, etc). Read about "Data Oriented Design" for more info about the problems and solutions.
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Top
Pro
Drag & drop interface
Many parts of the editor allow you to drag & drop, which makes working with assets and scene trees a joy.
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Top
Con
Strange terminology at its base
Scenes can be made up of other scenes. That makes some sense. But even the smallest object (or prefab or asset) in a scene -- such as that spoon on the table or the marble on the floor -- is still called a scene... except when it's called a node. This is a bit odd for those coming from other engines. With all the great decisions behind the basic design of this engine, the choice of this term from all the potential other terms out there seems really out of place and only serves as a constant reminder that not everything about Godot is great.
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Top
Pro
Integrated animation editor
Every property can be animated.
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Top
Con
No built-in way to import atlases
Godot does not have an easy and automatic way to import atlases created by other tools. However, there are plugins that can be used to import atlases from other engines.
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Top
Pro
Built-in physics
Add physics to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
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Top
Con
2DPhysics is weak compared to Box2d
Box2d has much more features.
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Top
Pro
Unified game editor interface
All the game development work is done inside one program: the engine editor. The scripting is done in the same program. No need for Eclipse or other front-end editors.
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Top
Con
NoAdmob or other AdNetwork support
Godot has no native support for implementing advertisements into your game.
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Top
Pro
Instancing and node concept makes sense
The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.
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Top
Con
Many buggy and half-finished features
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Pro
Fun to use
An important aspect that can't be grasped without using the engine for a few days. The Interface is evolving nicely and making games is just fun.
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Con
Hard for a Unity user
Coming from a Unity background, Godot engine is hard.
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Top
Pro
Internationalization of the editor
You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations can be found here.
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Top
Pro
Easy to learn scripting language
Godot has their own scripting language called GDScript. The scripting language is easy to learn with Python-like syntax, but it is not Python. It's very powerful, easy to learn, and it's free of unnecessary things because it was custom built for optimized integration with the Godot Engine. It can be used to add custom behaviors to any object by extending it with scripting, using the built-in editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. A built-in debugger with breakpoints and stepping can be used and graphs for possible bottlenecks can be checked.
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Pro
Really good community
The community is great and really cares about the engine. It is easy to get help and to be part of Godot's future.
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Top
Pro
Creating editor tools is a breeze
Godot Engine is itself a Godot game. By adding the "tool" keyword to the top of a script, you can design extensions for the editor itself INSIDE the editor. Integrating these editor scripts into a bundled plugin for sharing is extremely easy to do.
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Top
Pro
Friendly towards Version Control Systems
The engine is build not only to support version control but to really use it. Scene files for example which usually get compiled into some sort of unreadable data stay in a text format - that way you can actually see your changes in a version control system like Git.
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Top
Pro
Doesn't need to be installed into the system
Godot is very portable, you can download the file from a website then put it on a USB and run it on your other computer without any troublesome errors.
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Pro
Easily expanded scripting system
With 3.0's addition of NativeScript and PluginScript via GDNative, developers can easily define bindings for new scripting languages. In addition to the primarily supported C++, GDScript, VisualScript, and C# languages, the community has contributed D, Nim, and Python as well with more on the way.
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Top
Pro
Incredible documentation after 3.2.2 beta
The documentation used to be weak, but now we have nathen with his help the documentation is the strongest advantage.
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Pro
Scene Based editing
Godot gives you the ability to create scenes to make your life easier, with reusable objects and things you want to incorporate in your games. This makes the game making processvery streamlined and organized.
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Pro
Built-in documentation linked to the internal ScriptEditor
The editor has a fully searchable index of class API documentation for everything the engine offers (NOT just a web interface). You can easily open the documentation for any class by Ctrl-clicking the class's name in the in-engine text editor for scripts.
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Pro
Simple and readable codebase
The engine's source code is easy to read and understand with a self-documenting approach to code design. You don't have to wait months or years for other people to fix an engine bug that is important to your game. Often times, you can spend an hour or two of your own time to fix whatever problems you encounter yourself.
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Pro
Easy to get involved
No need to learn anything with node, you can build a game without typing a line of code + has visual scripting.
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Pro
Engine is yours
There is no royalty and the game you made + engine itself is yours.
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Pro
Can be installed on Steam
You can easily install Godot via the Steam store.
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Pro
Comprehensive tooling
In addition to the scene editor and the script editor (with debugger), the engine also provides a tile map editor, an animation editor (not just for rigs), a performance monitor, a network profiler, and an audio bus console.
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Pro
It has a visual scripting tool (Godot 3)
It has a great visual scripting tool. It's a great choice if you don't like to code. This was however removed in Godot 4, so you will need to use the (still supported) Godot 3 branch for visual scripting.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Popular Language Bindings:
GDScript, C#, C++
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Experiences
Free
2148
325
Unreal Engine 4
All
44
Experiences
Pros
17
Cons
26
Specs
Top
Pro
A visual scripting system for non-coders enables quick prototyping
Blueprints are authoring tools designed for non programmers so designers and other team members can help tweak and prototype. UE4's Blueprint scripts resemble flowcharts where each box represents a function or value, with connections between them representing program flow. This provides a better at-a-glance indication of game logic than a simple list of events, and makes complex behaviors easier to accomplish and games a lot faster to prototype.
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Con
Very high build size
A blank project will build in to a minimum of 200 MB.
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Pro
Lots of resources to learn from
Epic provides multiple official video tutorials, lots of free example projects and content, an extensive wiki and regular streams showing how to use latest features.
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Top
Con
Slow
Compared to other engines, UE4 seems to perform various actions considerably slower. Actions like starting the engine, opening the editor, opening a project, rebuilding shaders, updating references, calculating lightmaps, saving projects, etc take long enough to get irritating and end up wasting precious development time.
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Top
Pro
Powerful material/shader system
Allows a texture/material artist or VFX artist to create amazing effects from the ground up.
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Con
Extremely long build times
Making a full rebuild, including engine can take a good 30minutes. If you plan to use Unreal professionally, you better get some licenses for Incredibuild as well.
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Pro
Free development license, including source code
The engine, including full access to source code, is free to use; a 5% royalty is due only when you monetize your game or other interactive off-the-shelf product and your gross revenues from that product exceed $1,000,000 USD.
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Con
Hard engine for beginners
This engine not easy for beginners
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Pro
Realistic graphics
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Con
Steep learning curve
Especially when compared to its primary competitor, Unity.
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Pro
Developers have full control of the engine and source code
UE4 gives full access to the C++ source code allowing editing and upgrading anything in the system.
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Con
No drawcall batching, performance is very bad on mobile
There's no dynamic batching support to minimize drawcalls. There's InstancedStaticmesh concept in UE4, but it's 3d only, functionally limited and requires hardware support which rules out most mobile devices.
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Pro
Dynamic global illumination with voxel cone tracing decreases the computational power needed
Voxel cone tracing is a similar algorithm to ray tracing, but uses thick rays instead of pixel thin rays to be able vastly decrease the amount of computational power needed.
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Con
C++ - oriented development cycle: slow turn-around times
The Unreal Editor is the main place to do stuff (of course), so if someone wants to do a lot of C++ stuff, the compilation and linking turn-around times can be painful. Still they probably are quite fast in comparison to the provided featureset.. Still ,they are far from optimal.
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Pro
Easy to use animation blueprints
Unreal Engine 4 is one of the best game engines. It is super easy. It dosent require any use of coding due to Animation Blueprints
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Con
Poor documentation
Most of the "documentation" for code is actually just automatically generated from the source. If you're interested in knowing how things are supposed to work, you must either go to their answers site or pay for UDN. Often their examples won't even compile, since they were written for now outdated versions.
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Pro
Spectacular lighting visuals
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Con
Royalty based
5% of profits will go to Unreal after $3000 earned in a quarter.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform editor and export
This engine exports for a big range of platforms including Linux. The editor can be run on Windows, MacOS, and Linux (Early Access).
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Con
They spend more time adding features than fixing existing ones
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Pro
Active community
Forums have many active and friendly members that are quick to respond and help out. Even staff is very active on forums.
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Con
C# not natively supported
UE4 does not support C# natively, but this can be achieved through MonoUE, although it requires using the MonoUE fork instead of UE itself.
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Pro
AAA Ready
This is ready to make the next AAA game.
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Con
Poor source control support
Merge tool is not working.
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Pro
Fast compilation for quick iteration
Recompiling an entire game to test a small change takes up a lot of time. UE4 quickly compiles in seconds instead of minutes improving iteration time by an order of magnitude.
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Con
Poor quality assurance on their releases
After each release they almost immediately release a hotfix. And another one. And another one.
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Pro
Quick release-cycle
New feature releases can be commonly expected about once a month.
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Con
Unreal Engine crashes a lot if you don't have the required system requirements
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Pro
Professional feature set for all aspects of game development
Almost everything a game developer wants has a deep and sophisticated tool waiting for them in UE4. No external plugins are needed to make powerful materials, FX, terrain, cinematics, gameplay logic, AI, animation graphs, post process effects, lighting etc.
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Con
Sparse Resources for C++
C++ happens to be the main suite for Unreal, yet the documentation is very, very sparse.
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Pro
Proven track record
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Con
Extremely poorly designed
The code is a mess. Everything is connected, a single Actor is 1500 bytes, because it contains a million things that Epic once needed in a game. Inheritance for AActor: AActor > UObject > UObjectBaseUtility > UObjectBase
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Pro
No coding experience needed
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Con
Difficult for Mac users
If you're installing it on Mac, you simply download Epic games launcher and watch it download nothing endlessly.
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Con
Tutorials do not go in-depth enough
The blueprint tutorial just teaches how to turn on a light when you press f.
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Con
Proprietary
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Con
Not available on Linux
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Con
No Terrain Editor included
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Con
Bad support
The epic games team only assists with billing and account issues, not bugs.
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Con
Terrible physics
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Con
Frequent crashes
Often the editor crashes interrupting your work.
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Con
Poor error messages
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Con
Rarely works
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Languages:
C++, Blueprints (Visual Scripting)
Desktop targets:
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOs, HTML5
Mobile targets:
iOS, Android
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824
181
AutoCAD
All
6
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Con
Can be glitchy
The software can sometimes be laggy, glitchy and unstable to the point of crashing.
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Pro
Great for engineers
AutoCAD helps make engineering drafts quickly. It's designed to help with things like plumbing diagrams and electrical wiring diagrams.
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Con
Interface is difficult to customize
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Pro
Free trial available
AutoCAD is available for free for 30 days.
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Con
Mac version is weaker than the Windows version
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS
License:
EULA
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5
3
3D Studio Max
All
7
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
4
Top
Pro
Huge community
As a top-end industry standard tool, 3DS Max users benefit from a rich ecosystem of third-party tools and community knowledge.
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Con
Expensive
A 3DS Max license can be purchased outright for $3675. Subscription plans are available from $122.50/mo (for a full year commitment).
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Pro
Excellent viewport performance
3DS Max is extremely responsive.
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Con
Can no longer purchase perpetual license
It is now $185/month, $1,470.00/year, or $4410/4years - subscription only.
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Pro
Great polygon modeling
Great for poly-modeling for both high and low polygon counts.
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Con
Unstable and outdated
Bugs carry on from version to version. Lots of old code that still runs on one thread, even if modern systems offer 16+ threads.
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Con
Only for Windows
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19
16
ApertusVR
All
9
Experiences
Pros
9
Top
Pro
Embeddable
ApertusVR is not a framework. It's a set of embeddable libraries that can be integrated into your new/existing project.
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Pro
Framework-independent
You don't have to integrate your application into other frameworks. ApertusVR extends your product with AR/VR capabilities.
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Pro
Platform-independent
You can use different AR/VR devices, operating systems and platforms thanks to C++.
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Pro
Open-source
The open-source, MIT licensed code-base grants you full control of the source code.
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Pro
Network-topology independent
Use Server-Client or even Peer-to-Peer topology.
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Pro
Distributed
The configurable ecosystem provides you a wide variety of plugins for different computation tasks, that can be distributed among the computational participants.
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Pro
IoT supported
ApertusVR uses ApertusCore which is an abstract, distributed database to create ad-hoc networks and share data across participants.
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Pro
MultiPlayer
ApertusVR supports multiple participants in the same scene/space.
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Pro
Sharable
You can invite other users to join into the same scene/space.
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Experiences
FREE
10
0
Zbrush Core Mini
All
3
Experiences
Pros
1
Cons
2
Top
Con
Limited
It doesn't have all the features of Zbrush or Zbrush Core.
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Pro
Free
This is a free educational version of Zbrush Core. It allows you to get used to the Zbrush UI without paying for it. More or less, a transitional package to Zbrush or Zbrush Core.
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Con
For Non-Commercial use only
Cannot sell any products you make using this software. You'll have to upgrade your files to Zbrush Core or the standard Zbrush. Also will need License for either Zbrush Core or the Standard Zbrush depending on which one you upgrade to.
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Free
2
0
VECTARY
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
You have to be online
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Pro
Free
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Con
Subject to frequent change
As this tool is rather new, it tends to change often, it may confuse sometimes, but generally the change makes it better
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Pro
Simple UI
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Pro
Visually stunning
The feel of this app is really good and the beautiful design helps the overall experience.
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Pro
Fast-evolving
This tool is progressing very nicely and often brings out new cool features.
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Pro
Any operating system
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Pro
Browser based - no install required
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Pro
Easy-to-learn
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Pro
3D printing ready
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Pro
Free online support
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Pro
Great for educational use
Since there's no need to install any application, VECTARY can be a great tool for teaching 3D modelling in schools as well. Students only need to make an account and they can use the same software both in their school labs and their own PCs.
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Specs
Supported platforms:
Windows, Mac, Unix, Chrome OS
Service integrations:
Figma, Sketch
Exports:
More than 60 file formats, including USDZ, GLTF, FBX
Import:
3D and 2D formats
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Experiences
Free
26
4
SpriteKit
All
3
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Built-in in Xcode
Easy to access in Xcode.
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Con
Restricted in apple ecosystem
This is an Apple technology and its use is restricted to iOS and OSX systems.
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Pro
Awesome performance
One of the most efficient frameworks. If you need to build an iOS game, this is the best solutions.
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32
5
Urho3D
All
19
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and fully open source
The entire engine is open source and makes use of other open source libraries. Source code is licensed under MIT and available on GitHub.
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Con
It has been stopped developing
The owner has moved to build new 3D engine, however, that is also experimental stage, not for production.
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Pro
Good documentation
The documentation for Urho3D can be split in two parts: auto-generated from class references and documentation written to cover the various aspects, features and systems of the engine. The written documentation is pretty good. It covers most of the aspects of the engine in clear and understandable English.
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Con
Little documentation and small community
There are some high-level design docs and a bunch of examples, but code is poorly commented and nothing much more can be found.
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Pro
Includes a lot of samples
There are a lot of sample projects included with the engine for both C++ and Angelscript. They are mostly very simple applications built to demonstrate the engines capabilities and features.
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Con
The UI can be hard on the eyes
Urho3D's UI could cause eye strain.
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Pro
Fat-free codebase
Only use what you need.
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Con
There is no support for reflections
Neither SSR nor cubemap parallax correction are implemented in engine.
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Pro
Small turnaround times while developing
Builds are quite fast, aids in rapid development.
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Con
Bad Android support
You can not compile this engine using latest Android Studio.
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Pro
Very high code quality
Urho3D is written in a modular and super-clean way, so that it can be integrated into the other parts of your game seamlessly.
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Con
May be a bit hard to get started
To install Urho3D you need to get the archive from GitHub (be careful to download the master branch) and extract it. After that, you need to compile the engine with CMake. If all the dependencies are installed, then it should be a straightforward process, otherwise you will need to track down and install all the missing dependencies. For people who don't have much experience with CMake this whole process may seem a bit like magic. For people who do have experience with CMake, the whole installation will be relatively easy.
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Pro
Good 3D level editor
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Pro
In constant active development
Bugs are usually fixed that same day. Core devs are very active on forums. New features are always being worked on. HTML5, DirectX11, and OpenGL3.1 support have recently been added (as of 4/15/15).
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Pro
Does not require an editor to get going
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Pro
Flexible rendering pipeline
You can configure rendering pipeline.
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Pro
Multi-Lights
There are no lights limits per mesh.
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Pro
Unofficial Oculus Rift support
Information on enabling OR support can be found here.
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Specs
License:
MIT
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Mobile targets:
iOS; Android
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Experiences
FREE
136
24
AppGameKit VR
All
8
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Easy to use
AppGameKit VR allows you to use AGK's Tier 1 basic syntax or Tier 2 with Visual Studio C++. It greatly simplifies interacting with the HMD and controllers, yet is still flexible.
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Con
It is paid
Several other engines are free, this one costs $29.99.
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Pro
Supports Steam VR devices
Vive and Oculus Headsets and Touch devices supported.
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Con
Needs SteamVr on Windows
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Pro
Royalty Free
You can use AppGameKit VR commercially without paying any royalties
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Pro
Ready to use examples with 3D modelled hands
Even better with Leap motion.
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Pro
Leap motion support works fine
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Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows
VR targets:
SteamVR/HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
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Experiences
29.99
27
7
CopperCube
All
10
Experiences
Pros
9
Specs
Top
Pro
Allows creating 3D apps and games without programming
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Pro
Good 3D editor
Includes easy to use 3D editor for quickly clicking together 3D games.
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Pro
Native WebGL support
Can create 3D games as real WebGL apps, running inside websites. Doesn't use a cross compiler, so WebGL apps are small and download quickly.
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Pro
Good terrain editor
CopperCube includes a terrain editor. Terrain can be drawn with height painting tools directly in the editor, textures can be painted quickly with automatic texture blending into the terrain. There are also tools for placing grass and bushes, and for distributing meshes automatically over the terrain.
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Pro
Exports to irrlicht
It was also written by the founder of irrlicht, although it is not open source.
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Pro
Available on Steam
CopperCube is available on Steam It was Greenlit.
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Pro
Easy to learn and to use
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Pro
Fast prototyping
You can quickly develop an experimental working model of the product (prototype), because the engine gives you access to a lot of prefabs, plugins and settings. And, you can use the visual programming to speed up the process, even if later you have to write code in order to improve the final product.
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Pro
Oculus Rift support
Supports both DK2 and DK1.
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Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; Macintosh
Desktop targets:
Windows; Macintosh
Mobile targets:
Android
Supported languages:
Javascript; ActionScript 3
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55
14
Leadwerks Game Engine
All
7
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Versatile flow diagram script model
Leadwerks's flowgraphs resemble flowcharts where each box represents a function or value, with connections between them representing program flow. This provides a better at-a-glance indication of game logic than a simple list of events, and makes complex behaviors easier to accomplish.
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Con
Very buggy
Leadworks is a not complete, it's a work in progress. As such many parts of the engine are clunky, especially the level editor.
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Pro
Built-in level editor
Has an acceptable 3D map editor that is easy to use.
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Con
Documentation and support are limited for non-coders
The flowgraph editor can be used with free script assets to build games without writing any code, but this is not directly intended or encouraged by Leadwerks.
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Pro
Handful of Prefabs and Scripts
For example, you take a model (e.g. torch), add a light source to it, add a particle generator (for fire) and save it as a prefab (one file). Then this prefab can be used to add many torches with fire and light.
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Con
Highly misleading advertising
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Specs
Languages:
C++; Lua
Dev platforms:
Windows; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; Linux
Mobile targets:
none
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Experiences
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31
9
Modo
All
13
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
6
Top
Con
Crashing non stop!
If you like deleting CFG files regularly, and sending bug reports then give modo a go!
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Pro
Unparalleled modeling pipeline
Even long-standing Maya users envy Modo's modeling toolset and pipeline for its power, flexibility, and speed.
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Con
The most unstable 3D software
Modo takes UNSTABLE to a whole another level! Use Maya, Max, or Blender instead!
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Top
Pro
User-friendly
It's very easy to get the grasp of the modeling work flow.
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Con
Very unstable with too many bugs that were never fixed
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Pro
Decent user interface
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Con
Poor value
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Pro
Organized layout and UX
Allow the users to take control of different aspects of the modeling pipeline with ease: UV maps, Weight maps, shader tree, selections methods included selections by statistics, falloff, workplane management.
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Con
Not good for animation
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Pro
Great value
The new subscription-based licensing option brings entry costs down to $599 / year for floating licenses and promises even faster feature development.
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Con
Very slow viewport performance
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Pro
MeshFusion
MeshFusion is a procedural boolean-based workflow that helps you to create complex meshes effortlessly.
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Pro
A lot of learning resources exist for this program
There are great support resources for newcomers and pros alike.
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Experiences
$599
46
13
Stride
All
19
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Good looking and fast
Looking nearly as good as Unreal Engine 4, but rendering significantly faster.
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Con
No terrain editor
Unless you like working on planes, there is no terrain support.
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Pro
No royalties or licensing fees
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Con
Editor is Windows only
Since version 1.7, Linux can be targeted for runtime. The editor for the engine is available only to Windows though.
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Pro
Projects are normal Visual Studio solutions
No proprietary project format, so it works with all the official .NET tooling.
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Con
Small user community
Unity and UE have a vast amount of user community.
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Pro
Supports Visual Studio
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Con
Does not currently support Playstation or Switch games
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Pro
Very modern render engine
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Con
Iteration may be slower than with other engines due to longer "build" times when certain changes are made
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Pro
Powerful 3D Rendering Engine
Supports Vulkan. You can achieve good quality as in Unity3d and Unreal Engine
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Con
Shader system require's overhaul
Shader's are not easy to get to grips with and Stride's shader system. Needs overhauling for easier use.
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Pro
Straightforward editor
Stride provides a simple and clean working environment for designing games.
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Pro
Community seems friendly and is growing
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Pro
Engine AND Scripting are both C#
Since the engine is written in the same language as the scripting, there is no weird mix of technologies as other engines have.
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Pro
Supports Vulkan
Currently the only well known open-source game engine that supports Vulkan, and probably one of the only.
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Pro
Easy to learn and use C#
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Pro
Multiple Starter Templates
The engine comes packed with multiole example projects to help you get started.
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Specs
License:
MIT
Languages:
C#
Dev platforms:
Windows
API:
Vulkan, DirectX 11, DirectX 12, OpenGL
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170
39
CryEngine
All
21
Experiences
Pros
14
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Con
Steep learning curve
Except for basic FPS games getting anything done will require solid knowledge of C++, Flash, ActionScript and Lua.
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Pro
C# integration
CryEngine has some C#template and also C# based system to write your function/ideas in to your game.
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Con
No GNU/Linux support
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Pro
DX12, Vulkan support
CryEngine 5.4 now supports DX12 and Vulkan
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Con
hj
j
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Pro
Features allowing for realistic weather effects
Cry Engine has volumetric fog rendering which allows for realistic cloud shadows that actually render shadows onto the fog itself. Combined with their time of day system, it's possible to create incredibly realistic weather effects. On top of this, color grading allows user to post process pallets allowing them to change the color tone for different type weather, such as using a deep dark blue for rain.
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Con
Hard to develop games other than FPS
Cryengine is a great engine to be used for developing an FPS (and it's relatively easy to do so). But if you want to develop another type of game, it requires at least advanced knowledge of C++ and Visual Studio.
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Pro
There is already a built-in AI
It can shoot, walk on patrol points, can see the player and so on.
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Con
No Mac OS X support
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Pro
VR support
Cryengine (starting on Cryengine V) has Virtual Reality support. Developers can create games with VR support for multiple platforms: PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
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Con
Restrictive license
Cryengine is not restrictive anymore just more personalized. The model is Pay what you want and if you want more you get a membership with them. Or private support, help and lessons directly from the CryEngine team.
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Pro
Dynamic water rendering
Cry Engine has realistic water effects that even simulate ocean physics. Features such as waves that respond to global wind, and dynamic water volume tessellation allow for some of the most realistic water effects available to a game developer. The engine also takes into account LOD (level of detail) on water geometry to allow it to stay performant for water at a distance.
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Pro
Realistic rendering of vegetation and landscapes
Where Cry Engine really shines is with rendering scenes of nature. The Crysis games feature incredibly detailed vegetation and weather effects and it's the Cry Engine that enables that. The engine has many features to create a cohesive realistic looking world. Dynamic water effects allow users to have beautiful oceans, fog and cloud effects allow for realistic weather, and a plethora of lighting effects optimized for natural looking scenes make Cry Engine one of the best engines for creating vast beautiful landscapes. By having all these features built together from the ground up, Cry Engine is capable of doing more complex effects more efficiently, than other engines that didn't have these effects planned from their inception.
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Pro
All platforms, including next-gen consoles, are supported
Supports miltiple platforms including: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U, PC, iOS, and Android.
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Pro
Versatile flow diagram script model
Flow graphs resemble flowcharts where each box represents a function or value, with connections between them representing program flow. This provides a better at-a-glance indication of game logic than a simple list of events, and makes complex behaviors easier to accomplish.
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Pro
Dedicated channel for Q&A
Crytek has launched a dedicated Q&A forum for everything Cryengine related. It's called Cryengine Answers and it's a community dedicated to sharing and answering any question related to Cryengine.
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Pro
Online marketplace available
The Cryengine marketplace is an online marketplace which enables developers to access and use individual assets from thousands of materials, sounds and 3D objects created by the community. Even Crytek's own library assets are available there.
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Pro
Advanced volumetric cloud system
Cryengine has an optimized volumetric cloud system for Virtual Reality to give clouds full 3D spatial rendering. This ensures a high rendering quality with a minimal performance hit.
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Pro
Terrain tools are great
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Pro
Disallows bad practices in asset creation
Simply by looking at the RC log when exporting can greatly improve your work. Cryengine doesn't handhold you constantly and helps greatly with avoiding bad practices in asset creation.
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Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows, Linux
Mobile targets:
iOS, Android
Supported languages:
C++, C#, Lua
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142
42
ZBrush
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
5
Top
Pro
Plays well with others
Can transfer work between other packages via AppLink and/or Bridge seamlessly.
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Con
UI is far from user friendly
Though, it's fully customizable. Like for any software, there is a learning curve.
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Pro
Powerful brush system allows for lots of creativity
ZBrush lets the user sculpt an object in fine detail with customizable 3D brushes.
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Con
Expensive
A single-user license for ZBrush costs $795. But, Pixologic has not charged a penny for upgrades to licensed users since inception. Anyone who has purchased Zbrush has not been left behind.
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Pro
Best for hi-poly modeling
Due to the nature of the program and how it uses high poly mesh sculpting it is best to consider this app when wanting high poly models, as that is what it aims to do best.
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Con
An odd perspective view
Does not lend itself to cinematic or artistic renderings due to a strange perspective system found nowhere else in 3D which warps according to the relationships between models and rendering viewpoint - there is no real 'camera'. It is sufficient for rendering your work on a sculptural piece or industrial design, but KeyShot Pro or any other PBR rendering program that uses a camera are recommended for scene rendering, at least in 4R7.
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Pro
Has low poly modelling tools with 4r7 version
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Con
Open, Save, Export, Import not conventional standard UI
Authors refuse to use standard layout and the New, Open, Save, Export, Import are in unexpected positions. There will be no UI improvements.
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Pro
Can easily simplify mesh topology
Meshes sculpted with ZBrush can contain billions of polygons, but tools are provided to cleanly reduce the poly count.
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Con
Hi-poly only
Not, the case as there is now the Zmodeller Brush system which has a full suite of polygon Modelling options.
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Pro
Always evolving and innovating
Every iteration of Zbrush has evolved beyond the last and has kept all other 3D package devs on their toes consistently.
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Pro
Best support
No other 3D package has had continued support from their parent company or community like ZBrush has had since inception.
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Experiences
$895
65
23
Sculptris
All
6
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
3
Top
Pro
Free
Sculptris is provided free of charge from Pixologic.
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Con
Small scope
Doesn't do much besides sculpting.
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Pro
Sculpting allows for easier creative expression
Sculptris has great editing tools that allow designers to concentrate on sculpting and completely immerse themselves into making models, forgetting about all the complex methods modelers usually have to use in their daily business.
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Con
No Linux version
Only for Windows and Mac.
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Pro
Works on Lower-End Devices
Sculptris is essentially a lesser version of ZBrush that works on low-end PCs.
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Con
Limited sculpting toolset
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33
13
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