Impact vs HeroEngine
When comparing Impact vs HeroEngine, the Slant community recommends HeroEngine for most people. In the question“What are the best 3D game engines?” HeroEngine is ranked 40th while Impact is ranked 43rd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent collision detection system
Impact provides 2 types of collision detection; static and dynamic collisions. Both of which are easily integrated into game development.
Pro Extendable
Many plugins are available, including one called Impact++ which adds features like pathfinding and dynamic lighting.
Pro Level editor
Built-in map editor with support for tiling, collision layers, and actors.
Pro Extensive documentation available to support development
ImpactJS has an active user community that busily produces tremendous resources including videos, books, tutorials, walkthroughs and more. There are also comprehensive class documentation available.
Pro Truly cross-platform allowing developers to build for anything
Extending the reach of a game developed with ImpactJS is easy due to the cross-platform nature the framework. There are Considerations around performance, resolution and audio, however all can be appropriately addressed when in development. Works in the browser via Canvas, even on mobile. Easily translatable into a packaged app.
Pro Real time development- No nightly builds
Pro Streamlines MMO development
Backend completely handled by the team at Hero.
Pro Versoning control included in both HeroEngine and HeroBlade
No need for Perforce, Github or any other versioning software. It is built in. Check, Compare, Merge, revert, etc.
Pro Server and Networking built in
Pro Engine developer support
Developers of the engine and game developers are active on the Forums and Skype for private messaging.
Pro Versatile
Able to create many types of games and scales all the way from a single area up to a full-blown MMO.
Pro HeroScript
Designed for the needs of a MMO. HSL is also relatively easy to learn as scripting languages go. It was geared towards beginners, not time hardened programmers, and as such, its easier for a novice to pick it up sometimes, than a c++ programmer. That, and it was intended to be "readable" more like English.
Pro Very active community and support groups
Skype channel and forums questions answered by developers of HE and users very quickly.
Pro Highly optimized asset export plugins included
Though the export pipeline may be different and currently requires 3ds Max or Maya, the format is highly optimized to reduce high quality models down to KB's.
Cons
Con Not being maintained
Impact is not being maintained anymore. Last release is from 2014.
Con Lack of DirectX 11.1 or 12 support
DirectX 9 is the last version supported.
Con High price
Con HeroScript
A standalone scripting language with (so far) little in the way of learning resources.
Con Custom model export
