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Hi there. I would like to know the best and simplest 3D game programming software that you can download for free. I would like to know this because my school is running a course on 3D gaming and my teacher does not know what one to use. Please put the download link in the reply for me.
Thanks in advanced.
Alistair.
wait. wait. wait.... hold on one second there.... they are offering a course in 3d gaming.... and they don't know WHAT rendering engine they are going to use?
Thing is, any that are worth it... aren't going to be free... most gaming houses will try to keep a lid on that kind of stuff (prevents people from cheating) or at the very least have some highly restrictive (and expensive) licensing requirements.
-tg
I would have imagined something like XNA would be right up there as a learning tool!
I'm just amazed that they offered a class with out some kind of curriculum... and it sounds like they don't have an instructor that's knowledgeable enough to know what tool to use....
-tg
That would'nt suprise me with the adverts on telly! "Would you like a job in IT, it could change your life!" and that's it. Little do they know they will be doing call centre work!
I would advice XNA Game Studio. Completely free and works with Visual C# Express 2008 as far as I know (so also free). I'm sure you can find the download link yourself ;)
However, if your teacher is asking his students what program to use, I wouldn't even bother going, it's a waste of your time.
The thing I worry about is the fact that im a fairly competent programmer and yet even I found my excursions into XNA and game programming in general challenging. It makes me wonder, are these type of courses just trying to make a quick buck?
Dean - you're probably like me. I can handle complex business problems, but when it comes to building games, I suck like a Dyson. I think some people have the aptitude and knack for game development, while others don't. It's like web development too, either you can, or you struggle with it.
generally speaking, I don't think most of the places set out to make a quick buck... although some are. Reputation goes along way in this industry, and if you are a school that's on the ball, and can adequately train game developers, you'll get that reputation which will lead to more enrollments, etc. But if you can't even get graduates that can develop their way out of a paper bag... well, word will get around.
-tg
That could be true alright, for someone who plays games avidly I found it tough to build one. I also think that maybe these colleges may find people that otherwise may have flunked CS degrees out of boredom.
hehehe....HEY.... I did flunk CS out of boredom! ... I barely have a 2-yr degree.... I find that I tend to not do well with formalized technical instruction...
-tg
Yea, I found it tough to build a game from scratch too. It's hard to wrap your head around the concept at first. The best explanation I ever heard was:
"A video game is nothing more than a program that run in a loop exactly 60 times a second".
That statement changed a lot about how I thought about game creation and kinda "set me free" from my preconceived notions of game programming. The more I do of it, the better I understand it. My VB.NET/XNA Tetris clone which was my very first "real" game programming attempt took me a few weeks to get right.
To the OP of this thread, there really isn't any "easy construction set" does 3D game creation that's free. Most are pretty raw and hard to get up in running without extensive tweaking.
If you can though, my best recommendation would be buy up a bunch of copies of Unreal Tournament 2004. They should be cheap since UT3 is out, and they not only have a structured and powerful game engine to use, but also come with editors for level construction, a version of Maya for modeling and a programming API.
Everything else is "pictures and sounds", so you'll also need a good graphic editor like GIMP (which is free) or Photoshop (which isn't) to teach how to make textures and some audio manipulation software for making sound FX and music.
3D game design takes MANY pieces of software.